Bought a Wallenstein chipper

[gojira]

I just bought a used BXM32 from the dealer I just got my Massey from. The unit looked like there had maybe been a couple of trees put through - there's hardly any wear on any of the surfaces. So for less than the price of a new BX36S, I got this unit that's a chipper/shredder.

I'm looking forward to clearing up a lot of brush in my yard once the snow decreases a bit.

 

[sixdogs]

Anyone know how hard it is to burn wood chips? I've got thee big bucket loads that I just have drying in the barn. Suppose if they dry a little I can dump some or more of them onto a burning pile and they would burn or are the chips too dense to burn?

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

Anyone know how hard it is to burn wood chips? I've got thee big bucket loads that I just have drying in the barn. Suppose if they dry a little I can dump some or more of them onto a burning pile and they would burn or are the chips too dense to burn?

Our experience here in the far north is chips are too hard to get dry enough to burn well without a lot of smoke and fuss. They seem to clump, mold, you name it to be of much use as fuel. It would be a very labor and time issue to get them to a point of able to use as fuel. Even in a HOBO stove camp fire.

We could get BIG truck loads of chips from the hydro company as they clear bush and trees out of the distribution lines. Other to spread them on the ground to firm up low wet spots and decay into the ground they are hard to deal with here.

Your situation may vary.

 

[sixdogs]

Our experience here in the far north is chips are too hard to get dry enough to burn well without a lot of smoke and fuss. They seem to clump, mold, you name it to be of much use as fuel. It would be a very labor and time issue to get them to a point of able to use as fuel. Even in a HOBO stove camp fire.

We could get BIG truck loads of chips from the hydro company as they clear bush and trees out of the distribution lines. Other to spread them on the ground to firm up low wet spots and decay into the ground they are hard to deal with here.

Your situation may vary.

Thank you. They sure do look like trouble to burn. My plan now is just to spread them on the ground when it's warmer and when they are dry, push in a pile and burn with other brush.

 

[oosik]

I have a small landfill site here on the property. Everything, except garbage, goes in the landfill. Once a year, if needed, I burn the material collected. I've shoveled pine chips onto a HOT burning landfill pile.

It VERY EFFECTIVELY put out the hot fire. What a PITA. Here I had the landfill fire going just great and another BRILLIANT idea backfired. And it smoked and smoked for a day and a half.

Finally it quit smoking and I was able to cover everything with a layer of dirt and compact it.

They would burn if you wanted to completely dry the chips. I have HUGE piles of chips all over the property. Wherever I thinned and chiped my pine stands. These piles will draw and retain moisture - effectively keeping the chips wet.

 

[ultrarunner]

We used only chips in the Wedgewood farm stove but the chipper was from the Co-Op and made really big chips... and quite uniform... it was very common in farm country there and each farm would set a pile for chipping and chip into a loft or bunker.

 

[Captain Dirty]

Anyone know how hard it is to burn wood chips? I've got thee big bucket loads that I just have drying in the barn. Suppose if they dry a little I can dump some or more of them onto a burning pile and they would burn or are the chips too dense to burn?

While biking in Maine I noticed usually unkempt woodlots that looked like parklands; the underbrush and most saplings as well as some smaller trees had been removed. Inquiring at a local coffee shop, I was told that the best use a lot of farmers had for their land was to sell of the wood chips to a wood-burning utility. This is burning chips on an industrial scale; picture wood chips being blown into a combustion chamber like oil droplets being sprayed in a home oil burner. While such power plants are "sold" as being green, there is considerable concern about economic and environmental distortions. Most plants are subsidized with tax dollars, the CO2 is said to be equivalent to burning coal, etc, etc.

For the most part, I just spread my chips and let them rot. I concede that net/net the CO2 from rot may be the same as from burning, but nutrients are returned to my soil as opposed to being emitted as smoke or ash.

 

[ericm979]

Many "rot" processes are turning the chip biomass into other living biomass (fungus, bugs, etc). The carbon those use doesn't go into the atmosphere.

Clearing small trees and brush from forests simulates what low intensity fires did back before we started supressing most fires, and decreases the risk of a big hot crown fire. Burning the biomass from the clearing process in a plant under controlled conditions will pollute less than doing the same clearing with fire.

 

[Gem99ultra]

I added a 4" metal stand under my BX 62s to raise it up. While I was at it we welded a reciever hitch to the new stand that is bolted to the bottom of the chipper. I hook my 6x10 dump trailer to the chipper and blow the chips directly into the trailer. Then drive to the next spot and continue on.

Your solution sounds like exactly what I need! Please post a picture of your setup.

 

[def38]

I guess I'm going to have to ask. Why do you want the U-joints to "move". Operate at a slight angle??

A shaft with U-joints at each end encounters forces when operated at any angle. These forces generate friction, heat and wear not to mention changes in speed as the shaft rotates. For these reasons, engineers adopted the CV joint which does not suffer the forces of speed changes as the shaft rotates. If you are interested, look up "driveshaft phasing". The speed changes are obvious can cause severe vibration and accelerated wear. So, operate the driveshaft at zero angle if possible. Exercising the driveshaft at other than zero angle produces no benefit.

Video: driveshaft angle and phasing | Mac's Motor City Garage

 

[D2Cat]

I has a container to put old motor oil in and had a drip line to a wood burning stove. I could put a 5 gal bucket of pretty fine ground chips in the stove and let the oil just drip and that 5 gal of chips would heat for several hours.

If you are going to spread chips (or just leave them in a pile) they will break down much faster if you periodically spread some nitrogen fertilizer over them.

 

[Gem99ultra]

I added a 4" metal stand under my BX 62s to raise it up. While I was at it we welded a reciever hitch to the new stand that is bolted to the bottom of the chipper. I hook my 6x10 dump trailer to the chipper and blow the chips directly into the trailer. Then drive to the next spot and continue on.

Your solution sounds like exactly what I need! Please post a picture of your setup.

 

[sixdogs]

I has a container to put old motor oil in and had a drip line to a wood burning stove. I could put a 5 gal bucket of pretty fine ground chips in the stove and let the oil just drip and that 5 gal of chips would heat for several hours.

If you are going to spread chips (or just leave them in a pile) they will break down much faster if you periodically spread some nitrogen fertilizer over them.

Where I'm at, I just have to immediately get rid of them by burning. Every square inch around here is farmed and that includes my place. There simply is no waste and woodland to dump anything. It's just all corn and soybeans.

I got lucky this time around and ran a free ad in Craigslist. Someone wanted my chips for mulch or compost. They came out a while ago so are loaded and gone. Next time around I figure I'll have to burn whatever chips I create.

 

[Oldoak]

If you are going to spread chips (or just leave them in a pile) they will break down much faster if you periodically spread some nitrogen fertilizer over them.

Spreading hydrated lime over them will also aid in composting process.

 

[ultrarunner]

Chips are available by the truckload with free delivery here...

I have scored yards of quality mulch which keeps the weeds down... but, other times the it was anything but good.

The best is chipped redwood which is premium...

Brush with Poison Oak is the worst of the worst.

Old pine is common which could be diseased and the reason for removal...

Right now I have 6 yards of Eucalyptus on the side of my house... not mime but neighbor got it to spread on his trails... just easy for him to go from my property... it lasts and does a good job on keeping weeds in check.

 

[sixdogs]

Major discovery here regarding burning wood chips. But first, I got rid of my existing of chips by running a free ad for them on Craigslist. Gone in two hours.

Back to the discovery. I had a some chips left over and they wouldn't burn until I hit them with a leafblower. Wow, instant fire but I had to not smother the fire with a pile of chips. It worked best to pour a shallow layer over the edge of the fire and let the fire burn into them. A hot fire underneath helped and it went from smolder to raging inferno with just a mild breeze from the leafblower. Maybe everyone knows this but it's news to me.

I feel I can now burn chips rather than think of creative ways to get rid of them. My thinking would be to spread a bunch on bare ground on a hot day to dry and push them into a pile later that day. Start a fire on the wind side and see if I can't get the whole thing going by using a leafblower. I think it will work.

 

[ericm979]

Sounds like that'd have a high risk of starting a wildfire.

 

[sixdogs]

Yesterday I learned two things about this chipper that I did not expect. One, I fed a steady diet of lower limbs off mature Norway Spruce. They were half plain wooden branch and half all green needles. This mix used to plug a chipper I had years ago so I expected the worst from this one. Not only was there no plugging but the BX60 chopped them up with no problem. That surprised me.

Second, I learned that chipping smaller branches, say 3" or maybe more with the chipper held up only by the 3pt arms and not resting on a pallet is no big deal for the chipper and results in almost no vibration to the unit. That was a concern I had earlier and why I decided to rest the unit on two pallets for support. For smaller branches, the pallets aren't necessary. For bigger wood on the order of 4" or more, I didn't see any vibration either but want to stop short until I have more experience watching it chip that size material. Anyway, no vibration when I fully expected a lot of it.

This BX60 is a wonderful chipper and one of my best buys ever. I can only imagine a BX62.

 

[sixdogs]

I'm thinking of selling this BX60 chipper and wondering how much I should ask for it. I started a new thread in rural living.

What's my BX60 Wallenstein chipper worth?

I'm looking to buy a new and larger BX72 Wallenstein chipper and wondering what my BX60 chipper described in the thread below is worth. It's in excellent condition, knives have no nicks and have never been reversed. Nothing is wrong with it and it chips perfectly. Always under cover and...

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[MJZ]

Anyone know how hard it is to burn wood chips? I've got thee big bucket loads that I just have drying in the barn. Suppose if they dry a little I can dump some or more of them onto a burning pile and they would burn or are the chips too dense to burn?

What type of wood chips? Ironically we just had wildfires this week. I had piles of cedar chips all over about 15 acres ive been clearing. They burned. I would say easily (i wasn't here) because the only thing round the piles was prairie grass. I've been putting out smoldering stuff under trees that I put chips around for days