chipper blade sharpen or replace

[ericm979]

The screws holding my blades in are so packed full of resin I havent tried flipping them yet. Any tricks to removing the goo other than a small flat screw driver, needle and patience? Would carb or brake cleaner be a good spray solvent?

Small flat screwdriver works for me. But I chip maybe 15-20% pine so it's not a lot of resin like you'd get from doing all pine.
You could soften the resin with a bit of propane torch first. That might go faster than solvents.

I've mostly been chipping brush, and a lot of it is dead. So yea the blades will go dull faster. Chipping nothing but clean green pine would give longer blade life.

 

[hslogger]

I don't keep a log on my chipper knife replacement but when it doesn't feel right, bogs down or throws slivers, it's past the time to replace. All it really takes is a look-see to see if your knives are bogeyed up. It makes it hard on the whole drive train when your knives aren't at their best. On commercial machines, it is not uncommon to flip the lid and hone some knives if a little weary. On the WH8, it isn't really easy to do because of the shell design and access. Keeping a spare set of knives as well as belts is a smart idea. I send my knives off to a commercial shop twenty miles away when they need to be touched up. All the commercial arborists around here patronize the same outfit. I KNOW what I chip, and know what is going to chip easy or hard, gooey or clean and keep an eye on the internal bolts that hold knives in.

So far I have yet to have a real bad problem removing my knife bolts because of pitch or dirt.

 

[ericm979]

How to Sharpen your Chipper Blades (yourself!) - YouTube

I did an attempt at sharpening one set using his method. I've yet to try them though.

 

[RalphVa]

How often do you guys sharpen, flip or change your chipper blades. I have about 7 hours on my chipper and I can see a difference between new and now. It still chips , but I had to slow down the feed from new. I have a woodmax 8" hydraulic feed.

I've a Mac TPH-122 and just bought a new chipper blade and already had it sharpened (in a machine shop) once this spring. Bought it in 2004 with a spare chipper blade. So, it took 15 years of a lot of chipper usage. Rotated the hammers their 3 times before finally replacing last year all the hammers.

A lot of the Mac usage is with the hammers; so, your Woodmax with totally all blades probably won't last as long.

You can tell the chipper blade is dull on the Mac when it doesn't draw the wood in. With your hydraulic feed, you would not have this input.

Ralph

 

[LD48750]

Like most things, blade quality varies. A high quality blade set to the proper clearance will chip a lot of wood.
A low end chipper may not have high quality blades and also may not be factory adjusted for optimal performance and blade life.
Replacement blades of high quality may have a surprising cost. A high quality sharpening will be well worth the effort and or cost.

I always wonder about people whos only answer to every problem is throw more money at it.
I have two sets of blades for my 8 year old Jinma 8" chipper & just this year put a large chunk of metal through it breaking a blade.
Spending more money isn't ALWAYS the answer.

 

[RickB]

I always wonder about people whos only answer to every problem is throw more money at it.
I have two sets of blades for my 8 year old Jinma 8" chipper & just this year put a large chunk of metal through it breaking a blade.
Spending more money isn't ALWAYS the answer.

You clearly don’t understand my comment.

 

[abunchofidiots]

I refurbished this chipper recently. The bolts holding the blades needed replaced as I had to drill them out. The blades were easy to sharpen on a 6" wide belt sander. I did have to remove one blade shim to get my distance to the bed correct.