Chipper Chipper Blade Sharpening

[hayden]

I had a Patu 4" manual feed chipper for a number of years, and as the blades dulled, the self-feed dropped way off to the point where I practically had to jamb the branches in. I tried sharpening the blades a few times myself and it would only improve things briefly

I finally took the to a local sharpening outfit to be sharpened on a flat-face grinder rather than my round wheel, and it made all the difference in the world. Now I know why the instructions say to use a flat-face grinder and not a round wheel.

All that said, when properly sharpened the blades lasted pretty long before requiring attention. Probably a few full days to a week of equivalent full-time chipping.

I now have a Salsco with power feed and have not yet sharpened it having used it for probably the same few days to a week of full time use. With the power feed, I'm guessing it's much less obvious when sharpening is required.

 

[rox]

SMACK! Sound of palm of hand being slapped against forehead.

You will never believe this one. We have an olive farm and one of the pieces of equipment that came with the farm is a PTO driven chipper. It is a devil to get connected to the tractor but my husband did it and we tried hte chipper. It didn't chip worth squat. We figured it was useless and would never use it again.

There are laws here in the south of France when you can burn becaue of the risk of forest fires. No burning May - September. We have been weeding and cutting trees all summer long jsut building up piles of brush waiting until October 1st. For 3 out of 4 days my husband has been buring like the devil himself. I remain prunning almond trees. It never dawned on me until I read this thread that maybe the chipper isn't so bad, prolly we jsut need to sharpen the blades. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

What you all are describing sound to complicated for us to do. Most likely will burn the mound and mound of brush but then next year I am goig to see about getting the blades sharpened and then we won't have so much to burn.

I swear to you I never even thought about sharpening the blades until I read this thread. Y'all don't know how many people you help, even though thousands probably don't post, many people read your advice and we appreciate it. SMACK, oh yeah sharpen the blades!!! Duh /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[CTyler]

Sometimes ya dont' know what you dont' know until you know it. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[js55]

Ok I dont have a reply but would like to ask about the best way to keep an edge on a brushchipper drum knife. At the place I work we actually chip HDPE plastic pipe for recycling purposes and the Vermeer 1800XL brushchipper does a good job of chipping, we do send our knives out to be sharpened and have been told that for a quick fix to take a grinding wheel and barely take the burrs off the knife edge a couple of times before actually turning it around to use the other side.Any better opinions on this? Also if we start getting more than a little bit of product out of the back of the chipper its time to maintain the edge, flip or even replace the knife and also if the product looks like it is being scraped instead of chipped cleanly, its time for addresing the knife.I would appreciate any additional thoughts on this as we never stop learning in this life everyday.Thanks,Joel

 

[Kbob]

Hello, I have to agree with Hayden, have them sharpened on a flat-faced grinder. I have a Bearcat 73554 and I think the chipper blades are much too big for my 8 inch grinder wheel to do justice to. I have used my chipper 2 or 3 times a year on Douglas Fir, Maple and Cedar limbs. (no plastic recycling yet!) So far I haven't had to sharpen the blades, I just clean them up lightly with a file. The shredder knives are much more of an issue for me, requiring frequent lubrication because the get sticky from sap.

 

[jeff9366]

I have a Wallenstein BX42s PTO chipper, manual feed, powered by my Kubota B3300SU / 33 gross hp / 25 pro hp. Well balanced pair.

I chip lots of green "junk" saplings in Florida, with 4" being the largest I chip; 90% of what I chip is smaller than 4".

My four chipper blades last a LONG time. However, I cut the dirt encrusted roots off the saplings with a 28 volt battery Sawzall before I chip them. I believe dirt is responsible for a lot of chipper blade dulling. I use the Sawzall because it seems less effected by dirt than my light Stihl 09L chainsaw and reciprocating saw blades are relatively cheap. Sawzall is fast on everything up to 2-1/2", a little slow on 4" trunk bases.

The dirt encrusted roots and leafy twigs from the sapling tops, which have caused the rare discharge plugs on my chipper, go onto a pile together and occasionally I trailer them to the burn pile.

This is one version of "An ounce of prevention".......you know the rest.

 

[Artisan]

I see this thread started in 2005, so for 7 long years I betya a few of you
have been wondering just how much of a hollow is created by using a 10"
round grinder on a .250" wide blade with a 45* angle...

Drum Roll Please....

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t925JwYXhVA"]SOUND EFFECT DRUM ROLL - YouTube[/ame]
Using a CAD Program;
Here is a 10" round grinder on a .250" wide blade with a 45* angle.
I snapped (placed) the middle of the blade edge in a true vertical position
to the right side Quadrant of a 10" Diameter circle, then I drew a line from
the top left tip of the blade to Parallel to the Arc and snapped the blade
over. Then I drew a line from middle of the blade face to parallel to the
arc giving us a 0.0031" or as I read it 31/thousandths reading.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcYppAs6ZdI"]Ba dum tssshhh - YouTube[/ame]

I now own a #554 Bearcat, old style, single edge blade. I do not have
the luxury of a double sided blade so I wanted to be sure. After doing
this math I am convinced a flat stone would be best or indeed you will
create a divot in your blade to the tune of 31thou...

These blades can be bought from .tskgrinding.com for I think $13.50 EA
which beats the pants off OE BearCat pricing of $110.00 for 4 blades. I
want to always have 2 sharp sets so I will buy 2 more sets. NOW I
think I want to look into getting my own sharpener, a unit that not
only will sharpen but give me dimensionally equal blades as well, which
should equate to equality in weight of each blade.

From this thread I harvested the following terms of which I will look into
regarding sharpening systems;

BelSaw SharpAll
Delta sharpening center
Salsco

If you know of a nice little sharpening system please chime in and advise.
Thank YOU!

PS, I did NOT do this to prove anyone wrong nor to be arguementative.
I wanted the facts and wish to share "." That lil 10" grinder looks GREAT
and I have it bookmarked...

 

[jmc]

Then I drew a line from middle of the blade face to parallel to the
arc giving us a 0.0031" or as I read it 31/thousandths... After doing
this math I am convinced a flat stone would be best or indeed you will
create a divot in your blade to the tune of 31thou...

Artesian,

If I had seen this thread originally, I'd have done the same exercise!

For the record, .0031 is only a little over 3 thousandths of an inch, a virtual flat on a ground surface a little under 3/8" wide. (.0031 = 31 TENthousandths)

A really efficient tool sharpening trick is to hollow grind a surface with a power grinder, leaving a short, unground area behind the cutting edge and another along the "heal" of the surface. Those two remaining surfaces offer a stable base for final sharpening with a slow, cool, hand operated abrasive flat of some sort, like sand paper glued to a glass plate. Since their areas are small, they sharpen very quickly.

 

[Artisan]

Wait, so how do you write numerically the following then? ;

31 Thousandths of an inch

 

[Artisan]

0.0031"

To the left of the decimal point is a whole number, in this case ZERO

One space to the right of the decimal point is TENS
Two spaces to the right of the decimal point is HUNDREDTHS
Three spaces to the right of the decimal point is THOUSANDS
Four spaces to the right of the decimal point is TEN-THOUSANDS

Right? So am I wrong? Is that not called out verbally;
Thirty-One-Thousandths of an Inch ?