Chipper/Shredder

[Bird]

Thanks, Mike, no wonder I couldn't find much information about them; it helps if you spell it right./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

 

[Bird]

Paul, right below the engine you can see the bracket for the towbar that came with the chipper. It was made to tow behind a riding mower (and sorta worked). Then the discharge came with a bag, but it fills up so fast you spend all your time stopping to dump the bag. We originally planned to leave the back end of the box open. That didn't work. It blows the chips in there with enough force, or so much wind, that it created a tornado in the box and blew the chips right back out./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif That's the reason the screened holes were cut in the top and both sides of the box, and then still needed the canvas on the back.

 

[jinman]

Bird, this is uncanny. I have a three-wheel Jacobsen dump bed turf truck and recently rigged the sideboards the same as yours except I didn't put a top on it. I'm sure I lost at least 1/5 of my chips by them blowing out on the ground. Your brother's rig is perfect and exactly how I should rig mine. What kind of material is the curtain made from? Canvas? Too cool!/w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

JimI

 

[Bird]

Jim, that canvas is what he saved when replacing the fabric on an awning on a motorhome.

 

[jinman]

Of course! I knew I'd seen that design somewhere before. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

JimI

 

[s1120]

Bird,
Ya, I hate that dam bag. Got to stop every 5 sec, what a pain./w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif Now I mostly just blow them onto a tarp. that works OK. Mine did not come with a hookup for a hitch. I was thinking of putting it on the hopper side, but I see this one is on the motor side. Am I missing something? How did it work?

 

[Bird]

Paul, you're right. The hitch was an optional item my brother bought, and if you move the chipper around by hand, there are hand holes in the big hopper for that purpose, but the hitch is on the other end; very poor design on the part of Sears (or whoever made it for them). I used it a few times behind a riding mower, but the hitch should be 180 degrees from where it is. When I towed it behind a riding mower, it bounced up and down; flexed quite a bit. I always expected it to break or make a permanent bend in the base the motor is mounted on, but it never did. We first thought about just putting a tow bar on the other end, but that would have required a 90 degree bend in the discharge chute to blow the chips into the Mule instead of off to the side and we didn't know whether that would work very well or not. And it would have been more awkard feeding limbs into the chipper. The way it's set up now, we would only have to remove about 4 bolts to take it off the "trailer", put the original wheels and axle back on it, and change the chute to the original one, and put everything back original.

 

[DAP]

Very clever Bird ... but let me take the time to sugget to you, that based on what impeller setup your using in that housing, you also have a whole lot of vacuum sitting there unleashed.

Run another 6" flex hose off of that tube somehow, connect a fixed nozzle (not necessary) and you can do leaf pickup with it too! Perhaps you can jury-rig a nozzle to resemble a large vacuum cleaner attachment and afix it to run about an 1 or so above the ground, either trailing the unit or along side.

I currently have a BlueBird Easyscape that I attach to the rear of a 18hp hyrdo lawn maching ... and your one 6 inch tube from that same product!

NICE one!



Doug

 

[Bird]

Doug, I've wondered about a way to adapt it to make a vacuum. Since it has the small hopper on the chipper side to feed limbs into, and the large hopper on the other side to feed small stuff into the shredder, I guess we'd have to plug one of those openings and then use the other. Haven't got a real good idea yet as to how to do that.

 

[DAP]

Bird, based solely on what I can see in the pic ... the large chipper chute seems to come from the center diameter of the impeller housing. If this is indeed true, that's where the greatest vacuum will be generated.

Perhaps an insert could be fabricated (3/4 ply or flake board would do it) This insert would:

A. fit snuggly into the large chipper chute, perhaps 1/3 of the way down into it (secured somehow of course)

and

B. would have a 6" inch diameter flange (perhaps 2 inches high) mounted flat and to the center of this insert, facing up outta the chute, for attaching a 6" flex tube to, usually with a muffler clamp.

Were that to work, the only thing remaining would be some sort of harnessing or bracket to mount/secure the 6" flex tube. Don't make the tube too short.

If ya want, I can make a drawing and post it if this hasn't been made clear.


Potential Problems: size of large chipper shoot where it enters the impeller. If too small, it may clog. The diameter of my bluebird is the same as the hose, 6 in.

Direction of impeller rotation on the large chute size: it may be blowin instead of suckin ...

Finally, maybe the small chute could be omitted?

And depending on impeller rotation, you wouldn't have to plug anything I think. My unit has a small chipper on it also!


Just a thought.

Doug