I do both. These particular trees were felled to increase space for new barn and will have the logs sawn for the lumber. I also cut all my own firewood(put in a Wood Master last year) and also sell a few hardwood logs when the market is good.
This Asplundh I picked up couple years ago pretty cheap, er.. inexpensive. It's an old drum
chipper formally used by ROW crews. For what I paid it would have been worth it just for the Ford 300ci industrial six that powers it, which purrs quite nicely. You can pick these up quite reasonably, probably under 2k if you look around as everyone these days wants a hydro operated disk
chipper for prettier chips(though I understand they are still coveted out West by tree crews doing ROW work). But if you keep a drum's knives sharp and the anvil adjusted well it does quite well, though you do have to get down the "chuck and duck" proceedure. Plus these are much easier to maintain, less moving parts, no expensive hydraulics, simple gas engine(though a Cummins would be nice
). There are basically three areas to look at in one of these old girls; a strong power plant, good clutch/PTO and the main bearings on the drum. Those are the pricey things to fix, the rest is quite reasonable.
