New Woodland Mills WC68 Chipper on the way

[RalphVa]

Good luck with it. I'm thinking I should be looking at replacing my aging TPH-122 with something that'll require less work to handle the remarkably messy autumn olives, now that I don't need the shredder for leaves any more (a local outfit has sewed up the leaves in town for their Paydirt manufacturing).

Waiting to hear from one of you about exactly how much of a job it is to replace the blades. Everything on the Mac is so easy.

Ralph

 

[Tompet]

I bought a 68 last year and initially was a little disappointed with it and was second guessing not getting the 88. However, once I adjusted the knife backplate (? I forget proper part name) it was a marked improvement and performed much much better.

Not having to haul branches and chipping in place is a real time saver. The unit is very well built. Initially I was looking at the Woodmax MX800 for various reasons, including built in US, but at the time it seemed they were building them only on an as ordered basis which meant several months for delivery. This year I see they have them ready to ship on order, my guess is to compete with WM a little better?

Anyway, after reading reviews praising Woodland Mills support (true), I ordered from them and the unit has been flawless so far. You will enjoy it!

 

[PEJ5]

I purchased a WC68 near the end of the chipping season and have about 5 hours on it. I am impressed and excited to start cleaning up my property in the spring. I know you will enjoy your purchase decision.
The steel shipping frame is fork lift compatible yet mine was also on a wooden pallet. I soon realized it was not bolted or strapped to the wooden pallet - I could have easily lost it on my uneven and sloped driveway. Be careful.

Happy Chipping.

 

[ericm979]

I tried sharpening knives in a similar way to this: How to Sharpen your Chipper Blades (yourself!) - YouTube
Only I used a 4.5" grinder with a drop center wheel because I don't have a 7" sander. I'm on the last side of my second set of knives so I have not tested my sharpening job yet. Some of the edges feel pretty good, some are not so great and could use a second try. The side that I let go a bit too long was a lot harder to sharpen. I got some diamond hones to put a better edge on them but haven't tried that yet. I expect that even if it's totally successful I'll send them off to someone with a grinder every few sharpenings.

 

[defranks]

My new chipper arrived this afternoon. Pretty fast shipping, I ordered it on Friday and got it on Wednesday. The unit was well-packaged, nicely protected. It's the end of my day, so assembly will wait til tomorrow. A couple of pictures are attached.

 

[Gem99ultra]

Woodland definitely does take care of business. Total failure of failing to reply to my email messages and phone message to Woodmax was the primary reason I went with Woodland. That, and the similarity of the two were essentially identical.

The top rail bar on mine came in with a bend and slightly cracked tab. Woodland had a new one delivered, at no charge of course, before I even had my chipper assembled.

Another nice note - the metal shipping frame the chipper came wrapped in made a handy table when flipped over. I just flipped it over, added a piece of plywood and chopped off a little from the legs, and it was ready for use. The steel pallet it comes on of course, gets used regularly for various uses.

 

[defranks]

I removed the packing material this morning. The entire package, as shipped, weighed about 850 pounds. I think about 250 of that was bubble wrap and plastic!

Everything looks good under the wrap.

I spent half an hour putting the in-feed chute on. The side panels are a little heavy for one guy alone, but I just hung them from the far bolt and then rotated them into place. I'm building a new house, so my time to spend on this is pretty limited, but I'll probably finish it tomorrow.View attachment 644087

 

[defranks]

Assembly is complete after about a total of 1 hour. The only "problem" I ran into was that there are two different lengths of bolt used to attach the discharge chute, and I didn't immediately see why. A quick call to the technical section of Woodland Mills and I was golden. (The discharge chute has two different thicknesses of steel that attach to the chipper. Longer bolts work on the thicker side, but I didn't notice until the tech told me.)
I've not measured the PTO shaft yet as I have the backhoe on the tractor right now, but I hope to run the chipper this weekend.

 

[hosspuller]

I've not measured the PTO shaft yet as I have the backhoe on the tractor right now, but I hope to run the chipper this weekend.

This is the most critical part adjustment. You can cause much expensive damage to your tractor by forcing the PTO shaft into the transmission as you raise the chipper. Measure twice, even thrice. Cut once. Then lift chipper in small steps while checking for binding on the shaft.

 

[defranks]

I had to cut a few inches off the PTO shaft, which was no big deal. It took forever to fill the oil tank, though. There may be a baffle or screen in there that kept the oil from flowing freely. Essentially, I had to pour a quart or two at a time into a funnel, then go do something else for a minute while it slowly, slowly drained into the tank.

But once that was done I gave the machine a short trial and I'm very happy with it. Put a 20' sapling in there and walk away for another while it chips. The infeed chute is significantly smaller (narrower and not as tall) as the infeed chute on my old Vermeer 6" chipper, but that's not an issue. My initial impression is good.