Chipper slowing down chipper feed

[chief613]

not that it was part of my question but ill explain why i want to chip over 4" softwood. we burn a fair amount of the wood in our fire pit, but most people put up hardwood for heat around hear, you would need almost twice as many cords in fir as you would in hardwood.Thats alot more space when you use close to 10 cords of hardwood. I do save the hardwood, even smaller than 4". Maybe as tight as the economy is and dwindling forests we could even burn the chips, the pioneers did we will be using alot of the chips to carpet the walking paths in the woods around the property


it sounds as if the hydraulics are probably too expensive. Any body ever make the mistake of installing knives backward. I'm wondering if i reversed the bevel on 2 of the 4 knives on opposite sides would slow things down a bit. The drum with a brake and weight system is something to think about for sure
this thing is a beast, I'm not a small guy and when i can get a grip on the end of the stick it take a lot to pull it out even as the rpms drop

 

[ChuckinNH]

I had a different issue with my BX42 chipper, and Charles suggested adjusting the chipping knives. It's possible that doing so would also change the chip size, and might help your problem. It sure is worth a try since it is a free fix if it helps.

 

[studor]

I guess two words came to mind as I read this thread -- bigger tractor. Then another two words came to mind -- smaller chipper
At the price of the hydro feeder you could almost buy an old tractor just to run the chipper! strikes me that having the capability of stalling the tractor is not a good idea -- something is gonna break sooner or later and it will probably not be pretty. Maybe use the six inch softwood to build some benches along the walking trails -- JMHO

 

[Charlesaf3]

I had a different issue with my BX42 chipper, and Charles suggested adjusting the chipping knives. It's possible that doing so would also change the chip size, and might help your problem. It sure is worth a try since it is a free fix if it helps.

That's a good idea - you could probably "over-tighten" your knife clearance so it takes really small bites - that would probably slow things down. Easy experiment.

Another thought, no idea how hair brained, is to take 2 of the knives off, so things would go slower and the engine would be less stressed

 

[chief613]

That's a good idea - you could probably "over-tighten" your knife clearance so it takes really small bites - that would probably slow things down. Easy experiment.

Another thought, no idea how hair brained, is to take 2 of the knives off, so things would go slower and the engine would be less stressed

i had thought of removing 2 knives, but wondered about balance. reversing 2 may slow down feed, but wasn't sure if i would damage knives. sounds like i need to get a slip clutch for sure

 

[treaskton]

Yes, hydraulic feed does allow for a variable speed, at least on my Salsco it does. It allows me to control the size of the chip. The slower it goes the smaller the chip. Don't know if it would help with your power problem. Since I have more horses than you it's not an issue for me.

Thanks for sharing infor here

 

[RickB]

Hydraulic feed would help with the power requirements at the rotor. A slower feed rate will decrease the power requirements, absolutely. But adding a hydraulic feed unit will add another load to the engine, a hydraulic load. Whether there would be a net gain in throughput is hard to predict, but it is highly likely there would be. Without any doubt, hydraulic feed takes some of the work out of operating a chipper, that should be considered. Once you get past the investment, there are few downsides to a chipper with hyd. feed compared to one without. Removing two knives may help, but I predict feeding problems if you keep the manual feed. Reversing two blades is just a bad idea. Having half the knives with excessive gap between the edge and sheap plate will increase the power demands exponentially.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Time to bite the bullet and upgrade the chipper if you know that you are going to be doing a lot of chipping I think. Sure that is a big chunk of change. Saving hours of work is worth money to me so that I can go home and hang out with the lazy cats and tease my daughter. The Vermeer chipper I have has the hydraulic feed that you can adjust. Then when it get's too big of a bite of wood the feed stops until the RPM's come back up. That keeps it from over working. Check around your area and see if there is a Vermeer dealer. Maybe they have a defunct chipper you can buy the feeding system from?
Keeping the cutting knives as sharp as possible and the shear plate edge sharp are your best bet for your current chipper. It won't have to work so hard that way. Put a Turbocharger on your tractor to bump up the horsepower if you want to keep your current tractor.

 

[ChuckinNH]

Well, I went out today, and adjusted the clearance between the rotating knives, and the fixed knife to the 1/32" the manual suggests. From the factory, it had been set at two to three times that. I didn't have much right handy to run though it, but I did try an armload of straight weeds from the garden, and a bunch of smaller dry branches. The feed is less aggressive, and it spit those weeds out just fine at 540 rpm. ( usually I have been using the 960 rpm setting for that kind of thing.) The chips are noticably smaller too.

Thanks again Charlesaf3 for the heads up. I wouldn't have checked that until knife sharpening time.

 

[chief613]

i did check the gap and it was a strong 1/8, i closed it up to weak 1/16 or so. i ran a a good amount through the biggest being about 3" green hard wood as a test. i did seem to do a little better, i didn't really notice much difference in chip size though. i guess i don't understand the purpose of the stationary knife if some one care to shed a little light on the subject. Is it just to keep the rotor knives clean? Thanks for all the input