Why a stump grinder is worth it it

[sixdogs]

For the quantity of stumps I have to and will grind, owning one is the only way to go. I have a huge willow stump coming up soon. Has to be 5 foot across so it will take 2 complete grinds as the one I own won't swing that wide. I get some side work up town grinding stumps once in a while.

That will be a memorable event. Send pics when you grind it. At least the wood is soft. Is it already cut?

 

[5030]

That will be a memorable event. Send pics when you grind it. At least the wood is soft. Is it already cut?

Had one of my arborist customers cut it down last fall actually. I kept the last section as a target backstop.

I grind commercial chipper knives on the side so I deal with tree outfits all the time.

 

[5030]

At my age (74), I don't want to be fiddling around cutting down trees. Don't mind cleaning up blow down's or cutting up trunks but it's much easier for me to call one of my arborist customers and have them do it with their High Ranger's and commercial chippers (that I grind the knives for) and because I do that for them, they always give me a deal on tree cutting. Sort of tit for tat. Why I don't need a chipper as they have them and unlike the 'homeowner' models, they all have diesel powered commercial sized chippers plus they take the chips with them. The one guy I usually call, because he's close by, has a big diesel powered Bandit with a throat large enough to gobble a tree trunk up, but I have a good friend that takes all the big wood, cuts it to campfire length, splits is and sells it to local campgrounds (we have 4 locally, 3 independent and 1 KOA). It's his extra retirement income and I have no issue with it. Usually comes by with his 1 ton pickup pulling a Gooseneck trailer and I load the logs on his trailer, he straps them down, and off he goes. Works really well for me as in no wood laying around here and well for him as in extra income. I have no desire to split wood or even saw logs up to firewood length, in his case 21" He's got a Ford diesel tractor with a grapple unloader on the front. I have helped him cut them up in the past and I have the bar on my Stihl 028 marked at 21" cut length. Sure as heck don't want to feed his splitter however. He has one of those production type splitters with a conveyor outfeed so he can split a big load pretty quick, but you still have to load the splitter, stack the splits up and then he bands the spits into packages for the campers. If I'm not mistaken, I believe he told me last summer, he sold 400 bundles of firewood. Don't know how much he charges for a bundle but I'm sure a bit as there is serious labor involved. He's younger and more spry than I am, I believe he's in his early 50's. He as the parts manager at the New Holland dealership I used to deal with for hay tools, but they sold out to one of the conglomerate's and when they did, he took an early retirement.

Interestingly, that is pretty commonplace here, independent dealers getting gobbled up by multi store owners. Lost our last independent JD dealer 2 years ago, same deal with New Holland. Why I went Kubota as my Kubota dealer is a mom-pop operation, but he sells a ton of Kubota tractors, mowers and hay and tillage tools.... and I work there part time as well (for pin money and my employee discount on parts). Of course today Kubota OEM parts are stupid expensive anyway. 14 bucks for oil filters (my cost) is insane. Least I don't pay tax on any of it. I have a Michigan farm exemption.

 

[Oaktree]

Kubota OEM parts are stupid expensive anyway. 14 bucks for oil filters (my cost) is insane. Least I don't pay tax on any of it. I have a Michigan farm exemption.

I pay that for an oil filter for my tractor at Napa, maybe a little more. Ditto for a Wix. Not even Amazon seems to have them any cheaper.

 

[ponytug]

Had one of my arborist customers cut it down last fall actually. I kept the last section as a target backstop.

I grind commercial chipper knives on the side so I deal with tree outfits all the time.

What do you use to sharpen the blades? Any tips?

All the best,

Peter

 

[sixdogs]

I always bought factory oil filters even though I know someone like Wix, Donaldson or Baldwin makes them. I wanted to give my dealer a little something so why not. OEM filters were only a dollar to two more than the others.

Now, I'm starting to wonder how close OEM and other brands are and maybe I should switch where I can.

 

[ultrarunner]

I use to sharpen blades with a Blanchard Mill with rotary stone…

Had several jugs at the shop and could do a dozen or more at a time…

Surface Grinder works too…

 

[5030]

What do you use to sharpen the blades? Any tips?

All the best,

Peter

A very large hydraulic feed surface grinder with an angle adjustable table mounted to the mag chuck. I use an angle table because different brands of chippers use different included angles on the knives. I also square the anvils (the part bolted to the end of the chipping wheel that you set to have the shearing action. Rule of thumb is about 0.010 or the thickness of a credit card between the closest to the anvil knife and the knife itself and every machine will have a bit of runout so you always check all the knives and average them to 0.010. I charge my customers a buck an inch on each knife times 2 because most of them are double edge plus I can custom grind the included angle if a customer requests it. Most of my local customers are chipping hard wood so the standare 27 degree included angle is about right but if you do mostly softwood, a 30-35 degree angle is the most efficient and requires less horsepower and makes for less plugging. Even commercial chippers can plug up with sappy softwood. Least most of them have access doors in the chute so you can unplug them easily. Had to retrofit a couple Bandits a few years back. No access doors and they are a real labor intensive chipper to unplug. The last thing any arborist wants to do is unplug a chipper while on a job. remember arborists all work on an as bid basis so downtime on a job eats their profits up.

You can put access doors on the homeowner chipper models as well and I'm surprised they don't come that way. The one I sold years ago, I cut the chute and added an access door. I ran the bags out of it and sold it for more than I paid for it on FBMP in like 2 hours. Used homeowner chipper are hard to find used, around here at least and most of the smaller commercial units are beat to death. Way. way back when I owned a CMC Chipmore drum style chipper with a 300 Ford engine. That chipper was always hungry and so was the engine for gasoline.

I always teased my wife about that is the way the union bosses got rid of Jimmy Hoffa. Ran him through a brush chipper.

Whip, chop and puree....lol

 

[5030]

I pay that for an oil filter for my tractor at Napa, maybe a little more. Ditto for a Wix. Not even Amazon seems to have them any cheaper.

I run Kubota filters o both my Kubota's, oil air and cabin filters. I don't have the stock Kubota fuel filters (beside the engines behind the injection pumps). I run a Racor 2 micron coalescing filter with a clear drainable bowl on each one as well as my Kubota diesel lawnmower.

Hydraulic filters are times 2 times 2 because both run twin hydraulic filters and each take 15 gallons of hydraulic fluid on a change as well. Lube oil is changed yearly in the spring and the hydraulic oil and front axle oil gets changes every 2 years and of course they both get the Nano Borate treatment and so dies my diesel lawnmower. Cars and trucks and even motorcycles, no one gets left out.

I believe Kubota filters are of superior quality anyway.

 

[Runner]

A very large hydraulic feed surface grinder with an angle adjustable table mounted to the mag chuck. I use an angle table because different brands of chippers use different included angles on the knives. I also square the anvils (the part bolted to the end of the chipping wheel that you set to have the shearing action. Rule of thumb is about 0.010 or the thickness of a credit card between the closest to the anvil knife and the knife itself and every machine will have a bit of runout so you always check all the knives and average them to 0.010. I charge my customers a buck an inch on each knife times 2 because most of them are double edge plus I can custom grind the included angle if a customer requests it. Most of my local customers are chipping hard wood so the standare 27 degree included angle is about right but if you do mostly softwood, a 30-35 degree angle is the most efficient and requires less horsepower and makes for less plugging. Even commercial chippers can plug up with sappy softwood. Least most of them have access doors in the chute so you can unplug them easily. Had to retrofit a couple Bandits a few years back. No access doors and they are a real labor intensive chipper to unplug. The last thing any arborist wants to do is unplug a chipper while on a job. remember arborists all work on an as bid basis so downtime on a job eats their profits up.

You can put access doors on the homeowner chipper models as well and I'm surprised they don't come that way. The one I sold years ago, I cut the chute and added an access door. I ran the bags out of it and sold it for more than I paid for it on FBMP in like 2 hours. Used homeowner chipper are hard to find used, around here at least and most of the smaller commercial units are beat to death. Way. way back when I owned a CMC Chipmore drum style chipper with a 300 Ford engine. That chipper was always hungry and so was the engine for gasoline.

I always teased my wife about that is the way the union bosses got rid of Jimmy Hoffa. Ran him through a brush chipper.

Whip, chop and puree....lol

5030,
Could you post a picture of your knife-grinding setup? Since I don't have professional grinding equipment for this, the way I do mine is place them in a home-made wooden jig (all four at once, lined up together) and clamp them to the side of my workbench. Then I use a flap disk to put a new edge on them, keeping them at roughly the same dimension. So far, this is working OK, but obviously it's hard to maintain the 45 degree angle the manufacturer specifies.

Also, no matter how hard I try, I find it hard to get a sharp corner on my anvil. I use a 90 degree table on a floor-standing disk sander, but can't seem to get a real good edge on it.

I would really like to see how a professional does it.

Thanks.