Wood Chipping

[oldballs]

It was 89 deg F and very humid today, but I put my new chipper to work on some pruned dead Cedar branches. If it wasn't so hot I'd would have finished the pile..........but ........."Hey" there is tomorrow.



Cheers,
Mike

 

[Gem99ultra]

oh gosh! I feel SO sorry for you, having to do all that work on such a horribly hot day. (NOT) And to think, you 'ONLY' have two nice, clean fine tractors to help you with, a fine wood chipper, and a nice manicured lawn to work in. I suspect that you also have a helper to drive the tractor with the cart and unload it?

That just BARELY beats working out in the woods among a forest of sticker vine infested trees, swatting the yellow jackets away, 95*, cut and drag the targets out to an opening, then run them through the chipper. All you have to do then is to drag the loaded cart out of the woods, and unload it by hand. Of course, there is still tomorrow. Surely there won't be any work tomorrow that has to be done right now?

 

[oosik]

So......nice pair of VERY clean tractors. Somebody has to have a great place to do a little work. Might, just as well, be you. What do you plan on doing with the saved chips? I chip around 900 small pines every spring. Thinning my stands of Ponderosa pines. I have great piles of chips all over my 80.

 

[oldballs]

Hey "Gem".....When you get to be 85 YO with no helpers, 85 deg and humidity will be a challenge. And that's why I leave some work to be done "tomorrow"......that is, I hope to be alive tomorrow to do it.:laughing:

And "Yes" oosik, deciding what to do with cart loads of chips leaves me scratching my head some days. Often times they are spread under a tree line canopy. But these Cedar chips are probably going into my garden paths.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[5030]

When you knives get dull and the chips start stringing, shoot me a PM. I sharpen chipper knives.

 

[EddieWalker]

That's a really nice set up that you have there.

 

[oosik]

I keep thinking - one of these days I will have all my stands of young pines thinned. They keep popping up - like rocks in my fields. I've had two Wallenstein chippers over the last fifteen years. I've never even had to reverse the blades. That's 800 - 900 small pines, every year, for fifteen years. I think it's because pine is so soft and there is never a speck of dirt on anything I chip. Most will be 2" to 4", on the butt. However, there are just enough of the 6" ones to make life interesting. I chip them within a week of felling and "in the round" ( no limbs trimmed ).

I NEVER use the chipper in the heat of the summer here. And during the summer we have almost zero humidity. There is always the coming fall or spring.

When I get done thinning - it looks like ten to twelve areas where somebody is playing the game - Pick-Up-Sticks. There are young pines lying is all direction and all over each other. The worse part - dragging all the trees out and into piles. The chipping part is fun.

 

[oldballs]

oosik

Your work is more demanding than mine and I agree with your above comments especially about cutting/dropping/stacking. My Kubotas are 19 HP at the PTO which is at the edge of capability for the 6 inch chipper. These dead and dry cedar limbs chip up real nice for garden paths.....nothing bigger than 4 inches are chipped.

I've got so I try to work year 'round. Sometimes saving things for Fall or Winter even Spring turns out not so good if we get early snow/rain/sleet and lots of it. But that cool weather makes it easier on the ole body. Falling large pine trees etc on wet ground......to just get 'er done....sure tears up the turf ....which rattles your teeth when mowing season come.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Gem99ultra]

Hey "Gem".....When you get to be 85 YO with no helpers, 85 deg and humidity will be a challenge. And that's why I leave some work to be done "tomorrow"......that is, I hope to be alive tomorrow to do it.:laughing:

And "Yes" oosik, deciding what to do with cart loads of chips leaves me scratching my head some days. Often times they are spread under a tree line canopy. But these Cedar chips are probably going into my garden paths.

Cheers,
Mike

Right on Mike. At 85 y/o, 85* and no helpers, I feel that you're entitled to a few pleasures of life. Me? 'Only 78, 90*, and no helpers. So I have something to look forward to - IF I make it to 85.

I'm doing pretty much the same as you with the chipper. I'm using it to cover trails and pathways. Makes a great cushion, and eventually melts down back to nothing.

Life is good!

 

[oldballs]

Thanks Gem,

Chipped another cart load this morning, before I had enough.:laughing:



Cheers,
Mike

 

[52wej]

Mike How do you like your new chipper? I have been looking at them on line and wondered how folks like them. Does the hydraulic feed work smoothly? W. Jones

 

[oldballs]

Hey W. Jones.....

I can say that the Woodland Mills WC 68 has met my expectations. By now, I have probably logged about 15 hours on the machine with a variety of tree species.

It depends on what kind of tree limbs/brush/green/dried/ crooked you are feeding the intake. As you can imagine, straight green limbs feed quite easily. Currently I have been chipping dead dry cedar limbs that are rigid and long. Sometime I have to wiggle the butt end a bit for it to grab hold. Same is true for the bushy rigid stuff. It's still work on these hot days, but I am satisfied. The reverse hydraulic usually releases the source of a jam, and one just moves right on again.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[oosik]

What oldballs says - exactly. I've never had hydraulic in-feed. Don't need it. The young pines are straight as an arrow and soft. The chipper will take and chip all that it can pull in - thru the chipping action.

If I had crooked or hard wood - completely different matter. With hard wood you need the hydraulic feed to slow things down a bit. It could feed the hard stuff too fast and choke.

I had five old, dry, weather hardened apple trees that I chipped two years ago. The chipping action pulled this wood in so fast that I blew a shear pin on one piece. If I would have had hydraulic in feed - I could have slowed the chipping down at bit and avoided this.

 

[52wej]

Thanks for the update Mike. I have a DR PTO Chipper and on small green STRAIGHT AND NARROW branches it works fine. But with any wide branches you have to wrestle them in. Plus having and adjustable blower spout is a nice benefit. W Jones

 

[ericm979]

I've had both self feeding (or "chuck and duck") and hydraulic feed chippers. I'll never go back to self feeding. Hydraulic feed is much safer. It requires much less fiddling to get material to feed. It feeds at a consistent rate instead of sucking it in fast. And you can stop the feed if you need to, or reverse it if theres a jam.

 

[oosik]

The only time I've ever had the Wally spit things back is when I chip short ( 2' or less ) chunks. The hanging baffles stop it from coming all the way back out. Otherwise - everything I chip is, at least, 10 feet long or longer. The only jam was the one time I chipped the apple trees. Got a couple jams from the twisted, weather hardened limbs.

 

[oldballs]

Those long twisted weather hardened branches will slap you in the kisser when that hydraulic feed starts pulling them in.....better watch out then.:shocked:

 

[hslogger]

I just got done brushing out an old fence row with collapsed woven wire in it. I replaced the fence with welded cattle panels, only a ninety foot run. I'm running a woodmaxx hydraulic feed unit. I ran the blackberry vines through it enough to clog the teeth. Chasing it with straight limbs and branches is standard operating procedure. Wild cherry is very hard, and I keep it down to five inches in the chipper, the rest goes for firewood. On this gig I just blew all the chips back to the area I cleared. Often I use a small pull trailer behind the riding mower like others use. I put four foot plywood sides on three sides and just blow it in there so I can the chips for mulch around the house. I have been real happy with this chipper overall and don't regret purchasing it four or five years ago.

 

[ericm979]

Those long twisted weather hardened branches will slap you in the kisser when that hydraulic feed starts pulling them in.....better watch out then.:shocked:

Even with the feed speed set high on my hydraulic feed chipper it's not feeding all that fast. While a self feeder with sharp knives will suck that tree in quick. Much faster than the hydraulic feed chipper, and with significant force. That, and the reluctance to feed unless it's just right, are what makes them more dangerous.