Woodmax 8M

[Wojo1034]

Hello,

Thank you for allowing me to join your forum. I am looking at buying the Woodmax 8M. We have land that has many eucalyptus. Can anyone comment on the chipper as well has the life of the blades? Are they easy to sharpen? How does the chipper work with hardwood?

Any help would be appreciated.

Tom

 

[ericm979]

Buy the 8H unless you will only be chipping tiny stuff.

Eucalyptus is very hard wood. I have a stand of Blue Gum, which is the most common Eucalyptyus in California (and probably the rest of the US). With my 32pto hp I have to throttle down the feed speed on my 8H when chipping Euc larger than 3-4". I was not happy with the feed speed controller on my 8H- it was difficult to adjust speeds and really only had three speeds not a range. I replaced it with one that's correctly sized for the hydraulic flow and it works much better.

I get about 20 hours per side of the blades. I bought a second set so I can send one set off. I'm going to try to sharpen them with a sander a couple times myself before doing so. Eucalyptus is harder on the chipper than the Madrone, Tan oak, Doug Fir and brushthat I also chip. I feel that it dulls the knives faster. I've not done enough consistently to know how much faster.

It's a long reach to get in there to change the bed knife and set the clearance. I'm 6' tall, thin and fit and I can just barely get in there to do it. I remove the feed roller springs and block it up. It's easy to get to the knives on the flywheel though a couple access ports. The Woodland Mills design where the whole top of the housing opens up clamshell style looks like it'd be easier to work on, but there may be details that only come out when you actually have one and do it.

Blue gum chips smell like an industrial sized version of Vics Vapo-rub. I dont like them much but they're better than leaving the banches around.

 

[Wojo1034]

Thank you. I also have the opportunity to purchase the Wallenstein. Does anyone have any input on those??

Thanks

 

[747driver]

I have had the WM8 H for 3 years. No problems and is pretty simple to work on. I get 30 hrs. out of the chipper blades then flip them to the otherside. Its easy to get the blades out through the 2 access plates. But as Eric said its a tight fit through the infeed chute to adjust the clearance !

By all means if you can pay the extra and get the hyd. feed you will not be disappointed....beats tugging on the limb to pull it back out when it jams or needs to be re-fed. !!

 

[Chaos USMC]

X2 for what 747driver said. I own the WM8H and can't imagine chipping without the hydraulic assist. It is an awesome machine. I mainly run Locust, Oak and Maple through it; mostly locust (darn hard wood). I run it on the back of my 50hp/48hp PTO tractor. I have roughly 11 hours of run time and the chips are still flying good. Good luck.

 

[sea2summit]

So I took delivery of a MX-9900 a few weeks ago. It痴 my first chipper and I decided to buy my last chipper first . I致e got about four hours on the tach now and I do love the hydraulic feed, only think I don稚 like is it chews through layers of material when you stuff a load of small stuff in the feeder, wish it had a roller on the bottom as well so it would pull it all through at once. Other than that it痴 amazing, I threw several chucks of 7-8 pine and holly in and it doesn稚 even notice.

 

[hslogger]

GET the hydraulic feed model.
Repeat. Get the hydraulic feed model even if you have to wait for it.
I ain't lying.

 

[10backacres]

Waiting for them to build my MX9900,and enthusiastic about the thought of the hydraulic feed! When you folks change blades do you use new bolts each time? I questioned woodmax: "you have to decide that for your self ' I would use grade 8 bolts in the Bearcat only once after the 1st blade came loose. Prior to that I'd change bolts out after 2 blade changes.

 

[ericm979]

If you torque them correctly and the torque spec is good then they should not come loose. Also if the torque spec is good the bolts should be able to take many cycles of tightening without breaking.

Woodmaxx's answer to you is bogus though. They should be the experts on the stuff they design.