Hello all,
I recently purchased a used DR 16.5 Pro chipper with 36 hours on it. It seemed to be well kept, and the knife had little wear on it, however I sharpened it keeping its 40 angle using a belt sander. I also squared off the wear plate which also didn't seem to be showing much wear and adjusted it to it's 1/16" gap. I did a service on the machine, and fired it up without any issue whatsoever. The issue I'm having is that although this machine seems capable, it does not even remotely self feed even the smallest of branches. Branches approximately 1/2" will be eaten by the machine without much resistance at all, but requires me to manually feed it. A 2" branch can be fed into the machine with pretty substantial resistance, but not as if the clutch is slipping. It tends to "hammer" my hands with branches over 2" and requires serious self feeding, until what's left is too far down to safely put my hands into the hopper at which point is just bounces around the hopper. The manual for the machine shows that by sharpening the knife and or adjusting the wear plate, my issues would be mitigated. For what it's worth, there seems to be no issue with the engine running at the proper RPM. This seems to be the issue whether I'm using fresh cut limbs or dried out branches. Also worth mentioning is that the fresh cut branches seem to put out a stringy shred, where dry matter produces chips. It's not producing any fine saw dust. I've tried adjusting the wear plate at it's recommended distance, and also brought it further out and closer in with no real difference in results.
I purchased this secondhand thinking by spending a bit more than what a smaller big box store machine would cost, I would get a more capable machine however judging by some of the videos and online reviews of even the Harbor Freight wood chipper this thing is not what I imagined it to be. Am I expecting too much of the machine or is there something I'm missing? Is it worthwhile to buy a new knife kit and wear plate on the chance that it is improperly sharpened/adjusted?
I recently purchased a used DR 16.5 Pro chipper with 36 hours on it. It seemed to be well kept, and the knife had little wear on it, however I sharpened it keeping its 40 angle using a belt sander. I also squared off the wear plate which also didn't seem to be showing much wear and adjusted it to it's 1/16" gap. I did a service on the machine, and fired it up without any issue whatsoever. The issue I'm having is that although this machine seems capable, it does not even remotely self feed even the smallest of branches. Branches approximately 1/2" will be eaten by the machine without much resistance at all, but requires me to manually feed it. A 2" branch can be fed into the machine with pretty substantial resistance, but not as if the clutch is slipping. It tends to "hammer" my hands with branches over 2" and requires serious self feeding, until what's left is too far down to safely put my hands into the hopper at which point is just bounces around the hopper. The manual for the machine shows that by sharpening the knife and or adjusting the wear plate, my issues would be mitigated. For what it's worth, there seems to be no issue with the engine running at the proper RPM. This seems to be the issue whether I'm using fresh cut limbs or dried out branches. Also worth mentioning is that the fresh cut branches seem to put out a stringy shred, where dry matter produces chips. It's not producing any fine saw dust. I've tried adjusting the wear plate at it's recommended distance, and also brought it further out and closer in with no real difference in results.
I purchased this secondhand thinking by spending a bit more than what a smaller big box store machine would cost, I would get a more capable machine however judging by some of the videos and online reviews of even the Harbor Freight wood chipper this thing is not what I imagined it to be. Am I expecting too much of the machine or is there something I'm missing? Is it worthwhile to buy a new knife kit and wear plate on the chance that it is improperly sharpened/adjusted?