Old Woody Chuck stump grinder questions

[TheManOfStihl]

Good evening gentlemen. I will start with a few pics to give you an idea of what I am talking about here. I used to have a stump grinder exactly like this one. I found these pics online, and will post them as a reference.

Mine did not say Woody Chuck on it, it was some other brand, but was exactly like this one, in every detail. I can't for the life of me remember what brand mine was. I loved it and it got lots of work done. Does anyone know if these are still around? I sold mine years ago, like an idiot. I am planning on building one soon here, I have sketched out my rough draft for fabrication, but was wondering if anyone has any other pics of this style of stump grinder? These are the only pics I can find of it anywhere, and I'm going on memory for the rest of my build. Any other pics or information on these things would be greatly appreciated.


Does anyone know what other brand names these were sold under? I'd like to find more information on these, to help me source the correct parts that I need, rather than just winging it by memory.

 

[Topbuilder]

It seems like there are better designs to follow. With the cutter head at the back it looks like you will always be working the blind side of the stump.

 

[TheManOfStihl]

I'm sure there are better designs to follow, but I'm on a tight budget, and I know the one I had worked and it's simple. Yes you are on the blind side of the stump, but you can see it pretty well through the screen guard. It's definitely not a machine that will do big stumps, but ones that were maybe 20" diameter and smaller, it worked pretty well.

Most of the ones I have seen though have the cutter head mounted vertically, whereas mine was horizontal, as seen in the pics. Are the vertical cutter style of grinders beneficial? Or is it just a design variation? I have been thinking about it, but I am not sure if the benefits of the vertical cutter would be enough to revamp my entire design to incorporate it. Thoughts?

 

[Topbuilder]

Being a light weight design, going vertical might tend to climb the stump. It looks like this design throws the chips back at you?
I get the feeling you have the skills to do this but it seems a little like a re-invent the wheel scenario. There are plenty of the smaller machines on CL to be had or fixed up. Just an idea. I realize sometimes the persuit is the better part of victory.

 

[TheManOfStihl]

What about the small 9hp Praxis models, they seem to be a very light design and have a vertical cutter. Does that climb stumps, does anyone know?

Really thinking I'm going to stay with the horizontal cutter head on mine, even then if you get too greedy in the cut it will try and pull the machine's handlebar right out of your hands. Gotta keep a good grip on it being horizontal, I can only imagine vertical being worse in the other direction.

 

[snowyman]

Looks like a mini Little David. Do a google search for Huxley Little David, there's a thread on another forum about them or some images.
Good machine in it's day, handle swings around so you can get just about anywhere.

 

[brushbandit]

View attachment 351584 Looks like a mini Little David. Do a google search for Huxley Little David, there's a thread on another forum about them or some images.
Good machine in it's day, handle swings around so you can get just about anywhere.

That machine is similar to the original Promark, unfortunately it put the company out of business because of the lawsuits. It is a dangerous machine to operate. If the operator slips he is into the cutter wheel. If the cutter wheel snags on something the machine is into the operator. And if both happen at the same time you can just imagine. The redesigned Promark was a good machine and is basically the same as the Rayco mini workforce that is still in production. I wouldn't waste my time making that woody chuck stump grinder, it just doesn't look like a good design. How many stump grinders made today have a horizontal cutter wheel? The answer is none. I would look for a Promark or Rayco mini work force that needs a little TLC.

 

[TheManOfStihl]

Do those Promark or Rayco mini models climb the stumps with their vertical cutter heads? They can't weigh that much, I would imagine if it gets caught on something it would try to climb or pull the machine in.

 

[Creeker]

With the cutter disc ( & cutters ) turning in a horizontal plane it occurs to me that when the disc is travelling into the cut it will dig in but on the return to the other side the cutters are pointing the wrong way and not much cutting will get done.

Whereas with mono directional cutters in the vertical plane the cutters are grinding on both left and right slews.

Personally speaking you couldn't pay me any amount of money to stand in front of that machine, to put it bluntly a woftam and hugely unsafe compared to modern machine design.

 

[TheManOfStihl]

The horizontal cutter head on mine had cutters mounted on different levels, not just in a straight line, so as you were in the cut, it was taking swipes toward the top and bottom of the cut, and cleared a decent path through the wood as you went. Vertical cutters seem to have more aggressive teeth these days, but my machine got things done.

I'm having trouble understanding where everyone is concerned with getting your foot in the cutter head. Look at how long the handle is on the machines above. You would have to slide under the handle and purposely stick you foot into it. It's simply too far away to reach your body without the handle mowing you over first. And my design is not self propelled, so that's not going to happen. The only way that would happen is if you cut the stump on a hillside and stand unstably. Common sense says that's a no no. You would use a more modern machine for unlevel ground, absolutely.

I know you guys use the more modern and larger and better equipment all the time, and wouldn't want a simple little machine as I have proposed. Heck if I drove a Corvette, I'd never want to drive a Malibu again. Understandable. But I am on a budget, and can't afford a Corvette or few thousand dollars for a stump machine that needs work. I owned the woody chuck for a few years and cut many many stumps out with it, and it worked great. All I'm saying with this is that I want to build one like the design above, and was looking for positive and informative input, not all these 'don't waste your time' posts. If I win the lottery, yes, I will go buy a huge commercial machine, but for now, for the small trees that I deal with, there's no reason to spend thousands on something that will take me years to pay for. My design can be made for about $250 since I have half of the materials already. Sure is better than a couple thousand.

 

[brushbandit]

Being a light weight design, going vertical might tend to climb the stump. It looks like this design throws the chips back at you?
I get the feeling you have the skills to do this but it seems a little like a re-invent the wheel scenario. There are plenty of the smaller machines on CL to be had or fixed up. Just an idea. I realize sometimes the persuit is the better part of victory.

The redesigned Promark which is no longer produced and the currently produced Rayco have the cutter wheel on the opposite side of the machine than the operator. That is what makes them much safer. They don't climb the stump with the vertical cutter wheel.