1993 Bandit 250 anvil to knife clearance issue - new knife and new anvil - too tight

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Erwin

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I just got the new knives and anvil from the Bandit dealer yesterday. Planned for like one hour. However it took much longer and I'm still not feeling good about it. Please help me out. This is my first large sized chipper. Been running a 6 inch for 16 years.

After I lightly torqued the 3 large anvil bolts to a point that they compressed the spring washes just past half way, I pulled the anvil away from the knives to the farthest it can go. Matter of fact, I even put like 20 ft pound of torque on them. Then, I torqued the anvil bolts to spec. During this whole process, I went back and forth to check the clearance with two 25/1000 feeler gauge. However, I was never able to get the closest knife to have greater than 25/1000 clearance. The area under each knife was carefully cleaned before new knife was installed. The disk rotates freely by hands. Since the factory spec is 45-65 /1000 I was a little bit un-comfortable running the machine, fearing the worst. I called the Bandit rep this morning (that dealership is pretty new, don't know how much I should trust them) and the guy told me as long as it rotates freely by hands I need not worry about it. The well packaged Bandit knives are from Vietnam and no idea where the anvil was from. Why couldn't they make it a littler smaller? Thanks for ur time and you input in advance. Erwin
 
Do you have the little gauge that is supposed to set the anvil spacing? I think it's around 1/16" of an inch thick.

Do you have the pushing/pulling nuts loosened off?

Unfortunately, the chipper I run has the opposite problem, the knives have been ground many times, the anvil is rounded off and set way too far away from the knives and we don't have wrenches or sockets capable of adjusting them.
 
Thx for the reply. Yes I have the large anvil nuts loose and use the pulling bolts to pull it as far away as it can go. I use a regular mechanics feeling gauge to measure it. This is my very first large chipper. It's in very good shape. I'm really in the process restore it rather than repair it since I'm not going to use it much, is a big toy. The 6" one is still my work horse. There is minimal rust, not a dent or any major blemish. The old anvil was rounded of and knives worn pretty short. That's why I'm replacing both.
 
drum or disk? I'm A millwright at a local saw mill and we run our whole log chippers on 20 thou. As long as the highest knife doesn't hit the anvil you'll be fine.

I'm sure your not trying to sling chips up 30 feet of pipe so I wouldn't sweat it.
 
I agree with the above replies. Do not worry about the tight clearance. As long as the knives are not touching the anvil, no harm will occur to any part of the system. In fact, I always try to get the smallest clearance possible. I never bother with a feeler guage, but adjust till the gap is miniscule, sometimes until a knife is touching, then back off ever so slightly.
 
Thx guys. that makes me feel better. However, I already ordered a Makita 98202 Blade Sharpener and will arrive today. I'll take off just a little bit. The other reason for getting the sharpener is to do my own knife sharpening.
 
Hi Erwin,

Just curious how the Makita sharpener is working for you? Was it recommended by someone else using it for chipper knives?
 
Someone here mentioned in a thread. I already returned it. The holder is too small. In order to make it work u need to fabricate one that can hold our knives.
 

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