Building a chipper

[Newfie]

"Some of we intelligentsia care little about money."


Careful you don't strain something patting yourself on the back.



And value their time even less.

 

[Crofter]

Newfie, I dont think Glen was making his arm sore, but he might have the notion somone else was endangered!
I have had the mixed pleasure of working the kinks out of some prototype forestry equipment that was being field tested. It is amazing the problems that crop up in real world conditions that didnt occur to the engineers and designers in the labs. At first thought a chipper is something that makes big wood into smaller pieces. What it must also do very well is be a blower. The internal volumes (velocity) and shape of the chutes that control chip flow so that you dont constantly have plug ups is pretty important. Most tried and proven designs have a lot of trial and error behind them. To think that you can somehow avoid this is highly suggestive.

Frank

 

[Bigsnowdog]

Originally posted by Crofter
I have had the mixed pleasure of working the kinks out of some prototype forestry equipment that was being field tested. It is amazing the problems that crop up in real world conditions that didnt occur to the engineers and designers in the labs. At first thought a chipper is something that makes big wood into smaller pieces. What it must also do very well is be a blower.

The internal volumes (velocity) and shape of the chutes that control chip flow so that you dont constantly have plug ups is pretty important. Frank

That is useful information. Thank you.

I have to say that I raised these questions seeking information and objective opionions. What I got was a certain amount of thoughtful comment, which is good, but the most audible volume was a lot of righteous harumphing by people whose implied beginning was essentially, "Who do you think you are????" ....and they didn't progress much beyond that.

Generalizing to fabrication and machining and the possible perspective that end users might have, if you can't think outside of the box, if you have no confidence in your abilities, then.... by all means, don't try anything you can't imagine. I would, however, urge such folks to not try to bury others in their own fears.

....and no, crofter, this comment was not directed at you.

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

Originally posted by SilverBlue
And some need to pay a mechanic to pump air in thier tires.
Mad Max was a movie ROLLACOSTA come back to reality sunshine hey does England make anything anymore

id say we design and manufacture a few more things than either ONTARIO or the BAHAMAS as well as finance a lot of industry world wide..tell me havent you had the industrial revolution in your parts yet?? cottage industry died out here at around about 1900 ..

 

[SilverBlue]

Originally posted by ROLLACOSTA
id say we design and manufacture a few more things than either ONTARIO or the BAHAMAS as well as finance a lot of industry world wide..tell me havent you had the industrial revolution in your parts yet?? cottage industry died out here at around about 1900 ..

My point being that I can't remember anything significant imported from England anymore other that confectionary goods. Minor items perhaps but mostly it's C.R.A.P. made south south of the border or asia.

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

silverblue the reason you dont want our stuff and we dont want your stuff is imo that we are two totaly differant markets..we europeans are basicly self sufficent like you north americans..we make our own cars ,chippers ,bucket trucks ,stump grinders etc etc to be honest i cant remember the last USA made thing i bought..but what we all must watch out for is the CHINESE made stuff made cheaper by them but designed by europeans and americans now that pisses me off..what makes us anglo saxon celtic northern european types so great is our inventive skill so go on boys make what the hell you want :angel:

 

[a_lopa]

Rolla greenmech chippers are selling like hot cakes over here there UK built,there last local catologe(this week)had 10 or more "bandits''with low hours that had been traded on these machines,there new blade and simple design with low weight is winning them here,ill bet my cracker all the US machines will have this blade set up very soon.dead wood is sooo much easier.might be bit high tech for silver,hes still tinkering with toys

 

[Stumper]

Okay Aussie, Give us an explanation or a link-what is the improvment in blade design?

 

[a_lopa]

www.aspacgolfandturf.com.au

 

[Husky372]

didn't work

 

[Crofter]

http://www.aspacgolfandturf.com.au/home.htm

Try this.

Frank

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

Originally posted by aussie_lopa
Rolla greenmech chippers are selling like hot cakes over here there UK built,there last local catologe(this week)had 10 or more "bandits''with low hours that had been traded on these machines,there new blade and simple design with low weight is winning them here,ill bet my cracker all the US machines will have this blade set up very soon.dead wood is sooo much easier.might be bit high tech for silver,hes still tinkering with toys

greenmechs disk blades have been around for about 8 years overhere ,i havent had a greenmech chipper they don't seem realy that popular overhere i don't know the reason the moist popular chipper in england is the timberwolf 6'' machine with a 35 hp 4 cylander kubota engine..i have one ,today was my first breakdown in 3 years spline/spindle whent on the bottom roller pump..timberwolf are fixing it ,it needs a new pump not a cheap thing..

 

[TimberMcPherson]

I dont think a chipper would be a breeze to make but if you have an engineering background and access to the toys I think it wouldnt be that tough.
I would get my hands on a tried and proven model along with rulers, caliper and a digital camera, get the specs and then remake it. Or do the whole rebuild thing as others have suggested.

GO FOR IT! Good Luck!

 

[Acer]

Originally posted by ROLLACOSTA
greenmechs disk blades have been around for about 8 years overhere ,i havent had a greenmech chipper they don't seem realy that popular overhere ....: the moist popular chipper in england is the timberwolf 6'' machine with a 35 hp 4 cylander kubota engine...:

The Timberwolf (or Entec as was) 35s are great..amazing what they can do considering their size. I think that the Greenmech disc design is a bit of a red herring. I cannot see the advantages..and as for sharpening, any saw works round here would have no trouble grinding a conventional blade back to an edge..two blades to grind for a Timberwolf set..whereas a greenmech needs either 6 or 9 blades (can't remember which) grinding on a cylindrical grinding m/c, which must surely be more costly just in extra set up time.

Back to the original post..good luck with the home made chipper..most of the PTO models I've used are hydrostatic. depending on the sort of stuff you are chipping, I'd stress the importance of getting the feed roller design right. I've used some chippers that are great at pulling in and chipping straight branches, but struggle to pull in anything bushy such as hawthorn. I must admit, it's a project I wouldn't tackle. Designing and building it would probably be the easy bit, sorting out the niggles could take a while and stop you doimg the stuff that makes you the money.

 

[highpoint-utd]

the green mech 2000 series has 6 blades and you rotate them so that you dont need to sharpen them for upto 3 times as long as normal chipper blades , when i worked for glendales we used to have a guy at rolls royce sharpen them for us there is some need for accuracy with the blade design ,they are very good chippers though , very reliable and quite easy to repair , the only probs we had with ours was the no stress system , we had 3 control boxes on it the chipper shredders are not very clever though so dont bother with em

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

i live just down the road from entec/timberwolf factory ..a guy who works there thought i was looking to buy one of there new 9 inch models i wasn't i was just picking up a set of blades well anyway he said whatever you do dont buy a 9 inch there nothing but trouble all the ones so far that have been sold have had to come back 4 or 5 times so be WARNED

 

[Reed]

Bigsnowdog - go for it.

If I acted only on the advice of others I'd be dead thirteen years now.

Pricing-out componants for a sprayer, knuckleboom loader, dump trailer, chip box, even a cherry picker have all presented and manifested as something often superior to offered models. Most people can only fix what's broke. To engineer what's not is challenging adaptability.

You're lucky to work at a firm that figures it out and has the machine shop to bang it out.

A flail bar w/ chain drops spinning at 4,500 rpm will completely clear a rightofway of 15-inch oaks and limestone boulders. The Army engineered it for landing at Normandy yet it took 50 years before someone applied it to a log skidder and got busy clearing growth ten times cheaper than the nearest competition. The industry could only condemn it because it was better than what they were limited with.

 

[Bigsnowdog]

Originally posted by oakwilt
Bigsnowdog - go for it.

If I acted only on the advice of others I'd be dead thirteen years now.

Pricing-out componants for a sprayer, knuckleboom loader, dump trailer, chip box, even a cherry picker have all presented and manifested as something often superior to offered models. Most people can only fix what's broke. To engineer what's not is challenging adaptability.

You're lucky to work at a firm that figures it out and has the machine shop to bang it out.

A flail bar w/ chain drops spinning at 4,500 rpm will completely clear a rightofway of 15-inch oaks and limestone boulders. The Army engineered it for landing at Normandy yet it took 50 years before someone applied it to a log skidder and got busy clearing growth ten times cheaper than the nearest competition. The industry could only condemn it because it was better than what they were limited with.

That would be a fascinating piece of equipment to observe in operation....

 

[Reed]

300 feet distant and some safety goggles!!!

The secret's in the housing. Pitched to bring-in standby growth and recycling the brush repeatedly to the thrasher, the rpm's and height being the only controls necessary.

One alternative to this thrasher is a solid drum with carbide-hardened nubs but it's less effective. They have them for skidsteers but I would prefer about 100 more horsepower.

 

[Bigsnowdog]

I have seen, from a distance, a front mounted attachment on a large, rubber tired loader tractor. It was used for land clearing, and it appeared that they used it like a big mower, but it was capable of doing stumps of seemingly any size, and anything else that was in its path.