Chipping sycamore

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Wolfking42084

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Is there anything worse? I hate doing these trees now, because of just the chipping. Every piece breaks 10 times over before it gets in the truck.
 
Not to mention the allergic reaction some people get. There are a few worse. I find Ailanthus tends to break along the growth ring, honeylocust and green ash have so much deadwood, willow breaks up and the whithies wind around the feed wheel.

As for the best: many silver maple,
 
Dead white pine. Hits the feed wheels and smashes into a dozen pieces, you end up feeding piles of stubs into the chipper with a broom.

Dead maple or really crispy anything that's so dry it ends up just a giant dust cloud pouring out of every hole in the chipper, the dust so thick you can feel it on your teeth.
 
all depends on the time of the year, but it is still the worst out of all trees. When chipping sycamore we wear masks. the dust of it under a microscope represents sharp fragments. it is like inhaling fiberglass dust. It will get in your throat and cut it.

on top of that is very hard on the quipment. the dust will coat the intake screen of a radiator shutting down your cooling system. clean every 10 minutes with a rake to avoid overheating. at the end of the day take a garden hose and lightly flush the screens of radiator of your chipper, loader, etc.

i prefer to work on them when the fruit has dropped off, helps reduce the dust some. though normally we dont have much of a choice when to get them worked on.
 
I hate to gloat... Sycamore doesn't bother me at all. Nor does poison ivy, or any of the other irritating plants. I have a great immune system!

I will complain about all the other problems though, especially to any negative comments about Ailanthus [Tree of Heaven, Paradise tree, "Stink tree" to those who know about them]
 
you ask is there anything worst.....yep, anything that's dead and hard as a rock while using a chuck & duck drum chipper with dull blades.....now that sucks......
 
Dead dusty elm comes to mind when thinking about horrible chipping experiences.

Have yet to chip an sycamore in the 2 years I have been doing tree work. Just don't see a lot of it around here besides in river valleys.
 

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