What chipper will not plug with palm fronds
- Thread starter rsmall
- Start date
Help Support Arborist Forum:
I would think a Disk Chipper would clog more than a Drum style, so my vote is for a Drum chipper.
Nope. Just as bad.
I don’t it exists. Every tree service I worked for always took that crap to the dump.
you cant chip string, sorry.
Just saw this post, we never had any real problems with a bc1500. It got dusty and dirty, but it ate them just fine.
Just saw you have a wc... kee0 in mind, that's not really a chipper...
airframefixer
ArboristSite Operative
Never used one.... but bandit claims their 75xp ideal for palm and pine and other fibrous tree guts. The way the feed wheel swings is opposite the 65xp and is much closer to the disc.
It's just not really an issue unless you are running a chuck and duck
Now I don't ever see any palm fronds, so take my advice cautiously.
Palm frond are stringy and hard to chip, as you have discovered. It takes sharper knives and closer bed knife tolerances to process them effectively. In general, the disk chippers take smaller, faster bites out of the material being processed, and they rely on sharper & closer tolerances to work. Drum chippers rely on brute force and the high feed rate of material to chip wood. That doesn't work so well if the knife doesn't manage to cut the material through with each pass of the knife.
Check your bed knife clearances very carefully. Raise the bed knife, and back off the chipper knives so that they are less aggressive. Set the depth clearance between the two as close as possible without allowing the cutting knives to come into contact with the bed knife. The wear present in your old machine might dictate that you cannot come too close, consequently you will have problems. Bounce in your feed plate, loose bearings, or any other "slack" in the system might cause catastrophic failure if you set the knives too close.
Does that machine have a feed plate that drops? Your adjustments on that can make a big difference, too.
Sharpening advice: many folks regularly sharpen the knives, and never do anything with the bed knife. It needs to be square, sharp and a perfect match for the drum knives, with the previously mentioned clearances set nice and tight. Otherwise, you will get lots of stringy, clumpy results that cause clogs.
Palm frond are stringy and hard to chip, as you have discovered. It takes sharper knives and closer bed knife tolerances to process them effectively. In general, the disk chippers take smaller, faster bites out of the material being processed, and they rely on sharper & closer tolerances to work. Drum chippers rely on brute force and the high feed rate of material to chip wood. That doesn't work so well if the knife doesn't manage to cut the material through with each pass of the knife.
Check your bed knife clearances very carefully. Raise the bed knife, and back off the chipper knives so that they are less aggressive. Set the depth clearance between the two as close as possible without allowing the cutting knives to come into contact with the bed knife. The wear present in your old machine might dictate that you cannot come too close, consequently you will have problems. Bounce in your feed plate, loose bearings, or any other "slack" in the system might cause catastrophic failure if you set the knives too close.
Does that machine have a feed plate that drops? Your adjustments on that can make a big difference, too.
Sharpening advice: many folks regularly sharpen the knives, and never do anything with the bed knife. It needs to be square, sharp and a perfect match for the drum knives, with the previously mentioned clearances set nice and tight. Otherwise, you will get lots of stringy, clumpy results that cause clogs.
I keep knives and bed knife always tip top. Just the nature of Washingtonian palms, when dead and dried just right just happen to be the perfect size of the bed knife spacer. A larger piece slips thru and wedges in the shoot. After 20 years is just the joy of palms.
The Vortex Chipper loves Palm Fronds!
Yeah, looked at, it's cute and all...
the "drum" isnt a solid drum, only good for chipping grass
I want to get a demo unit and stick a 12" pine or oak log in it, they advertise it as a 12" machine but I doubt it makes it 5 feet down that log before the "drum" comes out the chute
the big companies stop before the feed opening is twice as wide as it is tall, on my bandit thats 12.5 tall and 19 wide, why? becuase someone will try to stuff as much in as itll take, I know with my machine its violent as all hell if you stuff that opening with an oblong log that uses all the opening there is
now imagine half the power, that flimsy "drum" and double the feed opening, bet it gets real fun to watch!
im sure its great on palms but just trailer those things, not that hard really, especially for the price of buying a chipper id buy one thats capable of chipping actual wood and not just glorified grass
Similar threads
Latest posts
-
Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)- Latest: MustangMike
-
Looking to get rid of a Poulan 655 In Great Condition message me if interested.- Latest: rocketnorton
-
-
-
