Got a PTO Chipper working good so far

[mpilihp]

We purchased a used DR 3 point hitch chipper, its not the current model but one version back. Takes a 4" chuck of wood.



We fired it up after reading the manual mainly the safety and install parts and wasnt very impressed. Didnt easily pull in tree tops or branches with alot of side branches, vibrated..... seamed like more work than just dragging the brush and burning it.

Then I did the maintenance, installed a new knife ( the guy said he only used it about 10 hours) the knife was dull and had some bad blunt spots on it. Also there is an adjustment for the wear bar which the bolts appeared as though they had never been loosed by the factory paint on them. THe gap between the wear bar and knife is soposed to be 1/16 of an inch, it was closer to 1/4 of an inch.

After the knife change and wear bar adjustment it works completely different. Self feeds most all tree tops and branches. Only large oak or maple sticks with large side branches need assistance getting into its throat. I have a 15hp tractor and it can take a 3" log about 8 ft long before it starts to choke, larger im afraid will stall my tractor but thats cause of the size of my tractor.

We've done about 2 cords worth of chips and we used them to level out our wood trail/roads. Our trailer holds 1/4 cord so easy to figure amounts.

Id recommend one of their chippers.

Im now trying to figure out the best way to sharpen the knifes. Local machine shops want almost as much as the cost to buy a new knife to sharpen a dull one. I was looking at this sharpener/grinder

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=33867

Anyone got a setup for sharpening chipper knifes??

~ Phil

 

[chrisfallis]

I borrowed a friend's chipper a few weeks back and ended up sharpening the knives twice. I just pulled them out and used my bench grinder with Vise-Grips to hold the knife. Due the dings in the edges, it took 15-20 minutes to get a sharp edge back. I thought about just geeting a new set of knives, but the grinder was so close by.

 

[smokinj]

I'd love to have one

 

[blades]

I can do chipper blades all sizes and types. I have a Hanchett 54" knife grinder, all grinding done under flood coolant. I am likely too far away to be worthwhile. Look under sharpening in your phone book might be someone there that can at a reasonable rate.

 

[mpilihp]

Hi Thanks Blades I managed to find a place on the web, I think they are in Kentuckey but its like .65 cents an inch to sharpen blades. The DR chipper blades cost $40 each so a sharpening for $2.40 plus shipping is a deal. I bought a couple of extra blades so I can still have one to keep it running while I have a couple out to sharpen. Wood chipes make a great material for trails for a 4wheeler, fills in holes great.

~ Phil

 

[blades]

Hi Phil, I get 75/cents inch, on chippers. When I see them , most of the time I can't tell the lead edge from the trailing edge. I am a full time, modern blacksmith shop ( That is about the best way to describe my shop) If you use the post office flat rate box you can get a few in there and save on shipping costs. I would still check your phone book under sharpening for someone more local. There are a couple supply sources for chipper blades besides oem. Zenith is one, another I think is Triangle. Zenith blades are from Vietnam at least the ones for the commercial units are labeled that way. In the past I have manufactured blades for some of the smaller home sized units do to unavailability.

 

[mpilihp]

Hi thanks for the info, Ill look at those sites for blades and see if they are any better pricewise. Tell me how quickly do you turn sharpenings around? It to return them? Ive only sent a blade out once to this other company and took a long time. PM me so we can exchange info, if your not backed up and can turn them around quicker than they did ill send them to you.

~ Phil

 

[Gooserider]

Don't want to be overly much of a wet blanket, but it is best if this sort of detailed commercial stuff is taken to PMs or e-mail, not public forums...

Blades, sounds like you have a nice shop, if you wanted to stick a one-liner in your signature file maybe w/ a link to your website I don't think anyone would mind, but we tend to frown on doing a lot of sales pitches / specific pricing info in the forums.

As an example, in this case it might have been better if you had said something like "I can do sharpening in my shop, and may be able to save you some money - send me a PM if interested" and let it go at that...

Gooserider (in mod mode)