Woodchippers

[Shule]

I'm thinking about the idea of getting a woodchipper to turn prunings of things like these into mulch:
- Blackcurrants
- Elderberries
- Nectarines
- Grapevines
- Blackberries

How worth it is the investment? How long do these things last, with what kind of workload? What woodchippers do you use/recommend?

Also, do you know a similar machine that will grind up weeds, sunflower stalks, and cornstalks?

[Paulf]

I have a Troy-Bilt 10 HP chipper shredder that will chip 3 inch branches easily. It also reduces leaves to 12:1. When vines are put into it it tends to plug up unless the vines are cut to less than three feet in length. Vines will wrap around the chopper blades and that is a pain.

[bower]

I've often wondered the same question and whether it is worth the time taken to feed the material.
Here's a recent review of some different models:
https://www.bobvila.com/articles/best-wood-chipper/
Something like the Earthwise electric, described in the review, will take weeds, cornstalks and other similar material. It would be strong enough for the wood prunings as well, up to 1.75 inches diameter. Rated best for composting.

Viney or green material is a pain with chainsaws, similar to what PaulF mentioned - they will climb your chain and tangle instead of cutting through as intended. So I would dig deep into the experienced reviews to make sure your choice of machine can handle it.

[JRinPA]

How large a diameter are the prunings you want to run through it? Fresh or the dried pile at the end of the year? I have buddy in GA that has electric HF that does fine for stuff in his yard.

Basically there are two types of small engine chippers. As I see it, at least.

One kind is basically a lawnmower with a hole cut in the top of the deck and shrouded chute to feed the blade. The engine is directly connected to the blade with a key that is supposed to shear if necessary to prevent damage to the engine. I have never used one of those, but, I expect they are low throughput models. It is possible there is more to them than I describe.

The second kind is a heavy drum with hammers (fixed or flailed) that is connected via pulley to engine. These are primarily shredders, fed via large hopper on top, with a chipping knife on the side of the rotating drum and the chipping chute to feed that. They will comfortably shred 1/2" and chip up to 3" diameter. This kind has a screen on the bottom, and the material continues to get broken down until it is small enough to fall through the screen.

I use a kemp (made in down in Lititz, PA, long since gone out of business) that is the second style, a 75 lb drum with fixed hammers that connects via double pulley to an engine. It was originally a ~$3000 list price with an 8hp mag kohler. but I have repowered it with a 6.5 predator(honda clone). This is a heavy duty machine and will do corn stalks and sunflowers. Or manure. It has a fixed 3/4" hole diameter screen, with a door in the back to open for wet and heavy stuff like manure. Personally, I shred up to 1/2"+, and chip up to about 2". Then dispose of the larger stuff. Not worth the worth the wear and tear to do the heavy stuff. The machine is simple and heavy, but takes a violent beating, doing what it does. Besides the engine, I have had to replace the drum bearing a few times (actually quite easy once you know how and find the proper language to order parts). The engine, I probably could have fixed, was just scorched wiring from dust that smoldered, but it was a loud beast and I much prefer the honda clone.

The achille's heal for a drum shredder is vines. Pea vine is the worse I've found. 6ft tall fresh pea vines will wrap twice around the drum and it comes to a quick stop. So that stuff needs to get cut short first, or allowed to dry out completely. The other problem is rootballs with lots of wet dirt, clogs the screen.

I found the kemp by searching craiglist and such. Other good old models McKassics (smaller ones were mighty macs), troybilt tomahawks (5hp) and supertomahawks (8hp). I also have a 5hp rotohoe but never used it yet. I imagine there were at least a few others, when the US could afford to manufacture stuff from scratch.

DR still makes one or two, I think, but I'm afraid to look at the price. Plus, something about DR's advertising has the wrong tone for me to want to buy their stuff. Very full of themselves. Not sure what customer base they are marketing to.

[zeuspaul]

I have had mine since 1980. I haven't used it much in the last couple of decades. Recently I used it to reduce the quantity of green waste I had to deal with. It does involve a lot of labor feeding the brush for basically a small pile of mulch. But it was a good quality mulch that I am glad I have. It was worth the effort. Usually I find it easier to buy bagged products.

After a couple of years I replaced the gasoline engine with an electric motor. It was a simple replacement, belt driven. It's been kept outdoors. I through a tarp over it. It still starts right up. No labor to maintain. Just some effort if I want to change the size of the screen. I just leave at the small screen size.

There are several screens of different sizes for different end results. 1/2 inch through 2 inch +/- or just bars spaced a couple of inches apart as seen in the picture.

The type of material does make a lot of difference. Vines will wrap around the beater bar requiring a lot of work to undo. Most yard waste works just fine.

Technically it's not a wood chipper. However it will grind sticks of wood up to about an inch. It is a wwgrinder.

I don't think it is currently made. I found an image of a used one for sale that looks just like mine.

wwgrinder.jpg

[JRinPA]

There's a pic of my kemp from another thread. I can't seem to find any other pics. That has seen some use and I've made some improvements off the stock machine, and still needs some more, but if something breaks it can be fixed. If it clogs up, it slips, doesn't break. But that near side bearing will get stuff wrapped on it and if you let it go too long it gets hot. Now I have 10 extra and haven't had one go in years.

Those ones in the bob vila link are what I call the lawnmower style. Some are a vertical shaft, some are a horizontal shaft like those. I'm not sure why they would need "off road tires" since they aren't powered, lol. Unless those actually flails on the horizontal shaft ones?...I just assumed they are blades.

[JRinPA]

One thing, anytime I talk shredders to new users, always always, short sleeves, and feed any forked branch point first. So there no chance that branch can catch you up and pull hand in.

[JRinPA]

The earthquake k33 and the DK2 Power 3 in.-7 hp from the bobvila site are direct drive of a small, narrow, light flail mill. They run at full engine speed of 3000rpm. Looks like two cutting knives for the chipper and two flails and maybe 2 J hammers for the shredder. But direct drive, no clutch, no belts.

I don't know, $1000 is a lot of money, at least to me, for something like that. I got the kemp at 20 years old and lighty used for a little over $600 and have used it hard for 9 years. For just some small cuttings, electric might be the way to go.

[zeuspaul]

Is the goal to get mulch or to get rid of stuff? Around here I can get a truckload of tree trimmings delivered for free by just asking a tree trimmer.

To get rid of stuff I sit on a chair with a hand pruner and large bypass loppers and clip away. It's relaxing and surprising how much can be done as long as the pieces aren't too small, six to twelve inches. The stuff gets thrown on pathways or other and eventually becomes compost.

If its mulch, compost or amendments I need I get bagged material or free tree trimmings from a tree trimmer.

It's nice to have my grinder but I could easily do without. Five bucks for a couple of cubic feet of xyz that would take me hours to create, much longer if it needs to be composted. Financially I don't think it's a good investment for a home gardener considering the alternatives.

loppers.png

[Whwoz]

I would not be feeding blackberry vines into a chipper for compost/mulch that is going into an area that you use your hands in a lot unless they are thornless. The thorns on those thing do not breakdown in a hurry.

[Shule]

Is the goal to get mulch or to get rid of stuff? …

The goal is to make it so we can repurpose the trimmings for something useful, without having to throw them away, and without the trimmings taking up a lot of space for long periods.

[Shule]

I would not be feeding blackberry vines into a chipper for compost/mulch that is going into an area that you use your hands in a lot unless they are thornless. The thorns on those thing do not breakdown in a hurry.

They're thornless.

[Shule]

How large a diameter are the prunings you want to run through it? Fresh or the dried pile at the end of the year? …

The trimmings are normally under 2" in diameter (maybe 0.5" to 1.8"). They're usually fresh.

[Shule]

Anyway, we only have one trash can (the city picks it up once a week). We don't have a truck. I don't want to waste the prunings (I mean, I don't want to deplete the ground of nutrients over time). We don't have room to keep a lot of prunings. Burning it isn't always an option. Burying it isn't an option.

[JRinPA]

Ok, talking to my buddy, a year or more since I last talked to him about shredders. His HF electric is about 4 years old. Might have been only $100 then. He recently used it on crepe myrtle trimming. He says it jams up too easily on hard or green stuff and pain to clear the jams. Now he says "does not recommend". Uses it about 6 time a year. Has replaceable blades but they are difficult to change because the allen head bolts get worn from normal use.

I will add, most of them will slow down on too much wet/green or old/dried/hard wood, and I have no idea what crepe myrtle wood is like, texture wise.

I like doing the work - i like chipping and get good use out the stuff. But it does take time. I do not like piles of wood chips from tree trimming companies. That wood is most often far too coarsely ground through a 3x5 minimum, and made from too large branch. Tree diseases, bugs, and possible herbicides that are in that wood. Plus, the nutrition of the branch is near the surface. That is another reason I don't bother chipping larger diameters. I don't want that hard core. LOL delivered wood chips are like grocery store tomatoes! Like delivered grocery store tomatoes that you can't even pick through.

edit:my buddy says with the crepe myrtle, he bundles and chips the branch tips first. Then when he gets to the thick end he throws that aside, stacks them to dry for a month or two, then chips them the next time. He will use his $99 job until it breaks. (I just told him how to the bolts out to change the blades). But if he had nothing, he would get the HF gas one instead. Basically he doesn't want brush piles in the wood edge because copperheads will live under them.

[zeuspaul]

Tree trimmers' wood chips look a lot better if you leave them in a pile for a few years before using them. I have a five year old pile that looks pretty good. I have a set of hand screens I use for general prepping. Sifting the wood chip pile gives some fine grain material I use in my seed starting mixes along with some other stuff like worm castings, ground eggshells, perlite and other.

I also like to age bagged manure products for a few years before opening the bag. It helps minimize herbicide damage. A lot depends on its usage and when you need it and your time and available space.

There's definitely an art to chipping, grinding your own and being familiar with your tool.

[JRinPA]

Hey did you get a chipper?
This is the kind of thing I see around here. This guy sells or at least lists a lot of stuff on CL, small engine stuff. He says it is a 5 hp...I thought super tomahawks were 8 hp but I could be wrong, or they varied, or maybe that engine is not original.
https://allentown.craigslist.org/grd/d/ ... 33002.html

I don't know how much old stuff like this you get out where you live. There is a lot of old stuff here, good garden country.

I don't know if I would give $245 for that, or not. I'd want a demo that the engine runs strong, starts cold, starts hot, and the pulley and clutch work.
The super tomahawks I've seen are usually a briggs I/C 8hp Engine. I/C in this case meaning Industrial/Commercial, which were I think were early 90s or so.

[bboomer]

I've been lucky in the last few years by asking contractors trimming or cutting down trees to leave some chips on my driveway. One time I asked a contractor to leave "a little bit" and came home to find a pile the size of a small car! The neighbors and I took all that we wanted and more.

[JRinPA]

Was that good or bad luck, when "a little bit" turns into a small car?
I went to local quarry once, we needed about 4 feet of pea gravel. I had two of those black and yellow totes, 27 gal, I figured that was enough. $12 or something. Something like that. Lowest price they sold at. Okay...the guy gets on the radio.
Guy inside tells me where to go. There is front end loader there. I started to get out to shovel and the guy started hollering, they weren't insured to have people walking around. Okay??! I get back in and roll down the window to talk.

Next thing I know, he dumps a half ton of stone into the back of my truck.

What a mess that was.

[Shule]

Hey did you get a chipper?
This is the kind of thing I see around here. This guy sells or at least lists a lot of stuff on CL, small engine stuff. He says it is a 5 hp...I thought super tomahawks were 8 hp but I could be wrong, or they varied, or maybe that engine is not original.
https://allentown.craigslist.org/grd/d/ ... 33002.html

I don't know how much old stuff like this you get out where you live. There is a lot of old stuff here, good garden country.

I don't know if I would give $245 for that, or not. I'd want a demo that the engine runs strong, starts cold, starts hot, and the pulley and clutch work.
The super tomahawks I've seen are usually a briggs I/C 8hp Engine. I/C in this case meaning Industrial/Commercial, which were I think were early 90s or so.

No. We probably won't get one if we can't use them conveniently on the green stuff—but you never know (maybe some day).