Bought a Wallenstein chipper

[gojira]

I just bought a used BXM32 from the dealer I just got my Massey from. The unit looked like there had maybe been a couple of trees put through - there's hardly any wear on any of the surfaces. So for less than the price of a new BX36S, I got this unit that's a chipper/shredder.

I'm looking forward to clearing up a lot of brush in my yard once the snow decreases a bit.

 

[sixdogs]

Anyone know how hard it is to burn wood chips? I've got thee big bucket loads that I just have drying in the barn. Suppose if they dry a little I can dump some or more of them onto a burning pile and they would burn or are the chips too dense to burn?

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

Anyone know how hard it is to burn wood chips? I've got thee big bucket loads that I just have drying in the barn. Suppose if they dry a little I can dump some or more of them onto a burning pile and they would burn or are the chips too dense to burn?

Our experience here in the far north is chips are too hard to get dry enough to burn well without a lot of smoke and fuss. They seem to clump, mold, you name it to be of much use as fuel. It would be a very labor and time issue to get them to a point of able to use as fuel. Even in a HOBO stove camp fire.

We could get BIG truck loads of chips from the hydro company as they clear bush and trees out of the distribution lines. Other to spread them on the ground to firm up low wet spots and decay into the ground they are hard to deal with here.

Your situation may vary.

 

[sixdogs]

Our experience here in the far north is chips are too hard to get dry enough to burn well without a lot of smoke and fuss. They seem to clump, mold, you name it to be of much use as fuel. It would be a very labor and time issue to get them to a point of able to use as fuel. Even in a HOBO stove camp fire.

We could get BIG truck loads of chips from the hydro company as they clear bush and trees out of the distribution lines. Other to spread them on the ground to firm up low wet spots and decay into the ground they are hard to deal with here.

Your situation may vary.

Thank you. They sure do look like trouble to burn. My plan now is just to spread them on the ground when it's warmer and when they are dry, push in a pile and burn with other brush.

 

[oosik]

I have a small landfill site here on the property. Everything, except garbage, goes in the landfill. Once a year, if needed, I burn the material collected. I've shoveled pine chips onto a HOT burning landfill pile.

It VERY EFFECTIVELY put out the hot fire. What a PITA. Here I had the landfill fire going just great and another BRILLIANT idea backfired. And it smoked and smoked for a day and a half.

Finally it quit smoking and I was able to cover everything with a layer of dirt and compact it.

They would burn if you wanted to completely dry the chips. I have HUGE piles of chips all over the property. Wherever I thinned and chiped my pine stands. These piles will draw and retain moisture - effectively keeping the chips wet.

 

[ultrarunner]

We used only chips in the Wedgewood farm stove but the chipper was from the Co-Op and made really big chips... and quite uniform... it was very common in farm country there and each farm would set a pile for chipping and chip into a loft or bunker.

 

[Captain Dirty]

Anyone know how hard it is to burn wood chips? I've got thee big bucket loads that I just have drying in the barn. Suppose if they dry a little I can dump some or more of them onto a burning pile and they would burn or are the chips too dense to burn?

While biking in Maine I noticed usually unkempt woodlots that looked like parklands; the underbrush and most saplings as well as some smaller trees had been removed. Inquiring at a local coffee shop, I was told that the best use a lot of farmers had for their land was to sell of the wood chips to a wood-burning utility. This is burning chips on an industrial scale; picture wood chips being blown into a combustion chamber like oil droplets being sprayed in a home oil burner. While such power plants are "sold" as being green, there is considerable concern about economic and environmental distortions. Most plants are subsidized with tax dollars, the CO2 is said to be equivalent to burning coal, etc, etc.

For the most part, I just spread my chips and let them rot. I concede that net/net the CO2 from rot may be the same as from burning, but nutrients are returned to my soil as opposed to being emitted as smoke or ash.

 

[ericm979]

Many "rot" processes are turning the chip biomass into other living biomass (fungus, bugs, etc). The carbon those use doesn't go into the atmosphere.

Clearing small trees and brush from forests simulates what low intensity fires did back before we started supressing most fires, and decreases the risk of a big hot crown fire. Burning the biomass from the clearing process in a plant under controlled conditions will pollute less than doing the same clearing with fire.

 

[Gem99ultra]

I added a 4" metal stand under my BX 62s to raise it up. While I was at it we welded a reciever hitch to the new stand that is bolted to the bottom of the chipper. I hook my 6x10 dump trailer to the chipper and blow the chips directly into the trailer. Then drive to the next spot and continue on.

Your solution sounds like exactly what I need! Please post a picture of your setup.

 

[def38]

I guess I'm going to have to ask. Why do you want the U-joints to "move". Operate at a slight angle??

A shaft with U-joints at each end encounters forces when operated at any angle. These forces generate friction, heat and wear not to mention changes in speed as the shaft rotates. For these reasons, engineers adopted the CV joint which does not suffer the forces of speed changes as the shaft rotates. If you are interested, look up "driveshaft phasing". The speed changes are obvious can cause severe vibration and accelerated wear. So, operate the driveshaft at zero angle if possible. Exercising the driveshaft at other than zero angle produces no benefit.

Video: driveshaft angle and phasing | Mac's Motor City Garage