Chipper Chipper/shredder questions, exploring what I can do with them

[Bullwinkle123]

Greetings all, hope you're faring well in your coronavirus self-isolation.

So I've finally purchased a tractor (it hasn't been delivered yet). And while I was planning to put this off for a while, I'm very interested in getting a chipper/shredder and I'm trying to understand how many misconceptions I'm operating with along the lines of what I can put into it, and what I get out of it. I've read a number of threads here on the subject but didn't quite get out of them what I was looking for. I understand the basics, sharp blades on chippers, hammer-like things on the shredders. Dry wood (as opposed to green wood) might heat carbon treated knives and cause them to lose their ability to hold their edge, perhaps, I'm not sure.

So here are my various misconceptions / hopes for you to dash to the ground. Let's assume I'm talking about a combo thing like a Wallenstein *42 series chipper/shredder, though that may be too rich for my blood. I'm wondering about something used, or cheaper, but we'll see, plenty of other threads for that topic.

1. Recently fallen trees: their branches will make excellent compost additions when fed through the shredder.
2. Recently fallen trees: bigger pieces wll go through the chipper, making good chip mulch for gardens, trees, etc.
3. My forest is a mess. I'd like to chip up some of the years' old trees as well. It's all dry wood, though some of it may be closer to rotting and certainly soaked in the spring. See attached picture later. Most of this fallen stuff is pine, I won't feel bad if I have to pass on chipping harder (dry) woods like maple, I suppose. I have a lot of brush piles of small-ish dried branches I'd like to chip/shred, as they are unsightly and taller than I am.
4. I can use the chips/mulch immediately likely without too much impact for lack of nitrogen fixing, but if I let it sit in a pile to cook for a year or two that is even better.

So is any of the above true? And can I clean up the a lot of this mess that has been accumulating in my forest if I want extra chips/mulch sooner than, say, just waiting for branches from recent falls or logging? There are lots of parts of my forest that look like this the following picture.



That picture isn't representative of what I'd likely go for, it's just to give some mental clues about the New England forest. I have lots of fir, white pine, maple, birch, beech, cherry, hemlock, ash, aspen and some oak. I wouldn't chip stuff rotting on the ground, but the branches and trees "in the air" may be a bit punky, *if* they would be any kind of decent mulch/compost. Question is whether punky wood is useful.

I'd definitely be happy if I could make my mulch instead of paying to bring it in. Note that I'd save any money with a Wallenstein, but it appeals to my "locally sourced and recycled material" ethic. Right now I buy about 8 yards of mulch a year, and that doesn't even cover half the things I'd like to mulch. I'm also trying to improve my compost game, but I can't quite seem to achieve "cooking pile liftoff" because I just don't have the bulk. I'm hoping the shredder might help me with that. Of course the tractor might help too, it'll be a lot easier to stir the pile using the tractor than my back and a hand tool, I hope.

I'm pretty comfortable sharpening my various tools, I'm not sure how much I'd have to step up my game to sharpen a chipper/shredder. Roughly how often would I have to do that?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[ericm979]

Chipping dry wood won't damage the knives but it will dull them faster. On my Woodmaxx 8H I rotate the knives every 20 hours. Just like with chainsaws I prefer to keep them sharp. Let them go too long and the chips get stringy. The one time I clogged the chute was because the knives got a little too dull and the stringy chips clogged the chute. I've made an attempt to sharpen my first set (I have two sets) using an angle grinder, being careful to not overheat them. I still need to go over them with diamond 'stones'. Keeping the angle is important. Bailey's is in NorCal and will sharpen chipper knives for something like $.80 or $1/inch. If you ask around you might be able to find someone local.

Chipping big dead wood is nasty. A lot of it comes out as dust. I try to avoid it but I've chipped a lot of dead brush and limbs.

Having had both a "self feeding" or "chuck and duck" chipper and a hydraulic power feed, I would strongly recommend the hydraulic power feed. My self feeding chipper also has a shredder. After I got the 8H I have only used the shredder on fall leaves to make mulch for the garden.

The Wallenstien are surely nice but the hydraulic feed ones cost a lot compared to the Woodmaxx 8H or the 8" Woodland Mills. Those are different designs, both made in China to US or Canadian design. There's plusses and minuses of each design.

 

[oosik]

I've had experience with two chippers and one shredder. The shredder was some unnamed brand, was self propelled, didn't last long. Both chippers were/are Wallenstein. First was a BX42S - currently, BX62S. Both were/are manual feed.

The Wallenstein chippers are a fantastic implement. I thin my pine stands every spring. This means I chip 900-1200 small pines ever spring. They are from 1" to 6" on the butt. I feed them, butt first, into the chipper, in the round. No limbs removed.

I break this project down into smaller units. Identify and fell, drag and pile, chip. Drag and pile is a REAL pain. After I have thinned a stand, it looks just like a game of Pick Up Sticks. Small trees lying in all direction and piled over each other - hellter/skelter. Unfortunately, my tractor & grapple are of no help in any of this operation. The tractor does power the chipper.

If you will be chipping trees/limbs that are crooked - then I recommend a hydraulically controlled in-feed. Both of my Wallys were/are manual.

I've used my BX62S now for five years. Chipped roughly 4500 - 5000 small pines. I'm still operating on the same side of the chipper blades. Still produces clean sharp chips. The pines are a soft wood and I do not drag them thru the dirt/mud.

It makes a GREAT difference.

 

[oosik]

OK - I looked at your picture. If your plan is to chip those downed trees - you will need to sharpen the blades more often. How often - like ericM979 says - when the chips start getting "stringy".

I know that Wallenstein says their blades are made of superior steel. However - clean, soft wood does make a difference.

Another point. If you will be chipping hard wood - then, again, I would recommend a hydraulically controlled in-feed. I did chip four old dead, standing apple trees. The wood was hard as ebony. The manual feed BX62S is so aggressive in chipping - it was scary. The hydraulically controlled in-feed can be controlled to slow down the feed cycle. The chipper takes smaller bites - it doesn't act like its going to explode or shake itself apart.

 

[nisaacs]

OP, I am not exactly sure what you are asking. I don't have a green thumb so your uses of chips/mulch I cant help you with. The shredder is more for leaves and really small limbs, it doesn't create much volume. It will also have a gravity feed chipper, they are a lot of work. I recommend a straight chipper with twin infeed hydraulic powered rollers. They require less chainsaw prep and can pull in a fairly gnarly limb. Even a machine with one infeed powered roller is a lot of work, in the smaller pto types. It looks like you have a lot of material to chip so it makes sense to get a machine rather than buying your material.

My current machine is 7" but mostly anything 4" and above is firewood, so just the small stuff gets chipped.

 

[BrokenTrack]

My personal experience with wood chippers is that they are really a waste of money.

Size wise, their rated capacity is about half of the rated size. For instance if it is a 6 inch chipper, due to the knuckle of how wood grows, it really would be a 3 inch chipper.

Then there is time. Oh my gosh, trying to pull out brush, chip it, then haul it to where it is going is a real slow process. There is an awful lot of work done, for a very small pile of chips.

I have tried it, but I got better things to do with my time. So my suggestion is to either just rent a really big chipper when you need it, or push the brush into piles and light it with a match. When you are done use the ash for a fertilizer. It is not super strong fertilizer at 1-2-3 on the NPK scale, but it is something, and a lot faster.

 

[DMW]

For your application a shredder would not be needed. You will get better mulch by chipping larger diameter branches. Depending on the wood the shredder creates long wet stringy pieces that clump together, not very spreadable. The larger the chipper, the larger the piece you can feed into it creating chips.
I took down a maple last year, took the better part of a week to do it myself with a BXM32. It didn't look that big when I started, Trunk was 44" x 48", but when I was done, there was no cleanup, except scrapping up the chips with the loader, and 4 stove cords of fire wood split.

Hydraulic feed is pretty well a must with larger diameter pieces, they can get too heavy to feed in manually. The BXM32 limited the branches to 3", being able to feed in larger branches without having to prune them makes it a huge time saver. Look into the Woodmax or Woodland Mills. There are lots of reviews on the forum, and seem to be quality units. The BX62 is a beast with hydraulic feed, but the others seem to have a more ergonomic feed table. The BX62 looks like a manual feed they added hydraulics to, rather than being designed from the ground up as a hydraulic feed unit.

 

[oosik]

Like most any implement - if you have no good use for it or never use it............... My BX62S is rated at 6 1/2" max diameter tree trunk. I've run rock hard, dry apple wood trunks thru it. 6" in diameter. It was not fun but the chipper effectively did its work. I use my chipper for 30 to 40 days each year. Rest of the time - in the carport, safe, dry, stored. I was just out - checking it out yesterday. Greased the two bearings again, opened the hopper - no mouse nests - she is good to go. A summer pic - chipper at rest.

With my Kubota M6040 I could have powered a Wallenstein BX92S. It will take up to 9" trees. I've found that MY LIMIT is dragging a 6" pine that's about 30 feet long. I fall often enough dragging 6" pines to a pile. I don't need to try and handle 9" ones.

View attachment 646016

 

[Bullwinkle123]

Thanks for the replies so far, good input.

On the output of the shredder, and understanding it's for finer input materials, I was hoping the finer output materials would be good for my _compost_ heap (stringy or not). Unlike the chips that I would use for _mulching_, my goal for my compost heap is to turn small organic debris back into potting/planting soil. So I deliberately keep the size of stuff in the compost heap small for fastest decomposition, try to balance my green/brown ratio, and so on. I get a little nice material from it, but not enough for my hobbies, so I'm hoping I can improve the process with output from the shredder.

Looking at 'nisaacs' post though, his chipper output seems very fine and totally good enough for the compost heap. Not sure what he was chipping there, looks like white pine, there's barely a chip in the output.

With respect to the piles of old punky wood in my forest, would the result of chipping that make for any kind of bad mulch? Or is it all good? Would the the wet old wood (like it is now, after winter), gum up the machine?

 

[Bullwinkle123]

OP, I am not exactly sure what you are asking. I don't have a green thumb so your uses of chips/mulch I cant help you with. The shredder is more for leaves and really small limbs, it doesn't create much volume. It will also have a gravity feed chipper, they are a lot of work. I recommend a straight chipper with twin infeed hydraulic powered rollers. They require less chainsaw prep and can pull in a fairly gnarly limb. Even a machine with one infeed powered roller is a lot of work, in the smaller pto types. It looks like you have a lot of material to chip so it makes sense to get a machine rather than buying your material.

My current machine is 7" but mostly anything 4" and above is firewood, so just the small stuff gets chipped.

That looks like really fine stuff. What kind of chipper is that? Is that white pine you were chipping?