PTO Wood Chipper

[retiredfarmer]

I have had a couple of these over the years. Bought them on Craigslist and then sold them later as they are a bit of a boat anchor when you are not using them. They take up a lot of room and are awkward to move when not on the 3 point hitch.

I finally got around to cleaning up the dead ash trees on the property. Burning the left over limbs got to be cumbersome. I decided to get a PTO chipper from Circle G Tractors to hang onto and mod the parts of it I consider to be weaknesses.

It's cold now and I'm bored so I figured I would put my first mod out there and see if anyone else had any useful mods. I am especially interested in casters or a dolly so it can be moved when stored in the barn.

The first thing I attacked was the lift mechanism for the feed roller. The original lift lever only pulled up on one side of the feed roller frame, twisting the frame which I felt would not hold up over time.



I stopped at the scrap yard, and they had a bunch of 3/4 inch stainless rod. I ordered two 3/4" pillow blocks off of ebay, and some double clevis' from Menards.

Cutting the ears off of one side of the double clevis, I used one ear and the other complete end as a hinge. The rest was cutting some angle iron and test & tack with vise grips to find the angles.


I'll need to add additional pics in the next post as I am not very adept at adding attachments.

 

[retiredfarmer]

Here is the progress. I can provide measurements is anyone is interested.

 

[retiredfarmer]

This is a picture of the infeed roller that the mechanism is lifting.

This roller it turning so that the top of this toothed drum is turning toward you as you stand at the back of the chipper, and the bottom of the drum is pulling the branches under it into the bladed flywheel. It is under spring tension and has about 8 to 10 inches of vertical travel to keep pressure on the branches to draw them into the chipper.

You would lift this when a branches get stuck under the feed roller and need to be pulled back out and re-inserted.

 

[RalphVa]

The MacKissic is fairly light weight. So, a lightweight, plastic-wheeled, dolly was made for it. About ready to go sit it on it now and to mount the back blade for the coming snow. I mount everything off the 3ph on dollies or castors, except the lightweight back blade.

Ralph

 

[ericm979]

Looks like a nice mod that reduces the operator's effort when pulling the feed roller up.

My Woodmaxx 8H has reversible feed so I don't need to lift the upper roller to get material out. But I do need to lift it to get it on top of larger material, especially shorter pieces.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

A mod that I saw on here that I've always wanted to do to my chipper is to extend the lift arm so that you can lift the roller by stepping on the arm. It's a lot easier to exert downward force with your feet than your hands, and it leaves both hands free to manipulate the material being chipped.

For my chipper I built a simple dolly out of 2x4's with casters. It makes hooking it up much easier and I can push it into the corner of the shed when I'm not using it. I have to be careful though because it feels very top heavy when I push it and I would hate for my heirs to discover me squashed underneath a toppled chipper.

 

[retiredfarmer]

I contemplated building essentially the reverse of this on the bottom of the hopper to be foot operated. I opted to work on top of the chipper simply because I did not want to work upside down while fabricating it.

Now that I am thinking about it, it may have been simpler to make a foot operated bar.

 

[LD48750]

Must be nice to store stuff on a cement slab/floor.

 

[mikester]

Mine looks similar to yours. Here are my mods:

1. Added swivel to exit chute (mine was fixed in one direction)
2. Replaced belt drive mechanical in-feed gear box with bidirectional hydraulic drive motor with motor speed flow control and hydraulic splitter controls
3. Replaced in-feed drive shaft with custom HD greasable yolks drive shaft
4. Modified in-feed chute to flip up design with hinges to make unit more compact for storage
5. Modified base for forklift lift points from both sides
6. Added ball hitch draw bar so I can tow a small trailer for wood chips at the same time
7. Modified exit chute with slotted holes to allow quick removal of chute for un-plugging debris

Future mods:
A. Direct drive coupling for hydraulic motor to in-feed roller - eliminates PTO shaft and adds weight to in-feed roller
B. Modify in-feed roller for vertical motion and add HDPE slider bearings, possible hydraulic actuation for up/down to eliminate springs
C. Single point greasing of all fittings. It's difficult to get at all the grease points with the current shields in place

 

[retiredfarmer]

Mine looks similar to yours. Here are my mods:

1. Added swivel to exit chute (mine was fixed in one direction)
2. Replaced belt drive mechanical in-feed gear box with bidirectional hydraulic drive motor with motor speed flow control and hydraulic splitter controls
3. Replaced in-feed drive shaft with custom HD greasable yolks drive shaft
4. Modified in-feed chute to flip up design with hinges to make unit more compact for storage
5. Modified base for forklift lift points from both sides
6. Added ball hitch draw bar so I can tow a small trailer for wood chips at the same time
7. Modified exit chute with slotted holes to allow quick removal of chute for un-plugging debris

Future mods:
A. Direct drive coupling for hydraulic motor to in-feed roller - eliminates PTO shaft and adds weight to in-feed roller
B. Modify in-feed roller for vertical motion and add HDPE slider bearings, possible hydraulic actuation for up/down to eliminate springs
C. Single point greasing of all fittings. It's difficult to get at all the grease points with the current shields in place

I'd like to see a picture of the lift points on the base for pallet forks. I think that would be better than a dolly for me to move it around.