Wood max 8m infeed problem

[jjeff]

Hi I have a wood max chipper it's been giving me some minor problems with the infeed roller. Basically bark and small branches wrap around the infeed shaft pushing the bearings out of place. I clean them daily which is a pia. but today the debris was so tightly wound it pushed the bearing off the shaft after 4 hrs of chipping. Seeing if anyone who owns one has came up with a solution or has had similar problems? I'm mostly chipping small birch and popple. Insight is appreciated.
Thanks J

 

[JJT]

Can you let the material dry out before you chip it? I get minor wrapping of small green stuff, but if I pile up my material to be chipped and wait a few weeks, no issues.

 

[ericm979]

I've got close to 80 hours on my 8H, mostly chipping brush. I've not seen more than a small amount of stuff wrapping around the feed roller axle and it's soon gone on it's own. I'm not sure what the fix is.

 

[jjeff]

Yes very good to hear about no problems except for maybe operators techniques and good point, I will wait for it to dry for awhile see how it does then unfortunately when I plan to do something I like to get it done immediately but will wait I'm thinking if it ever rains it will clean some of the dirt off so I'm not beating it against the chipper before I feed. I also am needing to flip the blades they are getting dull thought that may have been part of the issue probably has close to 300 + hrs since 2019.
Thanks for the insight.

 

[ericm979]

I rotate the blades after 20 hours. 300 seems like a long time even taking into account the different material. I wonder if that's the cause of your problem?

Also, while changing blades don't accidentally drop a blade mounting bolt or nut into the housing. It's tough to get out.

 

[grsthegreat]

I get way more than 20 hours on a side, but no where’s near 300 hours. I would rotate the, more often, but it’s an 1.5 hr round trip to get blades to company to sharpen them. I take 4 seats at a time. I wish I could bet my own sharpener, but have had no luck finding info on good system. I have no intention of hand grinding them with my hand grinder.

 

[ericm979]

I probably rotate them earlier than most people would. I think the brush and hardwood I chip is harder on the knives than softwood. Also I wanted to do it when they are not very dull so there's not a lot of material to take off to sharpen them. I sharpened a set sort of following this:

except I put markout dye on the ground side so I could see that I'd hit all of it. I have a couple hours left on my last side, then I'll try them out. My thought is to get the knives through one or two home sharpenings then send them out to a professional.

There's a makita sharpener that's supposedly good for these but it's $450

 

[5030]

I grind chipper knives for commercial tree companies like Davey Tree. Same as your knives, only bigger. It's imperative to hold the cutting angle constant and not burn the edge because you take the temper out of them.

Most knives are set between 27 and 29 degrees.

I grind them on a jig on my surface grinder with plenty of flood coolant. The anvil needs ground as well, not just the knives. The anvil must be ground at exactly 90 degrees and parallel.

 

[5030]

I probably rotate them earlier than most people would. I think the brush and hardwood I chip is harder on the knives than softwood. Also I wanted to do it when they are not very dull so there's not a lot of material to take off to sharpen them. I sharpened a set sort of following this:

except I put markout dye on the ground side so I could see that I'd hit all of it. I have a couple hours left on my last side, then I'll try them out. My thought is to get the knives through one or two home sharpenings then send them out to a professional.

There's a makita sharpener that's supposedly good for these but it's $450

No way can he hold the correct included angle when doing them like he does. It the included angle is too great or too less, the chipper won't chip correctly.

 

[grsthegreat]

The local sharpening company has computerized sharpener, $20 per blade. Does great job and cheaper than new blades.

i looked into wet grinders like they use for chisels, but they can’t handle the large blades. I even contacted a few manufacturers and they told me don’t try to sharpen chipper knives.