Woodland Mills WC68 Chipper Clogging on Pine Branches

[AndrewFromIdaho]

I just got my WC68 last week, and got it put together Monday.

For my first batch, I ran a bunch of deciduous limbs through it that I had cut a few weeks ago. It was spectacular.

Then, this morning, I limbed several pine trees (mostly long-needled Ponderosa) and tried to run them through. The chipper clogged immediately.

I cleared it and retried several times, slowing down the infeed and feeding one branch at a time, but every time it would clog almost immediately.

When I contacted Woodland Mills, their suggestion was "make sure you're feeding through more wood than pine needles", which would essentially mean trimming the needles off the branches I need to chip. Which, seems like a hassle.

Anyone else have any tips for getting pine branches through a chipper without clogging? I saw a suggestion to run at a higher RPM (which I'll try). I was also thinking that dried needles would be less likely to cause an issue than wet, so if I can't figure anything else out, I'll likely do a big pile of branches now, let them dry for a few months, and try again.

 

[JJT]

Run the chipper at PTO speed. I try to run some hardwood branches mixed with my pine, no issues here with jamming. A steady diet of green pine branches gums things up with pine pitch. The hardwood mix seems to keep things clean. I have 100+ hours on my chipper with zero clogs.

 

[Captain Dirty]

If you have time and space, stack the pine and let it dry for some months. If you don't, you can try a various mixes of pine and deciduous. If you are chipping pine trees, you may also have some dead, dry, lower branches. The object is to get enough "unpitched" wood to burnish the pitch from the moving parts.

 

[3Ts]

I've had trouble with chipping green pines. It runs fine until it gets to be more than about 50% green needles. I try to run a mix of dry, green, pine, and other woods. Vines don't chip very well at any time. I'm going to be chipping just pines in the near future and plan to cut the top off and pile them up for burning or chipping after they dry and chip the rest of the tree. A little more work but I get most of it done instead of dragging it out over many months.

 

[newbury]

Stacking the branches and letting them dry out should work, then add about a cup of diesel and a match.

 

[ning]

Stacking the branches and letting them dry out should work, then add about a cup of diesel and a match.

dry pine can be lit with a match... but i usually use my 400k btu weed torch to get instant bonfire

 

[amarsh64]

I found the biggest thing was to make sure your branches are dry . Green spruce and fir branches on a wet day will clog for sure. That being said I still try to alternate the spruce with the hardwood even on dry days. BTW I have a woodland mills wc68 chipper.

 

[ericm979]

Run the chipper at PTO speed.

This.

The chipper flywheel is also the fan that blows chips out the chute. Run it slow and it won't be blowing as hard. It need to be run at the rated speed.

I always run my Woodmaxx 8H at speed and the only time it's clogged was when the blades were dull and I was chipping bay, which is incredibly stringy. It does fine even with very leafy brush with very little woody material.

 

[oosik]

I thin my pine stands almost every spring. 800 to 1200 small( 1" to 6" on the butt) pines. I feed them into my chipper - butt first. No limbs are ever trimmed off the trunk.

My first chipper - Wallenstein BX42S had trouble with the pitch from the needles/ green pines causing the discharge chute to plug. Solution - thin and pile the small pines. Let them dry for a year - then chip. Since I do this project almost every spring - this presented no problem. Letting them dry for a year was a 100% solution.

Then I got a larger tractor - Kubota M6040. I upgraded to a Wallenstein BX62S. I've never had a moments problem with the freshly cut green pines and the larger chipper.

My thoughts - larger discharge chute, more tractor Hp, higher air flow.

 

[mikester]

You have to stop-n-go the feeder while watching the quality and volume of chips coming out the chute. When it bogs, stop feeding until it clears.

Willow and dogwood can be problems too. Cedar doesn't like to chip when your knives are dull.