Chipper Woodmax three point chipper

[ericm979]

I got some time on the chipper this afternoon. It pretty much lives up to my expectations. A fir limb 6" at the butt and 25 feet long went down without noticeable slowing of the engine, on the fastest feed setting. It'll take small stuff too- if you can get it to the rollers it'll go down. However won't eat absolutely everything. A few things jammed in the feed roller, for example a thick limb with a stiff stub on the side. A couple times the vibration caused the feed to shut off. I think the emergency stop bar's weight does it.

The feed on mine seems a bit slower than I thought it'd be. It's probably fine and I'm just used to chuck and duck type chippers. It's fast enough to keep up with me feeding it, unless I'm giving it large diameter long limbs that I can't double up, I'm working from a pile, and I'm moving reasonably fast. I may find a contact tach and measure the roller speed.

 

[daugen]

boy I sure would feel uncomfortable stuffing a thicker piece into mine at full input speed. That speed is pretty fast on mine cranked all the way out.
Particularly if the piece is hardwood and over four inches perhaps. I would happily trade off performance for less/no damage...

Need to make sure the adjusting nut does not come loose. If it did, the push bar, speed controller, emergency reverse might become useless and that might just be the
time you really, really need to go backwards, like when you shirttail is stuck on the branch...
Good safety check item before starting out.
once upon a time I was an insurance underwriter, trained to think of these things...
None of us want to get sucked into one of these things for sure.
Mine is actually really easy to operate and I felt very safe using it.

But you do have to cut your debris a little differently than before, a different haircut.

 

[RoyJackson]

...like when you shirttail is stuck on the branch...

You really need to dress properly when operating a chipper....that means no gauntlet glove and snug fitting clothing...in my case, at least, no suspenders.
Plus the helmet, face shield and hearing protection, of course.

 

[ericm979]

I'm not sure my full speed feed is the rated full speed. I can move the speed control lever from 10 to 5 and the roller appears to be rotating the same speed. As I move the lever to 4 the roller slows suddenly to a crawl then stops moving entirely. I ordered a cheap contact tachometer to measure before I complain to Woodmaxx. The speed control lever is really stiff and does not need the stop screw to stay in place.

I chipped some more large fir yesterday and did have to slow the feed down as it was slowing the chipper too much with my Branson's 32 pto hp. It's still acceptable; I won't be doing lots of that. I got a piece wedged in the feed opening- a stub on a 6" limb jammed in the travel slot for the feed roller. Had to jam the roller all the way open and use a sawzall on the stub from the side to get it out.

 

[daugen]

You really need to dress properly when operating a chipper....that means no gauntlet glove and snug fitting clothing...in my case, at least, no suspenders.
Plus the helmet, face shield and hearing protection, of course.

:thumbsup:

Eric, I had to fuss with mine to get it to operate smoothly, so it should not be stiff. I had a certain bolt too tight; at both sides of the bar it's just touching, not tight.

 

[ericm979]

:
Eric, I had to fuss with mine to get it to operate smoothly, so it should not be stiff. I had a certain bolt too tight; at both sides of the bar it's just touching, not tight.

The feed speed control lever I'm talking about is this one:
https://cdn3.volusion.com/cmxmw.waoqz/v/vspfiles/photos/WM-8H-13.jpg?1483705861
It doesn't look like there's something I can loosen to affect how hard it is to move the lever (besides the obvious knob) but maybe I'm wrong...

 

[vsteel]

The knob on the lever is the locking knob so you are correct that is the only one. My control is also not linear though the range, it is simply a hydraulic diverter valve. Do make sure when you first run it to run it full speed for a while so it gets all of the air bubbles out of the system. They have the procedure in your directions (just in case you didn't do it).

Mine is stiff as well but I think it is because it has not been used a ton. After the initial remove the bubbles at full speed I set it most of the time and forget it. I don't do a lot of speed adjustments when I am chipping unless I have something large and I really need to slow it down. Most of the time it just stays at the set speed and I don't touch it.

 

[ericm979]

I did do the run in procedure. On mine the roller turned almost immediately. I've got 4.8 hours on it. I hope all the bubbles are out now.
I'll eventually make an extension for the feed speed lever to make it easier to reach in the maze of hoses, and easier to operate. I like controls that work smoothly.

I got a gizmo for touching up the blades from Bailey's. Found out after that it's cheaper here: Amazon.com: AccuSharp 1 Knife Sharpener: Home Improvement

For those with one, how often are you using it? Do you unbolt the knives or are you doing it with the knives in place?

 

[oldafretired]

Finally got to start working on my huge pile of branches for about an hour today. There's still snow on part of the pile and a lot of the branches were still stuck together with snow but was able to get about 1/4 of the pile chipped. The Woodmaxx chipper worked great. No jams and it took in even gnarly bent lodgepole branches without a hitch. I thought I would have to trim them but the chipper handled them no problem.

 

[ericm979]

I measured the feed roller RPM- at max speed it's 45, which corresponds to the advertised 75 fpm.
But it's 45 rpm for all settings of the speed control from "10" to below "4". Around "3" there is very narrow range that's 17 rpm, about 28 fpm.
And below that it's 0 rpm. It's difficult to hit the 17 rpm speed.

I sent mail to amanda @ woodmaxx and it was returned saying she no longer works there. I can't find a support email address. Guess I'll have to call them Monday.