Yancheng WC-6 Wood Chipper, what to check?

[retiredfarmer]

I just bought a used Yancheng WC-6 wood chipper.

Any areas to examine on this chipper before I put it to use.

I've read most of the posts on Chinese chippers, I'm just not sure what the difference is between Yancheng (2004) and Jimna etc models.

Any pointers/tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

[RonMar]

Make sure the pillow block bearings that support the main shaft are secure and are not cracked. Check that the rotor face is square with the infeed chute. You also need to make sure the spacing between the blade and feed chute is correct(about the thickness of a nickle if I recall correctly) The shaft is held in place typically by the setscrews in the pillow block bearings Chinese screws being what they typically are, replace all these setscrews. IF the shaft starts to walk, the cast iron rotor will rapidly eat itself, starting with the blade on the feed chute and inner housing structure.

Check the feed driveshaft ujoints. The pins are sometimes peened in place and can work loose and fall out. I welded mine to keep them in place. The teeth on the feed roller typically are not very hard or sharp. I took out my feed roller and welded beads across the existing teeth and ground new longer sharper teeth. With the weld metal being very hard they hold a edge pretty well. The feed roller teeth bight really makes or breakes these chippers performance. That and a sharp properly spaced blade.

The feed roller disengage mechanism was pretty cheesy on mine, and couldn't really disengage when you need it most with the material pulling your snagged arm into the feedchute under heavy load. I designed my own that flips a spring loaded metal tab against the side of the belt forcing the belt to flip off of the drive pully and instantly stopping the feed roller...

Good luck, with sharp teeth and blades, mine eats wood like an angry beaver

 

[retiredfarmer]

Ron,
Thank you.

 

[timbatrader]

One of the things I have learnt is to not have the drive belts to tight you want them tight enough to drive but loose enough that they can slip when things jam more important for the main drive belts but can save the universals on the feed drive as well much cheaper and easier to replace a smoked up set of belts than a drive shaft

 

[retiredfarmer]

One of the things I have learnt is to not have the drive belts to tight you want them tight enough to drive but loose enough that they can slip when things jam more important for the main drive belts but can save the universals on the feed drive as well much cheaper and easier to replace a smoked up set of belts than a drive shaft

Thanks!