Bed knife gap question

[emr]

Our Vermeer 1250 has always sent fairly large pieces of brush through without chipping it. It is always thin stuff like pencil diameter or less but they can be 2ft long or longer. I have the. Gap on the bed knife set to the specs in the owners manual but it seems to be larger than any other chipper I have used. I am not sure but I think the manual says something like .10". Our other chipper (a chuck and duck) is way less and the other 6"& 9" disk chipper have had much smaller gaps than our 1250. Is there any harm to setting the gap smaller? Will doing that produce better chips with less stringy stuff passing through unchipped? Does anyone with a 1250 know what they set their gap at?

 

[brendonv]

Although not a Vermeer, I set mine as tight as I can without the knives hitting. Nice tiny chips.

 

[SkwerI]

Have you dressed the bed knife recently? They tend to wear a bit and it's like having one side of a pair of scissors very dull. How exactly do you measure the gap? I've never been able to get anything in there to measure it anyway, always had to eyeball it like Brendon.

 

[emr]

I have a feeler gauge that I am able to insert on the side and then I can spin the disk and eye it from above. I must look like a monkey humping a bowling ball but I can do it by myself. It's much easier with someone else.

I have not dressed it, but I flipped it not too long ago so the cutting edge is alright I think.

 

[sotc]

.10 is a big gap, if that is the spec you will never chip long sucker stuff any better. My morbark is .040

 

[emr]

I thought all the other chippers that I used were even less than that. I agree that it seems big but that's what the manual says?????

is your Morbark a disk?

 

[sotc]

Drum. Model 13

 

[Burnham]

Typo in the manual, mayhaps? Check another source for the spec.

 

[emr]

I thought that as well. It's hard to find that info online.

 

[Tucker943]

Something is off. My 1250 needs the bed knife dressed and has never thrown 2' long material even with dull knives. Not even birch comes out that long.

 

[JoshINtrees]

.10 is a big gap, if that is the spec you will never chip long sucker stuff any better. My morbark is .040

I set my 1250 at .015" and it chips corn stalks no problem.

 

[emr]

Wow, that's good to know. How did you come up with that number?

 

[JoshINtrees]

I just kept narrowing it a little at a time until I thought it was producing the kind of chips it should without making any bad noises.

 

[Al Smith]

They have a tendency to get dished out in the middle .It's generally around 35-40 thou on most .

 

[SouthSoundTree]

i have wondered the same about my '75 Wayne/FMC c.n.d.
my blades have grooves to set into grooves in clamps. "indexed" you might say.

as close as possibe 4 me.