Chuck and duck/ old school drum chipper adjustments

Tree09

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So i played around with my chipper that i thought had a bad injector and got it running pretty good again. My question is you have a few adjustments on them, and they perform much better when adjusted right. I have a manual somewhere, no idea where. From what i can tell the feed rate is controlled by the drum to anvil adjustment, and then the blades are adjusted to 30 to 50 thousandths? What settings/ procedures do you guys use to tune them up?




My machine is clearly out of whack (and probably always was, be nice I'm part time), but i watch that video and notice that it is feeding much much slower than mine. With mine, as soon as it hits the wheel, it's in the truck. On the video it is feeding almost calmly, and handling "large diameter" stuff without spitting it back out. Supposedly a 12" chipper like mine should do 6" stuff, but mine simply spits 3" on up right back most of the time. I'm going to order new blades and an anvil, but i know there's a way to set these up where they pull the material in and take a small enough bite to not stall the motor.... With other older equipment sometimes you can set them up "out of spec" and they actually perform safer and better, and if anyone could help me it would be the guys at the treehouse! Thanks in advance.
 
Sharp blades, good anvil edges, not rounded over, with my blades adjusted to the anvil as close as possible... Mine blades are grooved, so they can only be set/ clamped at certain fixed distances, not variable. Blades assisted to the stationary, rotatable hex anvil

I rarely run mine at full throttle, only when machine feeding, and not most of the time when machine-feeding. I have to hold back the brush somewhat with the grapple, depending.

Brush will clog it easier than wood, by far, especially Birch, if not run fast enough.

Eats like crazy!
 
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True to form, the boss (wife) remembered where the manual was 5 minutes after posting :lol: i know the anvil is dished pretty bad, so I'm gonna start there. It's also not adjustable, but you can always add shims i guess. It calls for 30 thousandths, so that will be step 2. The blades are actually pretty sharp, I've honed them slightly, but everything will be replaced with new. It also needs a new chip deflector or something bar, which is at the top of the chute and i think aids in the vacuum. Once i get it to stock we'll see how it does, i might experiment withshimming the anvil to slow the feed after that. Machine feeding would be a dream, right now there's no way....

Sean, is there any tricks to machine feeding these?
 
Tricks to everything!

Your local wood is way different. I've never used a c-n-d in IL.

What are you chipping?
 
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Hardwoods :lol: i would love to chip 5" on down, everything from dead ash to soft maple. I was planning on a huge trailer and loader and getting away from chipping, but that's not in the cards atm. I get very few conifers, and a cnd chips those beautifully. I'm still going to be hand loading mostly, arbor trolley pile style. The machine is a chipmore 12", no extra flywheel or blower, so it will be limited to smallish pieces no matter what, such is fine atm.

I also have an olthe 10" hydraulic feed disk. It came off a tub grinder, which my buddy uses. It needs a trailer, engine, and clutch, but i suddenly maybe have time to work on stuff :/: I'm not sure if it would be a huge bump in efficiency tho, it kinda has a narrow chute, and is only 10".
 
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I don't understand how you do that with a hand fed c&d.....as I recall, throwing too much or too long of a piece in would bog the drum down and clog the chute.


I have seen a couple of 9 inch wide drums, but most are 12-16 inch. Most old style hand feds don't like anything over 6 inches.

A little 9 incher would need a big flywheel to provide weight for momentum. That looks like a fairly small flywheel. Easy to tell, just measure the drum width.

How large of a chip does it produce? You can slow down the chip rate a little by offsetting the knives less. You then have to raise the cutter bar, and if possible, the feed table as well to compensate, so that the cutter bar is only a bit above the feed table so that the wood is fed smoothly into the knives. The less the knives protrude from the drum surface, the smaller the chip, and the slower the feed rate.
I've never run your machine...Wayne, Woodchuck, Fitchburg, yes....and Mitts and Merrill, arguably the best hand fed made, and still on the market. All hand feds size is based on the drum width. My 900 pound rotor 16 inch M&M would take 8 inch wood, with sharp knives. But its feed rate is slow, mainly due to the position of the cutter bar, and it makes a very fine chip. All other hand feds have their cutter bar near the bottom of the drum's arc, so the material is literally sucked through the chipper, and is why they are called "whipper chippers", "chuck and duck", and the like. Hated them! And they make a lousy chip, typically. But if the gap between the feed plate (not the cutter bar) and the drum, is reduced (by offsetting the knives less and moving the feed table) the feed rate and chip size are reduced somewhat. Key, the feed table must be adjustable. The old Fitchburg had a spring loaded feed table which kind of controlled the feed rate. Had to have sharp knives or the material had to be forced through.

Contact Asplundh for a manual for your chipper.



And boom, new search feature works great!!!!
 
... The blades are actually pretty sharp, I've honed them slightly,

Just a head's up, Kyle. The feed problems you described are classic blade/anvil problems. The angle of the bevel, at the edge of the blade, controls feed rate. Chuck n ducks are real fussy about that. So even if they feel sharp, there is a good chance the blades need to be reground to correct that.

Also, as you found, 12" and 10" are just opening designations when discussing chuck n ducks, not capacity ratings. They work best with small stuff that is not super long.
 
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They do work best for small stuff. Our maple is soft. Maybe like your soft maple. Ash should go well.

I will put long maple leaders in, 30-40'.
Joe was having a hard time getting 6"x30' doug-fir dense limbs to feed, until he turned it up from about 5 out of 10, to about 8-10/ 10, the they went right through.


I call it a "Chuck and Duck, not a stand there and get beaten by stuff going into chipper because you're checking if it is still going to eat the stuff you gave the eating machine that's been eating for years", but more simply "Chuck and Duck" or "Throw and go".
Why people want to hand brush to it, after that long explanation, IDK.


Blade and anvil make all the difference.

Post a video or pics.

Those touch up tool for the blades, like are sold for cheap fillet knives will help, but definitely no substitute for professional grinding. At your pace, getting months and months, especially owner-fed, should be possible. I can't remember the last time I changed blades. Anything raked doesn't go into the chipper. Anything raked, and the big stuff getting pulled out by hand and fed, is different.
 
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I definitely toss and turn, rarely get slapped. I'm getting new blades and an anvil, but it will take a week or two. I picked it up at an auction for 1100, and it's already paid for itself a few times over. It had an extra spring on the fuel shutoff solenoid, removed that and it ran just fine, then ran rough like an injector was going out. Pulled them and cleaned off the carbon, runs like a top again. Vm motori air cooled diesel, pretty cool. Fixed some other bugs, and now going to fix the knives. For brush, it's hard to imagine anything faster that you hand feed. I just want it to feed a bit slower and to eat it's capacity, aka 6" on down.
 
The bigger you feed it, the slower it eats. Smaller limbs disappear like Houdini.

No matter what kind of chipper, I wear a face-shield/ visor and earmuffs/ ear plugs, most of the time.

The biggest concern to me is that it can pop chunks out when just chunks are fed in. About 10 years ago, a new guy didn't want to listen about the big steel shields on the sides that don't GAS about getting hit. He was tall, threw a chunk from the front, without brush, and it bounced back, hitting him square in the nuts. If I'm putting anything in from the front, I keep the most sensitive parts below the feed tray (big steel shield).

The only plastic parts on my chipper are on the throttle and covering the gauges. I park it as close as I can to the tree. I dont GAS if I slap it time to time. It doesn't GAS. I put a small piece of plywood over the throttle and gauges. No doing that with at least most moderate-sized, modern chippers, between hydraulic lines, plastic parts, sensors, controls, and lighter-duty feed-trays.


As with other machines, if the machine will have trouble bending a crotch, just nip the correct side of the crotch so that it will stay attached, and fold.

Lower feed-tray height makes it easier to feed by hand or machine. I have to disconnect from my truck for that. Otherwise, it's a bit more lifting, especially on my pick-up.
 
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Just flipped the anvil, it was pretty worn. I also have about 3 to 4 times the recommended gap, which isn't helping anything. Will be addressing that next. Thanks everyone.

Sean i do the same with nicking the branch so it folds, going so far as wearing my handsaw on my leg when chipping. This little crappy chipper really does good, making brush disappear like no other. I just don't want to fight it as much, so getting these blades right will make a world of difference. Thanks man.
 
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But they kinda are cool too. Not too many chippers you can buy for around a grand, and then make money if you ever sell it. Utility companies still buy them new, cheap to own and run. It has allowed me to make money doing trees part time, i just need to get it dialed in. They turn brush into chips, not more you can ask a hand fed chipper to do.
 
I don't like dragging brush to a heavy chipper that has to stay at the road, and chips that have to be hauled.
Market-dependent.
Hilly here. Lighter, but still pack a punch.

When you have sharp knifes and proper condition of anvil, it will eat!

I can feed in short sleeves, and sometimes train guys with me in short sleeves. Normally, I wear long sleeves year round. I can feed it better with long sleeves, truthfully.



I imagine live oak might laugh at a Chuck and Duck.
 
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But they never seemed to stay sharp for very long, IME. Cool some of ya'll like them, but I'll always vote against them. A bigger chipper with a winch reduces a LOT of that dragging!
Couldn't agree more about the winch.
I had a Chuck and duck for a few years and never found it "pleasant" to run, but with the right brush staged up nice you could really fly through some work.
Now I've got the bandit 200 with the winch. So nice to roll one truck and have the ability to move materials too. Makes solo work way easier as well.

Good luck with the c&d, when they're sharp and setup right they're really fast. Not much for maintenance either.
 
I never used one... pampered I guess...

But I do recognize their place in the world...
They scream Sketch Ball All Day though. 8)
 
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