Chuck and duck/ old school drum chipper adjustments

[Marc-Antoine]

Take care to not make an edge in the chute, or it can clog almost instantaneously when a chunck/twig jams on it.
Verify the play in the bearings to be sure the gap stays in the specs during use.

 

[SeanKroll]

16" for a deal-price, well-maintained, sounds easy to flip for a profit, if you find you prefer your 12" diesel.

 

[Tree09]

That's what I'm thinking. Or a backup, or for another crew in the future


Very good call there @Marc-Antoine, i didn't think about that.

 

[Tree09]

Alright, blades came, got new bolts, slowly getting it back together. Decided to stick with the existing anvil for the moment, and cut some shims for it. Nothing crazy, just about an eighth of an inch, which puts me right over a quarter for the gap between drum and the anvil. Since you have to slide the anvil in, lift up over a few stops, and then put it in its pocket, I came up with the idea to just epoxy the shims to the anvil, so i wouldn't mess up the heat treat, and if it doesn't work out i should be able to chisel them off easy enough. Got the anvil installed, go to do the blades, and since they had the adjustment set screws all the way out, even with retapping them they won't go in far enough, so I'll grab new set screws on the way home tomorrow.

Got a few pics, here's the one of the drum and knives before i pulled them, they now will be dramatically farther in.



And the wife snapped this one this weekend, a smart man would probably just pull the chute but I'm working alone and don't want to deal with it

 

[Marc-Antoine]

Got the anvil installed, go to do the blades, and since they had the adjustment set screws all the way out, even with retapping them they won't go in far enough, so I'll grab new set screws on the way home tomorrow.

Be careful. If the set screws are too short now, it's more likely that the blades themselves are too short, too much sharpenings. You can continue to push them out, but I fear that it will reduce the clamping force, or at least the surface of clamping and modify the clamping's leverage... The risk is a wobbling or even a flipping tendency during the cut, plus an overload of the tightening bolds and the load bearing surfaces.

 

[Tree09]

I'm going the other way, almost all the way in. Since they ran them out so far, it beat up the threads, and even with tapping them out I'm gonna need shorter ones to be able to recess it as far as i want

 

[cory]

Don't know how I missed this very cool thread.

Carry on

 

[Tree09]

Well, this chapter is about over, because i got the knives in, gapped, and torqued today. All i can say is wow, it's a whole new machine. With the raised cutter bar and properly gapped knives, it calmly sucks wood in, not bogging down the engine. I feed it some white pine (tree next to chipper and I'm removing it this year), and it delicately pulls it from your hand and just eats it. I fed whole branches that would have easily killed it before, no problem even at 3/4 throttle. It still will spit dead ash, but honestly it's a chuck and duck so they spit back dead hard stuff. Dramatically smaller chips too, which will fill the truck even better.

I still need to fab up a seal plate for the top, with 2 broken bolts in there I'm gonna just drill new holes. I also need to fab a bottom chute end, because chipmore apparently has them stock, which should clean up the errant chip issue. I also want to add a hanger for the log arch, a toolbox for all my gear, and a small davit crane for loading logs (or similar, for jobs small enough to not need a trailer), but for now, I'm gonna go work it.

Here's a pic of the recessed knives, wayyyyyyyyy less stick out.

 

[SeanKroll]

Dead stuff feeds in backward better Sometimes, especially when its just a straight stick of a branch. Live stuff carries in dead stuff. Big stuff carries in small stuff.

I got a 12" pneumatic swivel caster for my tongue. Today, Miriam and I spun the chipper 180* on hard soil, easily enough. Maybe you still won't have chip onsite jobs, though if your chute only discharges straight forward, you can put it on a swivel caster (quick bolt on/ unbolt) and roll the chipper side to side somewhat for maximum chip density, if you're looking at a full capacity load.

I have a chainsaw powerhead-powered capstan. With this hd swivel caster I will be able to put the capstan on the tongue, and pull my chipper around. Done it once before with a tongue-jack mounted wheel, which wasn't great.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

Done it once too, with a Maasdam rope puller, pulling uphill a 1.5 ton chipper on the grass. The chipper was very nose heavy and the tongue-jack mounted wheel kept sinking in the dirt, maxing out the Maasdam. I had to operate the Maasdam mounted near the coupler, while holding the heavy tongue up. What a pita. Never again.
A powered capstan would be a nice add.

 

[SeanKroll]

We easily spun the chipper and pulled it out.

In the past, I had a small (5-6" tall, 2" wide) trailer tongue-jack mounted wheel. Only good on pavement.
This 12" pneumatic wheel works great.

 

[Tree09]

I think the manually spinning is largely dependent on how the trailer is balanced. It's all i can do to lift the tongue of mine, move some weight around and it's easier.

 

[SeanKroll]

Put a log on the tray!

Yes, the balance is important, but if you're rolling it???



I could flip mine over backwards from tow-chip position if I tried, but if the tongue is on the ground, I can just lift it, with most of my effort.

A Maasdam rope puller will pull it where you point the puller.

 

[cory]

Awesome news about the highly effective adjustments

 

[T Collins]

I'm in the market for a chipper. I climbed with chuck-n-ducks under me, but never fed them when I worked line clearing. I Owned Morbark, Bandit and Vermeer. I know that this may sound funny but my Vermeer 1250xp was my favorite. It would eat a true 12" dia and auto feed to spool up. The simplicity was awesome, vert feed drums just a spring to tension the feeding wheels. It wouldn't clog on vines or anything, but that was Hawaii and this is the PNWet where what I chip is smaller and much more simple in form to chip, so how about a chuck-n-duck? I hated the weight of the 1250. Are the c-n-ds that much lighter, is a fan important? What do I need to look for? I fabricate and wrench all the time so a small project piece would be cool. Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Tree09]

If you want a hand fed chipper to eat 4 to 6 inch limbs on down as fast as you can throw them in, a cnd works pretty damn well. They are simpler machines, and that has its ups and downs, but in my very limited experience they turn brush into chips very very well. I got mine for just over a grand, and it has easily paid itself off. They are dramatically lighter, and cheap to run. I've used smaller feed wheel chippers (vermeer 9"), and they seem like they are in slow motion compared to my machine.

They don't chip logs tho, so for some that's no good because they are set up to shove everything through the chipper. I actually saw another outfit in town that was pulling a vermeer 1800 with no winch behind a dually, and thought to myself wtf is the point of that? Without a machine feeding a chipper that big you will never even come close to hitting capacity, and will simply fill the truck up with fluff rather than by weight.

Mine is a 12" chipmore, 4 cylinder diesel, no blower. Since they are becoming uncommon, and since you seem you would rather wrench a bit then buy new, i would recommend hitting some auctions or buying a used one, and go from there. You can get them cheap, run them, and if you don't like them you could easily sell it for what you have in it.

 

[T Collins]

They're selling here for 4-5 g "rebuilt". I like light and have no use chipping over 6" because of the demand for firewood here.

 

[Bermy]

Ha...must have been chipper day today.
I spent the afternoon flipping my knives and resetting the anvil...the anvil gives me fits...four clamp bolts to loosen then two horizontal bolts on a right angle plate to push it back and forth...get the gap set, then tightening the clamp bolts for some reason opens the gap....grrrr......start again! Head stuck in the throat of the machine to see the knife/anvil gap (the feed mechanism cranks up to open up the throat) then run around then other side to tweak the anvil, repeat, repeat...lashings of grease, cleaner for the knives and pockets...grubby work!

 

[T Collins]

What brand is yours, so I know what to avoid.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Easier with two doing the anvil. Usually me in the throat, Rob slowly tightening the bolts as i guage. Working out from center bolts usually does the trick, but a little at a time and check after each little tightening.
I feel the same way about my 1250 Mr Collins. Heavy beast. Nice to load small trees too with the mini though.

 

[SeanKroll]

The discharge chute makes a significant difference, IME. Wayne /FMC make the best that I've seen, as it picks up and down from the base of the chute, rotates, and telescopes. A stationary, rectangular chute is too common, maybe with a side-discharge.

My CnD, 4400 pounds, moves around off-road well with my mini- loader (2600 pounds) with the BMG hitch, and eats piles I build pretty well. Loves long maple and alder. Eats fir branches hungrily.

I've got about $5,000 into it in 13 years. Tough enough to put right at the drop zone.

I can toss small branches in at idle, and adjust the speed to the material... Gas sipper. If I position the brush ready to machine- feed, throttle up for 1 minute, throttle down, go get the next pile, rinse and repeat, I don't use much gas, with the Chrysler 318 v8.
Running strong with probably 6000+ hours. The hour meter is approaching 4000, and has been intermittently working since I bought it around 3400 hours.

 

[T Collins]

I got a lead on a Bandit 90 w/o engine for $1000 and another line on a Ford 2.5L industrial engine on skip complete muffler, intake filter, radiator, and computer for $300! I'm driving 50 miles out to go get it tonight if all goes as planned. Would I prefer a c-n-d, sure, but maybe a hydraulic feed roller with panic bar is safer for a 15yr old and 16yr old brother duo that would rather be wrestling each other than working under dad together.

 

[DMc]

... Would I prefer a c-n-d, sure, but maybe a hydraulic feed roller with panic bar is safer...

It actually is not safer. It will be really important to instill in your boys a healthy level of respect for what can go wrong, even with a small hydraulically fed chipper.
Far too many people have been lulled into complacency by the slow feed rate on hydraulically fed chippers. They just don't look that bad. Statistics say otherwise.

 

[Bermy]

What Dave said! Discipline around a chipper of any kind is vital. Essential!

 

[T Collins]

I can't agree with you guys more about the discipline factor. On Maui we had gentleman just weeks from retirement get pulled into a chipper on a land clearing job (not my company and not my crew just the same small island soooo it was still just as real). The chipper and climbing lines don't mix! That is the single greatest fear of mine when climbing. Safety and respect for life ending or altering equipment! The bit about wrestling is that they are each nationally ranked wrestlers( dad takes a not so humble brag moment).