Treeaddict
Treehouser
We’ve recently been putting out large tarps to catch most of the chips created during limbing and bucking. Seems to help. All the little twig debris can go on the tarp as well. How do you deal with the sawdust?
Site cleanup
- Thread starter Treeaddict
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That’s a very tough question! It seems to me that about 90% of our jobs there is some naturalized area where we can just sort of use the blower and rakes and make it disappear. Sometimes we use a storm drain. But I will disavow any knowledge of that lol. The jobs where we have to clean every single bit are a total hassle. I even bought a street vacuum machine to clean these precious lawns. But that’s really never worked all that well. So not really answering your question, sometimes I just have to take it on the chin and clean as best as we can.
SkwerI
Treehouser
Normal raking then touch up with the blower where needed. It's a lawn, it's not your living room carpet. Everything is biodegradable.
Never understood people who would insist there be NO sawdust or small chips left after a job. We do a pretty good cleanup, make a point of it but not to that level.
Putting a tarp down under the feed tray of the chipper, that helps a lot with cleanup.
Putting a tarp down under the feed tray of the chipper, that helps a lot with cleanup.
flushcut
TreeHouser
I have used tarps to catch saw chips on the golf courses. But I don’t think I have ever done that in a residential yard.
Treeaddict
Treehouser
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #8
See, I do everything old school. Firewood lengths and load on pickup truck. This creates lots of saw chips. Hard to rake. Avg trunk dia 24”. Limbs cut down small as well. The blower helps with what we didn’t catch or couldn’t rake. Make sense there’s little bucking on your jobs because of the iron.
Marc-Antoine
TreeHouser
I appreciate the benefit of the occasional tarp, like on a gravel driveway, but I really dislike using one because it's a big trip hasard.
we call that a diaper lol
It helps to catch all those little twigs that fall out or get broken off when feeding the chipper.
Nutball
TreeHouser
I just blow around any leftover clumps of sawdust until evenly distributed in the yard and not very noticeable.
I tried my SH55 for those little bucking sawdust piles and it sucked - well it didn't. Half assed result with large amount of tedious. Saved me from BR600 across the lawn.
So here's a borrowed idea. I've seen lawn mowers be Hoover hurricanes with respect to what's in the grass. Don't have to use yard bags but go Tim the Toolman Taylor hp on this, regarding the lawnmower as disposable:
So here's a borrowed idea. I've seen lawn mowers be Hoover hurricanes with respect to what's in the grass. Don't have to use yard bags but go Tim the Toolman Taylor hp on this, regarding the lawnmower as disposable:
If you modify the blades that might work pretty good, i think most trim mowers these days use mulching blades with minimal lift so i don't think it would get the sawdust with a standard mower. If you had vertical blades you would basically have a centrifugal fan, which would work the best and provide a pretty decent vacuum for a non positive displacement type of blower. Lowering the deck as low as possible would help too, or maybe even some skirting to increase the suction. A roots blower would be another step up in efficiency and effectiveness which is why they use them for suck trucks, but that's completely impractical for cleanup stuff. So yeah that's likely the best you can realistically do, good idea man.
It occurred to me because some mowers strip the terrain of every twig and small stone and left in place start to pull up the dirt!!!
I think its more than just vacuum, I think there's blasting, tussling scrubbing action near the blades.
I think its more than just vacuum, I think there's blasting, tussling scrubbing action near the blades.
flushcut
TreeHouser
Now you are going to scalp the lawn. Lol
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Why not just use/buy a mower with a catcher bag? Mine came with one. I never use it for general mowing but I have used it to mow and suck up clover that was ready to go to seed. Might work for loose sawdust, but yeah you'd have to set it pretty low so...
People over here seem to be mental about catching their clippings.
People over here seem to be mental about catching their clippings.
SeanKroll
Treehouser
Yay, Nutrient stripping!
Maybe I'll try a plain old bagger if I can find one with high lift. Pretty sure you don't have to scalp to make a bagger work. I'd say time over target is probably the key, maybe a bit of movement too, just like with a BR600. Given chainsaw dust is so dense maybe a normal factory bag would be just right in terms of lifting it to dump it. I still have reservations about having to stand idly by and let the machine do the clean up work. Sounds too hard for the old body.
In my neck of the woods it's no-go on getting the city to pick up lawn clippings. The decree is thou shalt mulch. I've never bagged grass clippings anywhere I've lived.
In my neck of the woods it's no-go on getting the city to pick up lawn clippings. The decree is thou shalt mulch. I've never bagged grass clippings anywhere I've lived.
People here have grass clippings mountains in unused places in their gardens...I just don't get it.
When I did landscaping, if the mower left a windrow we scattered t with a blower. After a couple hrs in the sun and it's almost invisible.
When I did landscaping, if the mower left a windrow we scattered t with a blower. After a couple hrs in the sun and it's almost invisible.
flushcut
TreeHouser
Remove the plastic rubber discharge chute/flap thing, it blows the grass out better and doesn’t windrow the clippings.
Kyle was barking up the right tree with the blade issues. I began climbing with a landscape company that my old boss showed interest in climbing trees. Became my passion and that’s where I went. We never had a wood chipper or any machinery but we always had bad ass mowers with us. The mower needs to be a large enough deck you can buy high lift blades and even then every deck is different. The turbo force deck on the toro grandstands are the best in the market but even a 36in stander is over 7k. Expensive for a clean up tool. A better option are the billygoat vacuums. They can suck anything up even a soda can and glass and send it in a bag located on it. Cheap ones are 1k, really nice ones are 2k but they are a dream for clean up. We have a nice one and if I had the truck space it would be at every job with me
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