Chipper question...

[sawinredneck]

My, biased, take on it, after spending time with equipment of this nature.
A hydraulic filter catches crap as it returns to the tank, ANYTHING after the failure is now suspect. I’ve seen an entire Bobcat, flushed and replumbed after a failure, just to come back again because the mechanic missed something stupid.
Sure, you can run a bearing to the point of failure, but at what additional costs? Is it going to kill a jackshaft? A bearing housing?
Sometimes preventative maintenance goes a long way, $200 or so in bearings vs. down a week for other parts often pays off divedends. Hydraulic motors are stupid simple, but you pay for someone smart enough to know them, it sucks, $30 worth of parts costs $300.
But my fear, today it’s hot, next week it’s throwing sparks and could catch fire before it locks up.
Again, my biased opinion.

 

[squisher]

You biased mofo!

 

[Bermy]

Fantastic, all really good information thanks everyone.
I will make a list of the suggestions and tick them off bit by bit to at least eliminate anything obvious.

We had a good sized job yesterday, chipping eucalypt...(which by the way goes through the chipper waaaayyyyy better feeding it leaves first, not butt first)...yes the feed roller hydro motor was hot, but so was the main bearing motor...and the oil tank was HOT.
What gives us pause that it might not be anything drastic is that there is no evidence of any major leak, Bob said that he would be concerned that overly hot oil would start to affect the seals, the only hose connections that show any oil residue are the feed wheel hoses, down below where they disappear into the chassis. I have put a white rag underneath overnight from time to time to see if anything drips, and nothing.

But, best to do some diagnosis/maintenance, you've given me several things to check, thanks

As for noise...the manufacturer said to just shut it off at about 2000rpm....its a direct drive so when you do that it goes 'wah wah wah wah waaaaaahhhhhh....ahhhhh, ahh, ahh wooo, woooooooooooo, rmmmmmmm, mmmmm, mmm mm m. you know what I mean

 

[Mick!]

The only thing here that intrigues me is the comment about the euc going through.

What do you mean by that?

 

[biggun]

I would hazard a guess Mick, the chipper is early 2000, so quite old.

Sometimes the wood goes in and chips and thrown and then the leaves go in and for one reason or other don't clear the chute. Eventually blocking the chute and downtime.

I imagine it would be similar to chipping wet Leylandii with an older machine. The green goes in first, gets chipped and then hangs around like a bad smell. The stems etc, then get chipped and the added weight of the chip helps to blow the chute clear.

 

[Mick!]

Ok,

How’s the Forst going?

 

[biggun]

Not used it for a while. I had it serviced before chrimbo and then put it in storage. Then I buggered my shoulder 22nd January.

I haven’t worked since as I am on the sick at the moment. I guess we will find out how it is when I get back to work.

 

[Mick!]

Ouch, I must have missed that, what happened to the shoulder?

 

[biggun]

I dislocated it in January. Legs went from under me and must have landed straight armed or something. Can’t quite remember. Had to go to AandE to get it relocated.

Just been doing physio and rehab exercises since then.

 

[Mick!]

Doing what?

 

[biggun]

Slipped in the snow going to my truck. Loads of fresh snow on top of ice.

 

[Mick!]

Oh, how bloody annoying.

 

[treebilly]

Fiona hydraulics get hot. A lot of chippers don’t run a hydraulic cooler. One reason the tank holds so much fluid is to allow some cooling time. It wouldn’t be to terribly hard to install a cooler. It’s just a small radiator with an electric fan on most. Some have them running next to the engine radiator so the engine fan cools it.

Edit. A lot have them. Most are set up so the engine can cools it, but they still get hot enough to make you not want to touch. Follow your main lines to see if there is a cooler and clean it out

 

[Bermy]

Thanks...chipper maintenance tomorrow.

Mick, for some reason feeding leafy tops of eucalypt through the chipper the 'normal' way, butt first almost always ends up with a badly clogged space between the feed roller and the anvil masses of leaves stuffed in the gap, and small stringy wet stems going round and round the roller . Feeding them leaves first one at a time...the ever thickening twigs and then branches clears the leaves through the gap and all is well...it works. Trial and error.

PS I bought the chipper with 1108 hrs on it, its now...1226.

 

[Mick!]

I’d check the state of the anvil first. That doesn’t seem right.

 

[Bermy]

The anvil itself is fine, the gap is about 2-3 mm. The one wierd thing about the gap is whenI rotate the flywheel to measure each knife gap to set the anvil, one has a slightly wider gap than the other, so I have to set it to the knife that comes closest.
It's never liked chipping euc...we even hand sharpened the knives twice that day, the edges have small dings but nothing hugely significant.

It doesn't happen with any other trees

 

[Mick!]

“Hand sharpened” that doesn’t sound right.

Not picking fault, just thinking you may be missing something obvious.

 

[Bermy]

Yeah that's fine, always lots to learn
Hand sharpened means touching up the edge with a flat file to get rid of small burrs, and put that nice final sharpness back not quite shop sharp but close especially when it has a few dings in it.

 

[SeanKroll]

I certainly touch up my blades.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

2-3 mm sounds a bit open. My anvil is set to .035- . 040 inch which is just over 1mm

 

[Steve Mack]

Mine is about the same as that, not quite the thickness of our 10c coin.

 

[stig]

Mick, do they have the hanging birch down your way Betula pendula?

All my chippers have had issues with that one, turning it into something that looks like green baby food.

Feeding every other branch or so tips first takes care of that.

Bet it is the same with Bermy's Eucs.

 

[SeanKroll]

Birch is known to give me problems, if the engine isn't turned up to the right setting (mine chips at variable speed, from 1-10, so to speak, unlike hydro chippers). The little bits build up too much.

If someone doesn't speed up the engine and puts in too big of a brush piece, my discharge chute clogs, as its tangly, and my blower fan speed is proportional to engine speed.

Not much else, in my market, wants to clog up the works as badly. Rare occasion, operator error.

Running at variable speeds saves lots of gas and engine wear.




Maybe the stringy nature of birch fiber is part of the equation. I have very too little experience with eucs to weign in.

 

[Mick!]

Mick, do they have the hanging birch down your way Betula pendula?

All my chippers have had issues with that one, turning it into something that looks like green baby food.

Feeding every other branch or so tips first takes care of that.

Sometimes, I just reverse the rollers a couple of turns, then forward. Sorts it out.

Never has an issue with Euc, chippers love it.

 

[Bermy]

Mm, my gap looks a wee bit wide now tbh, just flipped the knives, I could snug up the anvil a scootch.
HA! I'm not the only one who sometimes has to feed a tree backwards...yesss!