Skwerl's new chipper and chip truck

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  • #176
I had one and a half cutoff wheels for my 4.5" grinder. After I used those up I had to finish it off with my sawzall and a couple bi-metal blades. Once I hacked it off I buffed it with a 60 grit flap wheel on the 4.5" grinder.

I don't think the battery is going to take a charge. Had the charger on for a couple hours and it still won't start. We started it earlier with jumper cables so I know it runs, just need more juice.

Just discovered it has 3/4 full tank of diesel. Must be 15-20 gallons. I'll be changing all the fuel filters ASAP.
 
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  • #182
Spent a few hours working on the chipper today. Discovered a few items to fix and/or monitor but overall it's not bad. The most urgent item so far is the belt (belts). Seems it takes 4 belts on the pulleys between the engine and drum but I guess the last owner was too cheap to replace them because there are only 2. It's one of those combined belts with 4 belts together, not cut apart. The current one is shredded on one side where one or two came off. Searching on Google I can't find anything except replacement knives and those are rare. Anybody have any leads on finding a source for parts for this thing?

I replaced the radiator cap and added a gallon of water. Will monitor for leaks before flushing and adding antifreeze. Cleaned the air filter and ordered replacements. Old one was packed half full with sawdust. Drained about 8 ounces of water out of the fuel water separator and ordered new fuel filters. Topped off hydraulic fluid. Still need to determine wheel bearing sizes and order replacements. Got everything greased yesterday and today the drum spins for over 3 minutes after disengaging the clutch at idle.
 
Most bearing or power transmission supply houses should get belts. Up here it just takes a while. I'm after 2 angle v belts for my chipper, takes a week for delivery.
 
Brian, if you can't find a single 4 belt it might be worth trying two twin belts.
 
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  • #186
Thanks! The outer band on the belt shredded today and the two single belts were slipping badly. I just got off the phone with vbelt supply and they are shipping my belt out tomorrow. Much appreciated!
 
Can't wait till you take her to work, I was in heaven when I first got mine!

Bottom line is big chipper performance with small chipper weight
 
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  • #188
Worked it today, almost 2 truck loads. Knives were dull, belts were slipping and it still was twice as fast as the little Brush Bandit 90. I just flipped the knives and ordered the belt. Gonna nurse it through the end of the week when the new belt gets here.
 
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  • #191
Sean, I'm familiar with those and even bought one 20 years ago back when they were sold for sharpening pocket knives, not chipper knives. The seller also encouraged me to get one and this set of knives has been 'touched up' far too many times already. They feel sharp but the logs won't even hardly feed. We both got covered with dust today as well. I'm glad this set of knives still had one virgin side left.
 
I keep looking for a knife dresser that is set up properly to work for chipper knives. About 30 degrees on one side only so not putting a back bevel on the flat side of the knives - and offset to the right side of tool so I can get in close on my Bandit blades.
 
You are supposed to take a file and put that back angle on new blades anyways, supposed to hold the edge way longer. Doubt the sharpener does any worse. 2 slipping belts sucks, guess worse you can do is mess them up
 
I touch up my blades with a flat file...getting rid of even a tiny burr seems to make a difference.
 
I never sharpen it more than the little chipped out worn sports, not even close to needing extra grinding.

Might be having to do with disk versus drum???
 
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  • #197
... or just hold the sharpening tool at an angle. No need to over complicate things.

Today I got my new belt. Thanks to the CS rep who helped me at vbelt supply it was a perfect fit. I did run into a couple issues replacing it though. One of the two tensioners that pulls the engine forward broke off at the weld. Then I noticed that you really don't need the one on the far side because as the belt gets tight it wants to turn the engine sideways, so you need to lock down the far side and then draw the near side tight to get the pulley square with the belt. I got it on but didn't get the cover on yet. Got dark and the mosquitoes came out in force so I had to quit.

This weekend I need to find one of my buddies that has a welder to fix the tensioner bolt and also weld a tab back on one of the covers.

Also tomorrow I'm getting a 3/16" compression fitting for the return fuel line. There is a steel line coming off the end of the head to run excess fuel back to the tank. It transitions to a rubber fuel line but there's no fitting, just the fuel line slipped over the steel line and clamped. It leaks like a sieve and drips all over my new battery (and the ground). Hopefully by tomorrow I will have the necessary fittings to fix that leak.

The feed roller is pretty beat up and there's a 2" gap between it and the intake floor so small stuff doesn't feed unless you have a handful or more. But I may just live with that since it is a 23 year old, $10K chipper. I feel this chipper will make me enough in the next year to easily upgrade to something much nicer and newer. I'm really impressed with the drum style chipper after running disc chippers for so many years. It handles really big stuff for as small and light as it is.
 
You are going to have to pay 3x more to get a better chipping chipper than that. They rock.

Been a while since I ran them but is your feed wheel frame cleaned out? Only time I can remember the feed wheel not coming all the way down was when there was twigs and shit packed in the pinch point. How are your springs? I will try to find pictures of my spring fix for that chipper.
 
Paul I dress the back side of my new chipper knives with a flat file as per your thought and Bandit recommendation. It does seem to help. But a knife dressing tool bevels an edge on the back side way, way more than that over time. (I get about 100 hours out of a sharpening and dress them 20 or 25 strokes every 8 hrs.)

I agree that taking one of the carbide chips out will allow you to only dress the front side of the blade but, I have not made up a replacement chip yet of soft metal.

Turning the dressing tool at an angle has been what I use a lot. It doesn't drag the knife just right though because of how tight that area is on my chippers.
 
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  • #200
Paul, the feed wheel sits all the way down in the frame, not blocked by debris. The springs look like old worn out garage door springs. They have broken a couple times and then bent to fit again. I had one end snap off on me already this week.
 
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