Wrenching on stuff, repairs, maintenance, tips and tricks

Lol why do engineers think welders need to look like they are going to an alien gangbang? Not to mention how much the cover lenses will cost being a whole face thing, and how heavy that crap has to be... smh. No effin way would you get that crap on me, engineering trying to fix problems that don't exist.
 
Still, you can't lift it easily, so you are turning a hot stuffy job into a scuba dive, which is even worse. That thing is going to be so heavy. You honestly need to hear too, and you won't be able to hear crap in that. Honestly the very heavy and super high production welding is going to robots at alarming rates anyways. Hand welding even in a production setting will likely be there for another couple decades, but mainly to tack up, or do the complicated fitting aspects that the robot costs will be too high to do for awhile yet, so a light hood or nothing at all would be what is worn for that. The auto hoods have come a long way, but honestly they can't even come close to the cobalt blue passive lenses at all for clarity. Now granted I'm biased because i have been doing it so long I'm getting into old timer mentality where anything new is crap, but man i hope the future isn't me wearing a bubble suit like a pipefitting terminator :lol:
 
That welding hood is really something. It sure would have made the years of welding boats a lot easier. I wonder how it actually holds up? The welding environment is brutal.
 
I put a pair of fresh sharpened knives on my small chipper. Problem, it can't shallow anymore the wood if the diameter is about half what it can eat usually (4"). I can help by pushing for the light wood like willow and poplar, but no way for the hard or stringy wood.
:?
Looking at it; some crud was glued on the knives after the outside bevel (intended for clearance with the wood), contrary to a dull saw chain with the crud beginning just after the worn cutting edge. And the knives were sharp. The bevel itself was very clean. My conclusion, the bevel collides and pushes away the wood instead of letting the cutting edge do its job.
I tried to grind the base of the bevel (maybe on one third) with the angle grinder to gain some clerance. A little better but still not good. The crud is now on the new bevel, the first one being still very clean. So the wood is still rejected.
After some mesurements, it turns out that the guy messed the sharpening on my knives. Nice and sharp, yes, but with a wrong angle. Actually, he set his machine at 26°, the same angle than the inside bevel ( the one breaking and pushing away the chips). The knife's bulk needs to clear the trajectory of the cutting edge (and the limb), the outside bevel should be set at 14° on this chipper !

That's a lot of hardened steel to grind away now. Seeing my first try (about 4 time more steel to grind), I am not too tempted to do it by hand.
 
It's not a procedure just a word about replacement parts .If I can't find a specific part number I go right off the numbers from the component .A recent example being a Toro zero turn mower with a bad safety relay .This is designed to stop the engine if all the conditions are not met for starting ,leaving the seat etc .About drove me nuts before I found it .Then bypassed it with a jumper wire .Went right off the parts manufacture instead of Toro for about 1/3 Toro prices got it in three days .
 
I put a pair of fresh sharpened knives on my small chipper. Problem, it can't shallow anymore the wood if the diameter is about half what it can eat usually (4"). I can help by pushing for the light wood like willow and poplar, but no way for the hard or stringy wood.
:?
Looking at it; some crud was glued on the knives after the outside bevel (intended for clearance with the wood), contrary to a dull saw chain with the crud beginning just after the worn cutting edge. And the knives were sharp. The bevel itself was very clean. My conclusion, the bevel collides and pushes away the wood instead of letting the cutting edge do its job.
I tried to grind the base of the bevel (maybe on one third) with the angle grinder to gain some clerance. A little better but still not good. The crud is now on the new bevel, the first one being still very clean. So the wood is still rejected.
After some mesurements, it turns out that the guy messed the sharpening on my knives. Nice and sharp, yes, but with a wrong angle. Actually, he set his machine at 26°, the same angle than the inside bevel ( the one breaking and pushing away the chips). The knife's bulk needs to clear the trajectory of the cutting edge (and the limb), the outside bevel should be set at 14° on this chipper !

That's a lot of hardened steel to grind away now. Seeing my first try (about 4 time more steel to grind), I am not too tempted to do it by hand.


To be honest Marc I don’t really get what you mean.
I’ve said it before, get some pictures up!
 
I feared that it wouldn't be very clear.
The pics are deceptive, so I made a drawing with the real dimensions to show it. That's just a print sceen so not top quality.
That represents the side view of one knife as it is mounted on the cylindrical rotor.

edit : bevel grounded by the sharpener.
knife.jpg
 
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All depends, some cover half the width of the drum or disc, some full width. Some two, some four locations, on the drum.

Some big chippers may have more. Dunno. Bandit makes a 21-22" capacity machine. Lots of tree services have 12-18" capacity chippers.
 
Probably to make it as generic as possible. Clearly enunciated, with an even cadence, so it can be easily understood, even by people that may not be native speakers.
 
For my chipper, there are two blades on the drum, full width ( 8"). They came from factory with two bevels. The outside bevel is smaller than the one I have drown though and apparently not supposed to be ground (looking at the drawing on the user's manual, no explicit text on this matter).
If there was only one bevel, the cutting edge's angle would be 26°, which cuts very well but is pretty weak. The outside bevel adds 14° and gives a 40° total, much stronger. A single bevel should be possible, but they'd have to modify the drum's design and put the knives at an angle, insteed of tangenting the drum. That may be not too easy to do, given the drum's structure.
Only one cutting edge per knife and sadly, nothing is adjustable. Modifying that is doable, but I am not too tempted to mess with this part of the machine.

I need the chipper tomorrow, so I bite the bullet and wrestled with the offending metal. I pulled out the 9" angle grinder with a cutting disk, better than the 5" during my first try. Still 40 min of grinding, alterning the knives to evacuate the heat. My back is sore. I left a little strip of ungrounded steel (1 mm) along the edge. Not optimal, but I wanted to be sure to not burn the cutting edge. I'll see soon enough if that works.

I don't get the recommandation from Bandit to file accross the edge. Basically, that dulls badly the cutting edge. Or I miss something...
 
I don't know if it would dull it badly, but it'll dull it. It should make it a little more robust though, and less likely to knock out chunks. You're trading peak performance for longevity.
 
I've got something very similar to that 'garden sharp' Sean, mine is orange can't remember the brand name, probably the same item rebranded..
It works very well for touching up the chipper knives! I recommend it. Great or loppers and secateurs too
 
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