home made chipper..any ideas?

fuzzybear · May 01, 2011, 01:22:42 AM

I'm currently clearing off part of our land and am running out of room for all the piles of willow. I was wondering if any one has built their own chipper and would be willing to share with me. Most stuff is in the 2" range and less.
Being this far north it is just to expensive to buy one for a small project. But if I build my own it would be much cheaper.
Thank you.
FB

ladylake · May 01, 2011, 05:59:41 AM

Would a old silage chopper be heavy enough? Steve

thecfarm · May 01, 2011, 06:59:32 AM

I have heard the angle of the blade has to be just about right,. I also feel an auto feed is needed too. HP is important too.Sounds like you will be using it ALOT.

Banjo picker · May 01, 2011, 07:22:29 AM

I have ideas ,,I just don't know if they will work...I have invisioned building one myself out of a couple ole model 12 Massey Fer. hay baylers that have ....I would like to be able to do more that 2 inches though...Tim

bill m · May 01, 2011, 08:06:21 AM

Why don't you just buy mine. Brush Bandit model 250, 12 in. capacity, 100 hp turbo Cummins.

bill m · May 01, 2011, 08:27:04 AM

That was dumb :-[ I should have looked to see where you lived. Shipping would be way to expensive.

Papa1stuff · May 01, 2011, 09:39:49 AM

Billm ,you could always take a vacation trip to the Yukon :D

davey duck · May 01, 2011, 09:44:42 AM

forage harvesters can handle twigs and small branches but the bigger like 1" or more will knock back the blades and ruin the shear bar ,also the blades come straight down on the shear bar unlike a chipper that feeds at the bottom of the cylinder.

Tom · May 01, 2011, 09:56:47 AM

The fastest and cheapest way to rid yourself of stuff like that is fire. Fire will allow many of the nutrients to be returned to the earth. The next best thing would be to allow it to rot (compost). That might be a chore in the upper climates, but would return all of the nutrients to the earth. To get the stuff to rot, you must get as much of it in contact with the soil as possible.

I would be leery of a homebuilt chipper. The commercial ones are heavy built and still mighty dangerous.

I don't know what kind of willow you are working with, but black willow is used for bent stick furniture down here and you might look at making yourself a bunch of chairs or woven tables. It sounds like you would have enough to go into business. :D

Slingshot · May 01, 2011, 10:24:57 AM

Check this one out...........

http://bedair.org/Projects/chipper1.html

http://www.bedair.org/Projects/chipper2.html

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fuzzybear · May 01, 2011, 03:07:17 PM

Quote from: Tom on May 01, 2011, 09:56:47 AM
The fastest and cheapest way to rid yourself of stuff like that is fire. Fire will allow many of the nutrients to be returned to the earth. The next best thing would be to allow it to rot (compost). That might be a chore in the upper climates, but would return all of the nutrients to the earth. To get the stuff to rot, you must get as much of it in contact with the soil as possible.

I would be leery of a homebuilt chipper. The commercial ones are heavy built and still mighty dangerous.

I don't know what kind of willow you are working with, but black willow is used for bent stick furniture down here and you might look at making yourself a bunch of chairs or woven tables. It sounds like you would have enough to go into business. :D

Tom,
the former owners tried chipping up the small area we are living in now and the small particles are still in the soil after 15 years. this stuff is very rot resistant. It is the typical Pussy Willow you find along swamps and river banks. I'm not sure the species name.
People here have made furniture out of it and it works well. when I cut the bigger stuff it is about 30yo and has no rot in it, even when standing in water all summer.
My wife and I are thinking we might try weaving it into fences around the property. But even then I am going to have tons left over. I was going to try and mulch and spread it around the trails and such.
we cleared an area about 20'x30' and have a pile about 15' in diameter and 8' high. I still have 4 acres to clear.
My other thought was to build a shear press and just feed it into it, cutting about 6" at a time. but this would be very time consuming.
I guess i'll have to burn it all this winter.
Thank you
FB