PTO wood chippers

[tmbrcruiser]

Does anyone use a pto wood chipper to dispose of waste from their band mill? If so what brand and model? At this time I load slabs and edging strips into a 16' dump and haul it to a large horizontal grinder? Problem is the grinder moves from one logging job to the next and distance can be up 50 miles from my mill. 

If I could use a pto chipper, the chips could be loaded into a manure spreader and spread on hunting paths in my tree farm.

[stanwelch]

I have a Woodland Mills 8" wood chipper attached to a 65hp Pto tractor. I use it to chip brush small limbs/trees etc. Slabs coming off sawmill could certainly be chipped if cut down to a size you can handle. 
However, I do not chip waste from the mill. It is easier and less time to take these to my neighbors outside wood burner. If you don't have this option than my second choice would to make a pile and burn.

[JoshNZ]

I've thought about a chipper for edgings and skim cuts, I think it would be counter productive to be resawing slabs into a size that could fit, rather than just giving away/selling as firewood.

Edgings all go into the slab rack to be sawn into firewood, paper thin stuff and finger size sticks get thrown on the ground and mulched occasionally

[Warren]

Nothing wrong with grinding waste and using it for trail enhancement.   Any chance to sell larger slabs for firewood?  Better to be generating income than generating expenses...

[Brad_S.]

I have a Woodmaxx WM-8H hydraulic feed PTO chipper. I don't saw much anymore but even for the little I do, it's a PITA. Anything over 8" wide...such as butt flare...has to be re-sawn to fit through the chippers 8" infeed. The chipper has trouble grabbing the relatively thin board edgings and must be constantly babysat to get them through. Feeding a bundle of different sized edgings through is like planing different thickness boards in a planer without segmented feed; thinner pieces don't advance though until the thicker pieces are done in turn.
In my experience, if you have other uses for the PTO chipper then fine but I wouldn't get one with the plan of chipping waste as the sole purpose unless time and efficiency are not a concern..

[tmbrcruiser]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, sounds like it may be time for me to rethink mine.

[47sawdust]

I bought a Patu pto chipper a number of years ago and sold it after using it for 1/2 a day.
Too slow,too much work and just put more hours on the tractor.

[Durf700]

I have a woodmaxx 8" PTO chipper.  I would not want to use it for cut offs.  I sell my cutoffs for 20 dollars a truck or trailer load.  sold about 25 loads last fall and cleaned up my pile.   I will use my chipper alot this year but for maintenance in the woods and trails.

[maple flats]

I have a 6.5" Patu PTO chipper, no hydraulic feed , and with sharp knives it self feeds. I sharpen the knives 1 or 2x a year, and I also use the chipper to chip blueberry prunings. It works best when have it mounted at an angle, the infeed chute is best tilted down (shorten the top link) and to the left (adjust the 3 pt arms so the rt arm looking from the back is about 2-3" higher. Run the engine at rated PTO speed, 540-up to 600 rpm. I've used both a 20hp tractor (engine HP) and a 36HP tractor. On heavier stuff the 36 is lots better but both did the job.

[DanMc]

Mill slabs are a huge PITA to dispose of, particularly if I'm milling white pine. The slabs are useless.   I've ripped them in half on the mill and fed them into my Woodmaxx 8H chipper.  It takes about an hour to grind up a pile of slabs and then there's a lot of very nice chips to spread around on paths.  If the slabs are oak, then it's decent kindling or small pieces of firewood if cut in half on the mill.