Carbide teeth wear on a drum mulcher

[yumbrad]

Hi y'all. I have a chunk of land that I wanted to do a lot of selective clearing on, so I bought a fae 150 drum mulch head for my Kubota svl-95. It's been great and I've put a couple hundred hours into mulching, with quite a lot of ground contact (but almost no rocks). The carbides are entirely rounded, and I'm trying to figure out when to replace - don't want to do it too early because UGH they're expensive. And even new, the carbide portion isn't super "sharp" - it seems mostly to bludgeon the tree to death. The "how does it cut" question is wishy-washy, as I and a guy that works for me both use it, and the changes in cutting efficiency are so gradual, we both think it's slower, but not sure how much. Usually you can google for a clear cut answer on something like this, but I found very divergent opinions. So... keep them on until the carbide is worn away entirely? Until the steel around starts to wear away significantly? I've read to watch out for tool damage, but the entire assembly is replaced, so who cares if the steel part gets messed up - or am I missing something? I'll attach a couple pics (if it lets me) of teeth.



 

[mike_belben]

@treemuncher 

[treemuncher]

Those teeth still look like fairly new to me. They still have the Vee shape on the front of the carbides - lots of hours left on those - they have not gotten a ball peen face on them, yet. When the carbide is hanging out 1/2"-3/4"  further out than the steel under it and has a hook shape to it, it might be time to replace it.

Breaking a single carbide will induce enough vibration to be noticeable and should be changed out. Vibration is what directs me to change out teeth when required. A full new set on my big machine is only $6,000 or so. You should only require about $3,000 plus for a set on that little cutter. Be sure to balance the head when you do change out teeth if you want it to last a long time. Bearings hate vibrations.