Bought a used older chipper, think it needs adjusting among other things

[Mike6024]

 

 

 

 

[Mike6024]

I was looking for a simple drum chipper somewhere in the $5,000 range; like an Altec 126 or Asplundh.

Ended up seeing and buying this Olathe 172, which I had never heard of before. It was $5,500.

Fellow selling it demonstrated it for me. I asked him if it had 12 inch knives. He said "yeah."

He also said it had to be adjusted very accurately to 1/32 of an inch, the blades to the table clearance. He showed me something he said he added under the table, threaded rod and nuts he said he made to adjust the "table height" to get the right clearance. He said if the gap is not right it will "mess up."

After getting it home I opened it up. The blades are 16 inch, not 12. It is the bigger machine. It seems Olathe made both 12 and 16 inch drum chippers. It has a V-8 Ford 330 industrial engine.

Of course I'd like to have an owners manual with all the manufacturer maintenance and adjustment information, but I suppose I am out of luck.

Some of the chips it throws out are very large. I want to check the adjustment. Just beginning to familiarize myself with this machine. The adjustment could be way off for all I know at this point.

Where do I check this and is the 1/32 inch about what the correct spec is? Is it really like an Altec drum chipper? You adjust the blade to cutting bar clearance on those, if I understood correctly.

I see the main bearings on this Olathe have a fore-aft adjustment which must be for the cutter clearance I suppose.

[luap]

There is a topic discussion on yesterdays tractors about this chipper manufacture. http://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=toolt&th=165181%253E

[Mike6024]

Based on info in that link,
It looks like I may be able to get a manual from Toro Industrial, maybe they even still carry parts for it.
I had read elsewhere that Olathe was bought by Toro, but doubted that they continued to support it.

[Mike6024]

Looks like it is a model 812 not a 172. The 172 has much smaller knives, 12 inch and thinner, 12 by 3 by 3/8 inch thick. The ones in this machine are 16 by 3.5 by 1 inch thick

[Sbruno]

I recently bought a Olathe Chipper just like yours. I was wondering how you made out with it. 
Mine seems to want to rip your skin off when feeding it and throws big chunks.  Did you figure out any of the adjustments ? 
I called toro to get a manual. They could not help me.
At the moment i am trying to get the knifes off to get them sharpened. 
My question are do the knifes have adjustments ? and what should the anvil plate clearance be?  

[Mike6024]

 

 

 

What does the fixed cutting bar suppose to look like? This is dull, badly worn. Cannot bolt in a new replacement, as it appears to be steel welded to the "table."

[Mike6024]

Wonder if I could buy one of these and attach it to the "table?"

[mike_belben]

Remove the drum, grind the anvil clean,  preheat, hardface it, postheat, grind it to a good sharp square edge. 



I reckon your machine is designed to be a fast bulk reducer to get the material off the job fast.  It comes out well prepped to go in a tub grinder for finish sizing. 


I dont see any threaded rods or drum clearance adjustment, but closer clearance and faster drum speed or slower feedwheel speed will produce a finer product.. As will a discharge screen however i presume that will interfere with the shooting distance or maybe even clog up.  On gravity drop units a screen is the sizer.  Stuff stays in until reduced enough to pass. 

[Mike6024]

OK thank you. I'll be taking the "table" out, take to a shop with your information. Those pictures were taken after lowering the front edge of the table under the drum a couple inches. Before I lowered it I did not bother to measure the clearance but it seemed much too big. I would like to just unbolt the old anvil cutting bar and put in a new one but it looks like it's not made that way.

Machine is more different than a Asplundh Whisper Chipper than I thought it would be. Especially the blades on the drum are 1 inch thick.

I'll get the table out, post some better pictures of it.

[Mike6024]

 

 

Picture of rounded over cutting bar on Sean's machine. This is not my machine. Mine looks very different.

[mike_belben]

A word of caution.  It is very common for lazy "pros" to want to start cold welding on alloy tool steels and ruin them.  In this case we dont know the steel composition.  It would be good to know if the mfr is still around.  If the anvil is welded in permanent theres not many options to recondition.  



It is also very easy to light a wood and oil soaked machine on fire with the amount of heat, flame and sparks involved in doing this right.  You really want it cleaned out, soaked down and someone on fitewatch with a live hose and maybe even hitched up ready to tow to a safe spot to watch the bonfire if it goes downhill. An insured shop might be important.  I dunno.. i do all my own stuff

[Mike6024]

I have my "Table" unbolted now. Will get it out and get a better look at the anvil, or the fixed cutting bar, whatever one prefers to call it. I had figured if it was worn out you could unbolt it, put in a new one, or remove and sharpen it like you can with the drum blades. But so far it looks like there is a blade welded to the table. Also maybe it is not the correct type of blade.. Sean says it is supposed to be a square 5/8 inch by 5/8 inch. Mine does not look like that.

This picture is Sean's table and anvil/cutting bar. Does not look like mine. And his doesn't look correct anyway.



These machines are from maybe 1980 vintage.



 

 

These are the threaded rods the previous owner installed. For adjusting table height and drum to anvil clearance. I think I'll get rid of them. They are 5/8 diameter all thread, with 3/4 pipe nipples for spacers, and push up on the table from and angle iron down below.

I missed out on getting a very nice Whisper chipper for $6,000 by procrastinating too long. Sure wish I got that instead.

[Mike6024]

Olathe chipper owners manual attached

[Mike6024]

 

 

 

My table, anvil, fixed cutting bar does not look like that. Obviously it has been altered in the past.

[mike_belben]

the tungsten carbide edge was probably silver brazed on and slung out of it long ago. 

[Mike6024]

Look at this mess. There is an extra 4 inch wide flat anvil/cutter bar added in front of the original worn one, plus there are two pieces of rebar welded onto the table in front of that extra 4 inch wide bar. How was this supposed to function? There is no functional cutting edge.

 

 

 

[mike_belben]

Well.. the good news is you have lots of room for improvement.  You bought it so no one can tell you not to modify it.  make it your own. Experiment until it performs closer to what you want.