Reveal: Wood chipper

After four rental places told us that the local lawn companies had rented their chipper/shredders for a month or two at a time in the Spring, we had to start shopping. It was a bit of a struggle in our area to find one, honestly, but after several stores we did. Come check it out as we do an initial review.
As those who have followed will know, we intend to experiment with multiple small farming techniques to build greater independence for ourselves and to include friends and neighbours through a CSA concept. The wood chipper will primarily support the permaculture and back-to-eden orchard/food forest, comprised of a sustainable assortment of fruit trees, berry bushes, and perennial plants as food sources, nitrogen fixers and soil managers.
This is really just step 1.5 in our journey with the orchard, but it should be fun to watch it grow and expand. Thank you for the support.
Tractor: Kubota L3560 Limited Edition
RTV: Kubota X1140
Mower: TORO Titan 60”
Winch: Champion Power Equipment 1000427 12K
Chainsaw: Stilh MS251C
Log splitter: County Line 25ton
Wood chipper/shredder: DK2 Power OPC533
Dewalt 20V drivers, impact wrenches and drills
Miter saw and rolling stand: Dewalt DWS716/Dewalt DWX726

[@Billster1955]

I like that it is small yet towable. I wish the chip were smaller for composting, but it seems just the larger machines make the smaller chips. Thanks for your video.

[@appalachianheartsong5487]

Thanks for commenting, and you’re right the chips would take quite a while to break down and are not ideal for composting. When the blades are real sharp the chips are pretty thin and would break down more quickly, but that condition doesn’t last long :) Cheers, Dan

[@AlainBaker-o4h]

Why don't you make a video showing how to replace the knives? I haven't found instructions for doing this anywhere. Sorely needed,

[@CountryLivingWithTheHarnishs]

Looks like a nice chipper

[@appalachianheartsong5487]

It handles a lot bigger branches than I thought, and has been a huge help in getting the permaculture orchard/food forest started. I really appreciate you participating on the channel, cheers.

[@DowieFarm]

Have you tried it with bulk amounts of leaves? I have all of my neighborhood dropping their (mostly) oak leaves and I need to shred them.

[@appalachianheartsong5487]

Thanks for commenting. Overall, I cannot recommend this particular machine, it self-destructed this last summer chipping red cedars. Specific to leaves, it does alright but they don’t have enough mass for the shredder to really grab so half the leaves are expelled before they are mulched. The denser the pack the better it works but, beyond a leaf compost application, it’s not the solution for leaf mulching. Of course, it does better with branches, until it rips itself apart internally. Hope this helps, Dan

[@DowieFarm]

@@appalachianheartsong5487 thanks so much! You saved me from a $600 mistake.

[@appalachianheartsong5487]

@@BlondieHappyGuy Thanks for participating on the channel! I’ll respond to both your comments herein. So, it sounds like you purchased your chipper for light duty residential use and it should serve you well in that role. It’s hard for me to say exactly how much material was chipped before the blades dulled but I had to sharpen them about twice a day. Re its terminal act, it consisted of the metal shredders attached to the back side of the cutting wheel breaking loose from the wheel and tearing up the wheel and internal housing. We never really used the shredder side of wheel because the vines we would have shredded just wrapped themselves around the wheel. So, not sure if it was centrifugal force or chipped material that led to the shredders detaching themselves. It sounds like a plane crash when it happens, so you will certainly know if it happens to yours. Hope this helps.

[@appalachianheartsong5487]

@@BlondieHappyGuy Yes, we were running it 7-8 hours a day for days at a time about 2-3 times a month. I think we went through 74 red cedar trees before she died. Re that, I haven’t completely given up on her, I may have my helper weld the shredder “blades” back on the wheel and see how that goes. Re sharpening the blades I used a right angle grinder on the first set and ultimately ruined in edge, so I used a 1200 and 800 grit belt sharpener with the other sets and that seemed to work better. It didn’t take much to put and edge back on them, it was just time consuming removing and returning them to the wheel in that tight space.

[@thelifescout8335]

I just ordered one to make wood chips for my chickens to help make compost. The only issue ive been seeing lately on youtube are people saying they couldnt get this engine to start when they brought it home. Did you have any experience with yours not starting when you got it home?

[@appalachianheartsong5487]

Hey Thomas, thanks for commenting. No, we had no issue with it starting. Did the folks you saw with this problem provide the eventual solution and issue to watch out for? My only discovery of note was accessing the blades by removing the top bolt to the chute and then removing the blade retaining bolts inside (towards hub) first then outside.

[@thelifescout8335]

@@appalachianheartsong5487 only one responded saying he had to adjust the idle set screw.