Chipper drum failure

[southsoundtree]

I'm curious how close a real world balance gets to truly balanced, and at what amount out of balance it will start to matter.

 

[flushcut]

Idk if I said this already but a new drum from Vermeer is $11,500ish, that doesn’t include the shaft. A different company has drum and shaft available for $9,500ish..this weld cost me a couple hundred bucks.. that being said I don’t want to have to take this machine apart again if the weld fails.. I’ll get a second opinion on the welds. My understanding is the drum is held to the shaft via wedges with large bolts.. my current drum has 5,9000 hours and has never been off the shaft in 20+ years.so I’m not gonna try. Lots of wear on the drum, I don’t think welding this crack closed will have any significant bearing on the drum’s “balance”.

It certainly looks like a “couple hundred bucks” fix not repair. It looks like there is undercut, porosity, inconsistent bead profile, and poor blending, all the ear marks of future failure. Just saying but I wouldn’t be happy with that, at all.

 

[Matias]

What’s with the big crack on the side of the pocket visible in the photo?

Also, I don’t like that inside taper design of the drum, seems that would allow a certain amount of flex in the skin that might cause it to be more prone to delamination.

Hopefully that repair holds up well for you, and is balanced well enough to work properly!

That big unwelded section on the edge is definitely what worries me the most. If the unit is run and fails and someone gets hurt, does the welders insurance cover it? does it even matter if it continues to cost you down time?