Looking for Slivers (Bandit 250xp PTO)

[TreePro92]

Good morning folks,

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years. I have a project coming up in the next 6 months that I need some wood slivers for. I’ll have a 12” bandit 250xp PTO chipper on a 140 hp Kubota, but as you know . . . our chippers are good at making chips . . . not slivers (assuming the anvil is square, the knives are sharp and the gap between the 2 is set properly).

My question is:

Do you think if I increased the gap between my knife and anvil on the 250xp (with a square anvil and sharp knives) that I could get the slivers I am looking for? A 2”+ long sliver would be ideal.

I understand the wear and tear this can put on the bearings of the machine. I don’t mind limiting the material I put in to 5”-6” rather than the 10” to 12” that it can eat. What do you think?

If those horizontal grinders weren’t so expensive I would just get one of those. The smallest bandit beast (1425) was quoted at $125k . . . and I would rent a machine, but there’s no way to get it back to the property (2,500+ ft. of poor clay rd.).

What would you do?

Thanks in advance,

Samuel

 

[Reach]

Maybe contact a local mulch manufacturer? Perhaps they can do some custom grinding for you.

 

[TreePro92]

Maybe contact a local mulch manufacturer? Perhaps they can do some custom grinding for you.

Thanks for the reply Reach. I’m nearly an hour from the closest mulch yard, and I have a lot of logging slash on site to use. I hate to truck all the material I need that far. The project consists of covering the formerly mentioned clay road with the chippings from the 250xp. We know this will be a temporary fix, but we have all that logging slash to clean up anyway, and a permanent stone driveway (with 3 courses of different sized stone) over 2,500+ ft. would cost $$$$$$. I wish I could justify a horizontal grinder. I just can’t. I was hoping I could increase the chip size on the 250xp.

 

[Reach]

That is quite a drive. Perhaps for a reasonable fee they would bring a grinder to you? Or maybe it would be cheaper to sell your slash as firewood and buy shredded wood? I don’t think you’ll get what you want from your 250, as it is a disc chipper and by design cannot really make long strands, but only short chips. The only way I know of to get slivers out of a disc chipper is to allow it to chip with the grain, which means feeding short pieces of wood in sideways. That would be a lot of work to cut, and could be hard on your chipper, not to mention the danger of feeding those pieces.

 

[TreePro92]

Thanks for all the input Reach. The top picture is from a bandit 250xp. The lower picture is some chips from my 65xp. There seems to be a decent size difference between the two (not sure how well his chipper is maintained). Maybe the general difference between the two chipper chip sizes will be sufficient.

 

[TreePro92]

That is quite a drive. Perhaps for a reasonable fee they would bring a grinder to you? Or maybe it would be cheaper to sell your slash as firewood and buy shredded wood? I don’t think you’ll get what you want from your 250, as it is a disc chipper and by design cannot really make long strands, but only short chips. The only way I know of to get slivers out of a disc chipper is to allow it to chip with the grain, which means feeding short pieces of wood in sideways. That would be a lot of work to cut, and could be hard on your chipper, not to mention the danger of feeding those pieces.

Reach,

I wonder if a chuck and duck chipper would provide a larger, tougher chip? Maybe a bandit 1690?

 

[Reach]

Reach,

I wonder if a chuck and duck chipper would provide a larger, tougher chip? Maybe a bandit 1690?

It may, as it is a drum chipper, and the drum is set higher than on a hydraulic feed, so that it pulls better. I can’t speak to that for certain though, as I’ve never personally run one, maybe someone else here can provide some input on these?

 

[Merle Nelson]

Forestry mowers make pretty big chips. Maybe closer to your 2" size. Plus you don't have to handle all material that they can chip. Use the tractor bucket after to rake it up and get it to the road.

Fecon mower on the front of a skid steer can do stuff up to 7 inch dia. as I understand it.