Well, here's my experience... I have had the Mackissic 12PT10 for about 7 or 8 years or so now... I primarily bought this model hoping to shred my crazy jungle full of palm fronds and giant bird of paradise here in So. Cal. First of all this hammermill chipper/shredder works awesome for any woody type material... it just eats em up without any problems at all.. The circular knife shredder/hopper portion of the unit works awesome for long branches also. As for wet stuff like palm fronds the hammermill can work fairly well, but you gotta have a system down, otherwise the thing will just get clogged up with a bunch of wet mush. Another problem with palm fronds is that they can wrap around the shaft and bind it up fairly easily... Don't put the fronds in the hopper, it will bind and cause problems. Steps to keep this thing from clogging or binding.. 1. the metal screen that comes with 1 to 2 inch holes is no good for palm fronds and wet materials.. I ended up cutting out the holes so that they were about 3 inches or so with my handy grinder. Bigger holes in the screen is better, but can't just remove screen because the fronds will just shoot out and not get shredded at all, so just use a screen with giant holes. Works waaaay better. 2. It's best not to throw full length palm fronds in the hammermill, it will slow it down.. Recommend cutting them first into 12 or 16 inch lengths first before shredding them.. Same with the giant bird of paradise leaves/stems. Note: recently I have been using an electric lawnmower to shredd my giant bird paradise leaves/stems... it will shredd em so dang fast.. just tilt the lawn mower up and open the side exhaust/bag connection shoot and feed the giant leaves (stems first). Whatever is left at the end can easily be thrown into the 12PT10.. 3. Also after a few years, the hammermills do get a bit dull. Just take a cheap 4" carbon fiber grinding disk and sharpen up the edges of each of those small steel hammers.. Doesn't take long. Just remove the screen and you can sharpen them up while they are still mounted on the machine. My yard has about 50 palm trees and 20 giant birds that I need to tend too myself along with tons of other tropicals, so this 12PT10 has come in real handy for creating my super mulch pile.. Beets putting out 12 or 15 cans each week overfull of fronds and cuttings.

Since it is a used unit the causation can be more troublesome . You have pretty well checked , cleaned or replaced the normal areas of concern . The ignition switch may be faulty as you have indicated which can be bypassed . Secondarily and more likely is that your coil is heating up and breaking down . They are inexpensive on eBay . I would also advise since it is used to ensure your fuel filter and air filter and gas cap vent are clean and check the cylinder and headbolts are tight roy- bilt and ryobi have fastener issues Good luck Bud !

Thanks.

I found the Model 47261 manual at brentchalmers.com. This manual included the information that "The Model Numbers that appear on the front cover of the Owner/Operator Manual have changed as follows: Model No. 47260 is now 47278 Model No. 47271 is now 47280 Model No. 47261 is now 47279 Model No. 47272 is now 47281". Here is a link that might be useful: Chipper Manuals