Almost all the info about chipper/shredders in listed in the Forum -- Tool Shed. You can use the 'Search' feature either within your current forum, or search the whole GardenWeb Forum area. My opinion is that is it very hard to buy the proper machine. The right machine for shredding leaves is not the same as for mainly chipping branches. 1) If you buy a used machine, make sure it works properly when you buy it. Don't think you can buy a cheap older machine and get it fixed. 2) When buying a new or used machine, make sure it shreds leaves as YOU need them to be shredded. A screen with holes in it by the discharge is propably necessary for proper shredding. Horse power is not everything. My second purchase, a 5 hp chipper/shredder stalls much easier than my 4 hp original Troy-bilt. I think the larger mass of weight (1" shaft diameter and 3" length, and hammerblades) of the Troy-Bilt is a positive feature. Try to shred some semi-wet leaves, not all your leaves will be dry. If the owner does not want to start it for you, don't buy it. And put your hand on the engine when you first start it to see if it is warm (might indicate the owner knew it was hard to hard earlier, and he sprayed starter fluid in it). Make sure you can easily take apart the machine to clean it out, you will probably be doing it a lot. My Troy-Bilt takes two minutes to clean out by removing three hitch pins holding longer pins. My other chipper/shredder takes long to remove twelve bolts and screws; and you have to balance the two heavy halves.

I wanted to thank the people who took the time to share advice with me a couple of years ago. I appreciate your help very much. I thought I'd let you know that my new MacKissic SC183 has recently arrived here on Maui. I kept putting the purchase off, since the price tag for the one my husband insisted we needed was a little daunting (especially here in Hawaii). I finally got tired of driving pickup truck load after pickup truck load of yard waste to the green waste site. Getting a MacKissic here was no small feat, though. I had to hire a small engine repair guy to put it together for me and get the 700 lb. machine on the ground at my place, since the dealer through which I bought it is located on the island of Hawaii. They just drop-shipped the machine to me. I should mention that the people at MacKissic were very nice, but their dealer here in Hawaii put very little effort into the sale. Half the time they didn't return my calls, and they never even checked to see if the machine made it to me. Anyway, after it was delivered we started it up to test it out and the shredder surprised me by ripping an Areca palm frond out of my hand. Yikes! What a big difference from the Bearcat we rented two years ago! The chipper is less scary, but easily chips the shockingly hard coconut palm fronds I feed it. It makes beautiful palm frond mulch. To move it around the yard I bought a two inch ball hitch for our John Deere X300 lawn tractor, and it pulls the MacKissic easily up and down our sloping yard. I have not figured out how to get light things down into the shredder, though. The flaps that separate the chute from the hammermill chamber are stiff enough to keep light material out. I had a large pile Wedelia that I had cut and left to dry, leaving it much lighter than the rest of the yard waste I processed. I was unwilling to try to push it with anything that could not be processed by itself for fear of damaging my new machine. Consequently I didn't really have any good pushing tool to use for this. Any thoughts?

Dennis, One big difference between the MacKissic TPH122 and the DR CPR3PTX is that the MacKissic has a with 24 swinging hammers and a discharge screen in addition to the chipper section, while the DR has a chipper only. I would much prefer the MacKissic for that reason. I use the equivalent MacKissic self-powered unit. In my experience, when you feed a limb to the chipper chute you feed the big end first, but you soon get near the outer end of the limb where you are frequently holding a bunch of small branches and twigs and possibly leaves. It is very tedious and even potentially dangerous to try to push that small stuff into the chipper, but it is very easy to just toss that small stuff into the MacKissic's shredder hopper. The DR doesn't have a shredder hopper because it doesn't have a shredder--it's a chipper only. In my opinion the MacKissic's hammermill shredder makes it easy to pick the MacKissic over the DR. Another reason to pick the MacKissic is the availability of different sized discharge screens that let you control the particle size of your hammermilled product. Those same screens let you control the size of your chips as well. It comes standard with a 1-inch screen, but you might want to consider purchasing at least one optional screen. I use a ¼" screen to get a really fine product that has a lot of surface area for rapid composting. I also have the ½" and ¾" screens and the big oblong hole screen for wet materials. In addition to making landscaping woodchips in several size grades, garden path and mulch material, I'm also converting our many brush piles, leaves, leafmold, deadfall, and garden waste into compost piles. If you want, you can remove the screen altogether for maximum-sized chips or really wet material. In my opinion, the MacKissic is a much more versatile machine than the DR. MM

Before you start knocking the original poster, you may ask what he had to buy and what he had laying around. It can make a big difference, and I would consider the cost of the things I had to buy I made my brother a picture frame, and it cost nothing. I had a piece of 8' 1X2 in the garage and I had the glue. If I look at the actual cost it was much more. The 1X2 cost about $7. A small bottle of glue cost about $4. I worked on it about 2 hours, and at $30/hr that is $60. So my free frame actually cost about $71. This is not expensive the equipment, the electricity and the building upkeep and taxes, which would and another 10 to $20.