g'day echidna,

about the best piece of machinery for my money is the greenfield peacemaker, if you are going to have a lot of chipping type work look at the 10hp or so model. keep in mind all these machines are common garden type shredders, chipping is not their design forte.

on the chipping side the thickness of the branch is also governed by the type of timber ie.,. hardwood or soft wood, like they may chip a larger thickness of mango as against a gum branch. and then chipping should be on green fresh cut branches as well this also makes a diffrenece. shredding dry dead material not highly recommended.

if you need to do a lot of chipping then you need to buy a machine designed to chip and they don't come cheap, not even the small garden type models.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

Thank you Len for all this. Just what I need, some common sense. Most of what needs chipping on an annual basis, is soft...pittosporum etc but I guess it is false economy to purchase something that is limited to soft wood and then still have to hire someone to chip gums when needed. I don't really need a shredder. We have a quote for almost $400 for on-site chipping of a large clean up of mixed timber types (& it includes a load of rubbish to the tip) so I guess that becomes much more attractive now with your advice......and the contractor does all the work with his indestructible machine that he maintains. I had been thinking that we might do more regular pruning back if we had a small chipper on hand to immediately convert prunings to mulch. Maybe not.
Kind regards & thanks again,
Gil

g'day gil,

sounds like a good way to go you could have a big prune say once or twice a year and his big machine does the lot, you still get mulch material. the other alternative if you want hands on is to hire a machine one or two times a year in which case you would do a big trim one weekend then hire the machine the next weekend, dead branches will still pose a problem.

a good qulaity shredder is a lot of money to have tied up in machinery, to be used maybe 2 to 4 times a year, still needs servicing etc.,.

maybe for that small work load you mention get a good brand electric (go to a specialist mower shop, those other models just too unreliable), as most stuff you get will be light grade. that way then if the machine doesn't last yonks it doesn't matter.

len

I agree with Len and I do have a Greenfiled Piecemaker.

What you do have to consider is the running costs as well as the purchase price to how much mulch you can generate. The truth is looking from an economical point of view they cost more than they are worth.
For around $1200 plus depending on the size of the engine You can buy an awful lot of mulch without no ongoing running cost or your own labour.

I have bought a surface grinder to precision grind the Greenfiel blades because here in Brisbane it costs $50 to sharpen the blades plus your time and fuel to take them to the blade sharpeners. The blades are double sided so you get 4 cutting edges. Never attempt to sharpen them with an ordinary grinder, if you heat mark them you will remove the temper in the blades and you cannot hand grind them and keep them perfectly balanced. If they are out of balance the vibration can cause machine failure and/or cause the blades to come loose or even come off. OUCH!

Cutting soft material you MAY get about 2 cubic metres of mulch before you have to turn the blades over but if you introduce say shrubby branches or thin tree branches (green) say around 20mm dia you would halve the amount of mulch. Cut anything heavier then you get even less. dry branches will blunt the blades quite quickly.

The PieceMaker will cut palm fronds (golden cane or similar) very easily but must be soft or soak them till they are. They will cut heavier fronds but blade life is short. All said and done palm frond mulch is the best as it is coarse and open letting the water through and they do rot down quickly if lightly covered with say forest mulch.

The don't do a bad job on lucerne hay to make chaff for horses either.

One point to watch for and this can void your warranty is stay away from anything green and stringy. The fibres can wrap around the motor shaft and destroy the oil seals in the mulcher head. I have had first hand experiece with that, luckily no damage was done but the motor had to be taken off to get all the fibre of the shaft.

If costs are a consideration then think carefully, if mulching gives you a warm feeling that matters, go for it.

Doug.

g'day doug,

at the time i had my machine blade sharpening was around 10 to 15 bucks but wow $50 (might be cheaper to buy new blades maybe?) that is a lot to think about hey and doing it yourself with the right equipment would be the way to go.

i got caught out if i can say it that way after use i would hose down the frame and in under the motor well hey the water got into those bearings under there and nope it wasn't warranty, never hosed it off again after that.

the bloke who bought mine wanted it to do the chaff for his horse, so great to hear he will be getting value for money. at the time i suggested to him to damp the chaff a bit to keep the dust down.

but at the end of the day we hardly had enough work for it over the year, to realy warrant the outlay, and good machinery should be worked so you get value for money hey?

len

Thanks Guys.... this has been really helpful. DIY is not always best practice is it.
Gil

Hey Len,

I priced blades and I was quoted nearly $150 for the pair so the surface grinder pays for itself within a year, depending on use and the type of material being shredded.

It is hard to pick what will shred easily and what blunts the blades. Dry fronds definitely will, eucs will even green but the other day I shredded up a pile of rosewood that had started to dry out but it went through without any problems. It's a case of suck it and see or should I say suck it and pay.

Doug.

g'day doug,

well it sure is gong t pay to look after the blades also then hey? are you able to pass on the type of grinder you use or whatever? for novices it still maybe a better bet for them to use a proffessional sharpening service though, as they could very easily damage the blades through lack of knowledge.

but nothing is cheap anymore hey? probably give more light to people hiring a shredder when they need one instead of outright ownership.

on another chat someone else is opting to bring in a person with one of those large chippers when he has his pile of chipping to be done, going to cost him around $200+ for a once a year job which includes a load rubbish to the tip.

seasons greetings

len