I've used a Troy -Bilt vac for about 4 years as I have a lot of leaves. It has overall done a good job. It can get heavy with a full leaf bag but I usually keep a wheelbarrow nearby to empty the bag. The bag can pack up to the point the leaves need to be dug out. The hose also works well but you have to be careful not to suck up any small sticks which can cause the hose to plug up. It also has a branch chipper that will chop small branches (about 1 inch). Mine is a Troy-Bilt when Troy -bilt was a stand alone company. I don't know if the quality has been compromised when they were bought out by MTD. They also make a self propelled model.

We finished the pile the next day, and a huge pile of ornamental grasses, keeping it good and hot. Half the solid volume of the big pile was 6-9" trunks, cut into 4-5' pieces. The fire reduced the volume faster than we could collect it. Half way through this, who should show up with a big grin but the fire chief, with five other people from the volunteer fire department, saying: "I'm not seeing this illegal fire. There's a ban on all open fires until May 15." What he did see was the hose, the wet banks of the 12' pit and the careful supervision. "Chief, says I, "You know I don't read newspapers or listen to the radio, but I've got good news for you; - we got a new toaster". This cracked up the whole crew, since our old demented toaster is notorious for setting off the smoke alarms and bringing them out when we weren't fast enough calling the alarm company to abort. I'm lucky to have a great relationship of mutual respect with my fire department. They use my factory/showrooms as a training facility. I told them the story of my chipper/shredder quest and the resulting fire. He said,"we'll be back Monday week with twenty people. You don't have to feed us". "Make some toast", said I.

skidder39, The screens don't need to be sharpened or maintained in any way, other than keep them reasonably clean. In normal use they are self cleaning. They are just strong curved metal plates with lots of holes punched in them. They serve to keep the material in the hammermill chamber until the swinging hammers bash them into pieces small enough to escape through the holes. The hammers are just lengths of steel bar stock with a pivot hole punched in each end. I leave my MacKissic parked at my working place in the nearby woods with the wheels chocked and cabled to a tree with a bicycle lock to keep it from "wandering off." I have hollowed out a place under it so I don't have to shovel stuff out from under it so often. I keep it under the optional cover, which seems to protect it from the weather nicely. That way it doesn't take up space in the garage and it is always ready to use at the work site. In our sloping rocky terrain it is easier to bring material to the machine than to drag the machine to the material. I drag branches to the machine and bring some stuff in a wheelbarrow. There is a pile of branches at my machine right now. There is also a cluster of compost piles conveniently located in the area near the machine. I once ran out of gas and my machine came to a stop with a full shredder chamber. I decided to "call it a day" and buy more gas before my next shredding session. I guess it was a week or two before I returned with a full gas can. When I started it, the V-belt started to smoke so I quickly killed the engine. The stuff in the chamber had fermented into a solid mass, which wouldn't let the hammer assembly turn. I dropped the screen and gouged the stuff out with a long screwdriver. The screen was gunked up so I put it on the lawn and blasted it with my garden hose nozzle and used a stiff brush to help clean off the residue of rotten stuff. That is the only time I had to clean a screen. Incidentally, the V-belt was still serviceable and I used it for a couple more years. During those two years I "smoked" it a couple more times. So it had three bad places on it when I replaced it. The V-belt stretches a little in time with heavy use and if you forget to readjust the tension, it will "smoke" if the clutch engages when the tension is too loose. Just remember not to leave the machine stopped for a long period with a full hammermill chamber, and check your belt tension from time to time and you can avoid having to clean a screen or replace the V-belt. I purchased my MacKissic shredder-chipper in January of 2004. It was the 12PT9 model then, the same as the current 12PT10 except it has a 9hp Briggs & Stratton engine. I think this old "X-ray view" is of my 12PT9 model. I haven't done anything to the hammers yet, but this Summer I plan to "rotate" the hammers. The leading outer corner of each of my hammers is now somewhat rounded from wear. MacKissic's simple design for the hammers allows them to me mounted in four different ways, so that all four corners of the hammers can be used. That increases their working life by a factor of four. So unless something unusual happens, it looks like I will get as much as 16 years of use out of my hammers before I need to buy replacement hammers. Actually, my hammers still work fine with rounded corners. It just takes them somewhat longer to bash the material when they have rounded corners. MM

We have the Craftsman chipper/shredder as well and it works great. If you can rent one, that would be a good idea to try it out. What we do is pile all our hard prunings for awhile and then when they are a bit dried out, we run them through the chipper and add it to the compost pile. Sometimes I use it as mulch. Once you shred the plant matter, it breaks down much quickly. The attachment on the back is also good for leaves, but you'd still have the issue of gathering the leaves. I also use a shredder/vac on most of the leaves and put them in the compost or use them as mulch. On the lawn, we just bought a new Toro lawn mower that is a 'Super Recycle' and on a high setting made about 6 inches deep of leaves disappear. Of course then you can't add them to the compost pile, but they do feed the lawn. This year, I tried this contraption: It worked pretty well. I did have a problem with the bonnet popping off, which was frustrating, so I threaded a string through the bonnet (which is cloth) and wrapped it around the bottom of the container and up the other side. That helped.