1993 Bandit 250 anvil to knife clearance issue - new knife and new anvil

[Erwin]

I just got the new knives and anvil from the Bandit dealer yesterday. Planned for like one hour. However it took much longer and I'm still not feeling good about it. Please help me out. This is my first large sized chipper. Been running a 6 inch for 16 years.

After I lightly torqued the 3 large anvil bolts to a point that they compressed the spring washes just past half way, I pulled the anvil away from the knives to the farthest it can go. Matter of fact, I even put like 20 ft pound of torque on them. Then, I torqued the anvil bolts to spec. During this whole process, I went back and forth to check the clearance with two 25/1000 feeler gauge. However, I was never able to get the closest knife to have greater than 25/1000 clearance. The area under each knife was carefully cleaned before new knife was installed. The disk rotates freely by hands. Since the factory spec is 45-65 /1000 I was a little bit un-comfortable running the machine, fearing the worst. I called the Bandit rep this morning (that dealership is pretty new, don't know how much I should trust them) and the guy told me as long as it rotates freely by hands I need not worry about it. The well packaged Bandit knives are from Vietnam and no idea where the anvil was from. Why couldn't they make it a littler smaller? Thanks for ur time and you input in advance. Erwin

 

[arborlicious]

Take the anvil off and run a sanding disk along the edge to make it a bit smaller (same as you'll need to do in order to keep a nice sharp edge on the anvil.) 25/1000 is way too close. I'm assuming it's a four sided anvil? I run mine (2004 Bandit 250) with a larger gap than spec say 80-100/1000. The blades stay sharp for longer.

Steve

 

[Erwin]

Steve. Thx for your input. I was thinking about doing that. Only I don't have a belt sander that can take a little off evenly across the entire edge. Maybe it's time to buy one.

 

[arborlicious]

I only ever use a flap disc on an angle grinder (suggested by shaun - imagineero on this forum.) The idea being you don't want to get the anvil too hot while removing material - slow and steady. Run a straight edge and scribe a line if you're concerned. Anything will be better than a rounded anvil and dull knives.