Any Way to Improve Stump Grinder Performance?

[Curbside]

How easy/hard is it to sharpen these teeth and what is the best way to sharpen them? Cost per tooth? Drawbacks if any? Thanks

The cost of teeth are $10.30. Don't know of any drawbacks. I do not sharpen them but I would think it would not be difficult to sharpen as they are basically a square piece of carbide.

 

[Bigstumps]

Easiest/Cheapest Performance Enhancement

Doesn't matter what type of teeth - keep them very sharp.

I find on my small machine (raycor 1620) the teeth have to be almost new to do anything. Even a small amount of loss in efficiency and I'm not cutting.

I take the teeth out of the small machine and then use them in my big tow behind - dull teeth hardly make any difference to it.

 

[xander9727]

im confused. you are recommending the Sandvik, but at the same time are breaking teeth on the average of every 10 hrs? that doesnt sound so great to me

what is the cost of Sandvik setup on self propelled machine i.e SC352?

how about the upkeep of replacing parts? more or less $$ as opposed to regular grinder tooth setup?


My teeth are dull! Would appreciate some info

I break one tooth for every ten hours of grinding. There are 50 teeth on my large wheel. I have over 250 hours of grinding on it and have replaced 24 teeth. Of those 24, I replace 6 when I ground a 1" steel rod in half.
In comparison I was replacing 1 tooth per hour when I ran the 1/2" teeth from border city. I broke 12 at once with a fence t-post.
With the 1/2" teeth I broke the whole carbide off completely. With the Sandivik I consider them broke if I break off any of the leading edge of the carbide (break not wear).

The Sandivik teeth are around $12 a piece. So I spend about $275 in teeth a year. With the border city teeth or the Vermeer pro teeth I spend over $700 a year plus the labor and down time..........thats the real cost.

My $.02

 

[Bigstumps]

250 hours and only 24 teeth!!

I do about 600 hours a year on my big machine. If this tooth cost is accurate I need to look into it!!!!!

My big machine uses the Vermeer Pro Series. Easy to change but I don't think I get anywhere near that life out of teeth. The Pro Series has the exact same piece of carbide as the 1/2" cheapies that came in my small Rayco. I've switched the Rayco to the Pro Series just so I can run the same teeth in both machines.

I send my teeth to a guy in Georgia for sharpening - Raymond Johnson. Come back ready to use. He sharpens them for less than it was costing me in green wheels and aggrevation, plus I'd rather spend my time doing something that makes $150/hour!!!

 

[B-Edwards]

Wow Bigstumps are you a prostitute?

 

[stumpy66]

perhaps bigstumps forum name says it all....perhaps he is worth $150 an hour....

 

[Curbside]

I'm not doing quite as good as Xander with my teeth but I am still very happy. With 120 hours on the disk on a SC60TX I have broken a total of 23 teeth that needed full replacing. I have approx another dozen that have the carbide partially broken off but all I do is flip them over to the other side of the disk and use the opposite edge. On the SC60 I grind untill the teeth break. You really only break the teeth on the leading edge and the first row of side teeth. The rest of the cutters never hit anything and never dull because they are only cutting wood.

A lot of my grinding is done for cities and it seems like I hit an awful lot of rebar etc when your working close to roads and curbs. The teeth are very hardy and take an awful lot of abuse. I know that I would have used up tripple the teeth in the pro series if not more and spent way more time changing teeth with those damn pockets.

 

[stumpy66]

i do have to say that pro teeth are a pain to change, hitting the teeth with a hammer to get them out of the pocket and the actual unbolting of the pockets in the first place....i like them in use..but am staggered by the amount of broken teeth mentioned.... perhaps i just am more careful, do less work or avoid the utillity/council work...it does seem like a lot of broken teeth...has anyone kept there teeth til you get a load and sell em for scrap....the price of metal that the moment that has to be an option...

 

[Bigstumps]

perhaps bigstumps forum name says it all....perhaps he is worth $150 an hour....

That's funny!!! My woman wishes that were true!!!

 

[Curbside]

i do have to say that pro teeth are a pain to change, hitting the teeth with a hammer to get them out of the pocket and the actual unbolting of the pockets in the first place....i like them in use..but am staggered by the amount of broken teeth mentioned.... perhaps i just am more careful, do less work or avoid the utillity/council work...it does seem like a lot of broken teeth...has anyone kept there teeth til you get a load and sell em for scrap....the price of metal that the moment that has to be an option...

I am thrilled about the small amount of teeth broken. I am only breaking teeth when they hit metal. Remember when you have a large horse power machine the force has to go somewhere and usually that means the carbide is going to shatter. I have done stumps with hidden chains in them, surveyer stakes, rebar. Then their is metal thats laying under the ground. You know when you hit the metal but by then it's too late. The machine with the disk produces thousands of dollars with a tooth cost of 250.00. I personally do not think that is too bad.

 

[stumpy66]

No you are probably right, the tooth is the right thing to snap as opposed to sending the shock up the drive chain.......but i tend to go around metal......perhaps i am over caucious.... new developments in teeth are always welcome as are offers to test them free....

 

[John464]

Ya that sounds like too much maintenance to me. I usually dont break teeth until they are about ready to be replaced. I wear my teeth down to the point there is no carbide left to sharpen. The major problem I run into is by the time the teeth are worn so is the pocket and the bolt. This then requires them to be cut off.

I just orderd Leonardi Tomahawk teeth. Came to about $330 for all 20 new teeth, pockets, and bolts. Will give them a shot, hopefully better than the Vermeer Pro's in terms of cutting ability and how well the pockets/bolt were so I can get them off without cutting.

 

[stumpy66]

John464.....i have to disagree.....you take the art out of our business...
(grind til you are out of carbide.........)

 

[beaverb01]

Sandvik Wheel

Just ordered one of these for my small grinder (23hp) it needs all the help it can get. Been using the stock teeth, so I'll do some testing and post the results. Hope this works as the $1400 price tag was a tough decision to make. Wish me luck!

 

[stumpy66]

let us know how you get on......i changed my dosko standard wheel for a multitip and never looked back....what machine will you be fitting it on??

 

[B-Edwards]

Yes Beaver let us know ,on a smaller hp machine you will know without a doubt if it improves your performance. I did use a 630a Vermeer ,great machine but if the teeth were the least bit dull ,stick a fork in it cause you were done.

 

[jonseredbred]

how about the leonardi M1? anyone seen it?

 

[stumpy66]

just checking out the leonardi website....has anyone seen this??
http://www.leonarditreecare.com/Wheel-Over.html

looks a beast...

 

[beaverb01]

let us know how you get on......i changed my dosko standard wheel for a multitip and never looked back....what machine will you be fitting it on??

This Dura Disk is going on a Carlton 2300

 

[beaverb01]

just checking out the leonardi website....has anyone seen this??
http://www.leonarditreecare.com/Wheel-Over.html

looks a beast...

A beast indeed!! You need a mid to large machine to turn it, but looks like it would cut through a "56 Buick!