big trouble

[Skywalker]

yep, were in big trouble, something happend to the rc 12 Rayco chipper today. the knives came off. dont know how. but it like world war three, drum shot, shoot shot, they came out the bottom, anyone selling a chipper, if so Call Joe Bufalino from skywalker tree 8144347949. i dont think were fixin this, only had 3 more payments too, figures, i think were leaning toward a brush bandit 12 inch, anyone using one

thanks

 

[capecodtree]

bandit chipper

Sorry to hear about your chipper throwing knives, thank god no one was hurt. I bought a 1998 brush bandit 250xp with a 125 hp john deere six years ago. great machine for the money. my son has been stuffing logs into it with the log truck, it bogs down but keeps on going. I just bought a morbark 18 with a 213hp cat to handle the bigger wood, great deal on a repo. you may want to look into a woodsman chipper as well, not as pricey as a morbark and some guys swear by them. I would buy another brush bandit without hesitation. Good luck, Jim

 

[imagineero]

had to be something with your blade fastening procedure. We use a real strict one for the same reason - we had a blade come loose a few years ago, wreck the chute and the drum. Nearly $10k later we had our chipper going again. The procedure is;

Remove old blades. If being rotated, bolts are re-used. If being replaced, new bolts every time.

Scrape down all mating surfaces. I use an industrial tajima blade scraper for this, and it is a critical step. You do scrape a lot more off than you'd think, and without it you may torque down those bolts as hard as you like but you're only sitting on a bit of resin that will get loose real fast. Scrape them down good!!!!

light smear of anti seize on new bolts. Torque down with a torque wrench and a big cheater bar to manufacturers spec, and in correct sequence.

Not really that hard, but you want to do it right. Every time.

Shaun

 

[tree MDS]

New bolts every time you swap out a set of blades?? This seems a bit extreme to me.. though I can understand your reasoning, after losing a blade and all. It just seems like that would get kinda pricey and really isn't necessary.

I could be wrong though. Does anyone else do this?

 

[Blakesmaster]

New bolts every time you swap out a set of blades?? This seems a bit extreme to me.. though I can understand your reasoning, after losing a blade and all. It just seems like that would get kinda pricey and really isn't necessary.

I could be wrong though. Does anyone else do this?

I do new bolts and nuts every time I put in new blades. Not when I flip them, only when I put in new ones. Probably overkill but it's cheap insurance IMO.

 

[treemandan]

I believe the Bandit manual says to replace the bolts after every 5 times of re-torquing. But I think its more important to take extra time to make sure the mating surfaces are clean.

 

[flushcut]

I use new bolts after two torques. The torque spec is a torque to yield that means the bolt elongates and applies the proper pressure to secure the blade. Once the yield strength is reach it is permanently elongated and weaker. I agree with scraping the hell out of the mating surfaces very important. New bolts are pretty cheap body armor from a five pound bullet. I hope you get up and running soon down time stinks.

 

[treemandan]

I use new bolts after two torques. The torque spec is a torque to yield that means the bolt elongates and applies the proper pressure to secure the blade. Once the yield strength is reach it is permanently elongated and weaker. I agree with scraping the hell out of the mating surfaces very important. New bolts are pretty cheap body armor from a five pound bullet. I hope you get up and running soon down time stinks.

I really doubt that a chipper knive bolt is a 'torque to yield' bolt.

 

[prentice110]

I believe the Bandit manual says to replace the bolts after every 5 times of re-torquing. But I think its more important to take extra time to make sure the mating surfaces are clean.

I thought it was 3. Ive worked with the 'never check the oil' guys that ran the same bolts till the end of time. Just got my Bandit 250xp going from the abortion last July. Mechanic said it wasnt as bad as I thought. Whats worse to have steel go thru/lose a blade on, disk or drum, or is it luck of the draw?

 

[Skywalker]

thanks alot gents for the info, 3 more payments and that ##### is ours, now shes a doorstop

 

[Bigus Termitius]

Vermeer wants new bolts with new blades as well. It's super cheap compared to the aftermath of failure. They also recommend blades get flipped every 10 hours, but we got alot more out of them than that. However, one time after about 40 hrs, it wasn't long before the bolts failed and it all broke loose. The second time we lost blades it was because the company sent Chicom bolts. Vietnamese blades on chicom bolts do not belong on a Vermeer.

The bottom line. Use recommended materials and follow instructions to the letter.

I started cheating and buying bolts from Vermeer. I couldn't get the company to afford Vermeer blades, but I found ways to get the right bolts and that seemed to make a difference.

I feel sorry for the backwoods Arkansas border jumpers (don't ask me why they left, rope, I don't know) that are now stuck with that machine. Just glad it is now SEP.