Micro Stump Grinder?

[roberthathaway7]

I own and lawn and landscape business, and have who know how many yard with little 3-8 inch stumps in them that I'm always having to mow around (or forget about and whack mower blades on). I have a buddy with a stump grinding business or I would already be doing it, but I was wondering about a small/cheap way to get rid of little stumps like this that I could make an extra 20-30 bucks on every now and then. What do you think about this little machine? Seems like it would be worth a shot..

Industrial Woodcarver

I might just be able to order the blade and put it on a 4 inch grinder? I figured I would order the blade and try in on my grinder first, and if it doesn't work out just go ahead and order their machine/grinder and have an extra blade already

anyone else have any ideas or alternatives? I had actually looked a little into just buying a Stihl cut-off saw and was wondering if you could get blades that would serve as stump grinding blades for small aps, but didn't find anything (havent looked too hard yet) I could aldo use the Stihl cut-off for landscaping so that would be a double whammy..

 

[beastmaster]

Aside from the safety issues, that wood carving tool would be useless first time it touched dirt or a dirty root, and even if you found a wheel that worked on a cut off saw, the saw would have to be held in some kind of holder. You couldn't hand hold it like cutting a piece of pipe.
Rent a little one from home depot

 

[roberthathaway7]

Aside from the safety issues, that wood carving tool would be useless first time it touched dirt or a dirty root, and even if you found a wheel that worked on a cut off saw, the saw would have to be held in some kind of holder. You couldn't hand hold it like cutting a piece of pipe.
Rent a little one from home depot

But it "doesnt mind the presence of sand or dirt or knots" haha who knows... i know it sounds like a stretch. it does replaceable tungsten carbide teeth...

 

[no tree to big]

get one of those 6-13hp grinders, toro Vermeer bluebird rayco all make um and I'm sure many other brands out there too. you could probably find one of the 6 hp ones for cheap because they are virtually worthless on anything over 6 inches so nobody wants one but for want you want it for it would be fine

 

[beastmaster]

But it "doesnt mind the presence of sand or dirt or knots" haha who knows... i know it sounds like a stretch. it does replaceable tungsten carbide teeth...

Carbide teeth? OK maybe it wouldn't dull on a little dirt, but still I doubt it would be time/money effective.

 

[boutselis]

. I run into that problem all the time and I just lower the stump with a small saw so I can mow over it.

I doubt you are going to make much money to make it worth while buying even the smallest grinder and The wood carver is not going to work on a stump very well imo. . If its one of your lawn accounts just take the stump as low as you can with a saw and forget about it.

If you want to make some exta money you would be better off trimming trees or something like that.

 

[echo271]

I just started my buisiness one month ago and looked into small cheap stump grinders you can get a brand new one for around 2500

 

[ddhlakebound]

You can either find a used Alpine Magnum for a couple/few grand, or you can find a used 9-13hp manual for a few hundred to a couple grand. Anything less will be an exercise in futility.

I got my little Praxis w/ a 13hp honda from a rental yard for $300 just for little shrub and sapling stumps that aren't worth bringing a bigger grinder for.

 

[2treeornot2tree]

Cut them as low as possable with a saw, make a few plug cuts into the stump in a # pattern and them break the pieces out with a axe. I can do a 8" stump down to grade or a little below in like 10 -15 mins.

 

[flushcut]

You can either find a used Alpine Magnum for a couple/few grand, or you can find a used 9-13hp manual for a few hundred to a couple grand. Anything less will be an exercise in futility.

I got my little Praxis w/ a 13hp honda from a rental yard for $300 just for little shrub and sapling stumps that aren't worth bringing a bigger grinder for.

I would go with the US Praxis. I had their 5.5hp one for a bit in the early days and it worked well for the tiny stumps and was small enough and portable enough to toss in the back of a car.

 

[roberthathaway7]

Nice! I'm liking all of these suggestions. The praxis sounds good, and I actually like the plunge/axe method. Maybe I'll just dedicate a blade to this sort of thing with my little ms170, I carry it around with me most days out on the lawn service routes anyways. A lot of times the main problem is the hump that is left behid even if you do cut it off flush so I'll come up with something that has to do with that saw/ase combo. You'd be surprised what you can do with a bad@$$ high velocity leaf blower too, I bet I could just whack at those little mounds with an axe and blow the dirt away until she's nice and smooth. Thanks for the think-tank guys.

One more question for you stump grinders though.. I'm always running across places where say a guy ground a bradford pear stump our of some landscaping, and saplings pop up for years. My main stump guy is a hard workin highschooler that still has lots to learn, should I tell him to put some stump killet around the cambium or down in the hole of the stump or something? would this help prevent these little suckers from popping up? I've tring applying brush killer directly to the sprouts but they keep popping up

 

[beastmaster]

I sometimes make a plunge cut with the chainsaw on the cambium and put conc. round up there. Some times it works, some times it don't. I don't know if it would be effective on an old cut stump sprouting or not. The sooner you treat the stump after cutting the more effective it is.