Morbark clogs on mill scraps / slash

[Norcal Steve]

Looking to buy a medium duty chipper.
I rented a big ole Morbark, maybe the model 15 or 12?
I wanted to chip up all my sawmill scraps / slash and kept jamming the drum.
Here's what would happen, it would run fine for an hr or so and then one particular board (a 2x12 or something like it) would go thru and the machine would leave just enough of a sliver out of the board that the sliver would wrap around the drum and eventually bog down the motor.
Removal was a nightmare of spinning the drum backwards and unraveling the sliver.
Is this common of a drum chipper? could the blades have not been set low enough and a drum is still a good chipper?
it has to be able to eat up the scrap pile or it's not very useful to me.
Looking at a Wood-Chuck WC16

 

[CalTreeEquip]

I think the problem is probably dull blades and/or bed knife and maybe to much gap between the two.
I have an 16" Altec drum chipper available.
http://www.californiatreeequipment.com/photos/tree_equipment/98-wc616-1.html

 

[Norcal Steve]

bed knife? there was a knife on the bottom too? I never noticed that and thought the knives were just the ones on the drum.

 

[CalTreeEquip]

Yup, the blades need something to cut against.
It's common enough for rentals to be pretty poorly maintained.

 

[Norcal Steve]

so then there no good reason why a drum chipper won't eat up boards/ mill scraps?

 

[Toddppm]

Called a bed knife but really just a piece of square stock the knives force the wood against to cut.

Scraps would be hard to get through any chipper without some bigger pieces to go through with the small stuff

 

[Norcal Steve]

well, they are sizable scraps. basically a 2x6 cant, or slash or round or whatever you call them. 2x4s and such. usually nothing smaller than a 2x4.

 

[Toddppm]

That shouldn't be any problem at all if the chipper blades are setup right.

 

[blades]

Bed knife / beater bar ( other names) gap to knives apx .030. Rental equipment- those guys let the blades get so dull ( doesn't help with the various users either). Over the years I have become very skeptical about rental equipment. Got a 4x8 enclosed trailer one time pulled straight lights all good tires ok ect what I didn't know was the springs were shot Looked fine empty- no I did not over load it - went about 10 blocks smelled like a roof repair going on somewhere tires burning because fenders rubbing on on them- just my 175 lbs was enough to set the fenders on the tires- boy was I ticked. A friend of mine rented small tractor loader backhoe- hydro drive - couldn't climb 10 deg incline with a bucket of dirt., plus over heating ( radiator was plugged up) ignition switch failed, front tire that wouldn't stay inflated for 24 hours couple other things i don't remember. He had rented for a week this showed up in the first 24 hours not a happy camper. So lack of maintenance is a big issue with rental places.