Stump grinder teeth replacement?

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swyman

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Bought my first grinder and the teeth could use replacing. It is a 1672 rayco and has 1100 series greenteeth in the center and rayco teeth on the sides. Should I just replace the greenteeth in the middle or switch the whole wheel over to greenteeth. How much cutting do the side teeth actually do? Seems like the center row is doing all the work while I'm grinding.
 
Some folks love the greenteeth and some don't. I am not a fan. The center of the wheel does most of the grinding usually with the outer teeth pushing the material. Because of this the center teeth will wear faster than the inner. Main thing to remember is the wheel MUST be balanced. Whatever is on one side MUST be the same on the other. Another note about the inner teeth - the bolt heads will wear usually before the teeth. Watch out for this, because if the bolt head wears down to much you will have a problem getting them off with a wrench and they will have to be drilled or torched. = PIA. And ALWAYS use never seize on any cap screws.
 
Tomahawk teeth versus Rayco supertooth

Has anyone tried the Tomahawk tooth set up from Leonardi as a replacepment for the Rayco super tooth, and also tried retipping or retooling the rayco tooth from Stumpcutterking?
 
Trial and Error

Some folks love the greenteeth and some don't. I am not a fan. The center of the wheel does most of the grinding usually with the outer teeth pushing the material. Because of this the center teeth will wear faster than the inner. Main thing to remember is the wheel MUST be balanced. Whatever is on one side MUST be the same on the other. Another note about the inner teeth - the bolt heads will wear usually before the teeth. Watch out for this, because if the bolt head wears down to much you will have a problem getting them off with a wrench and they will have to be drilled or torched. = PIA. And ALWAYS use never seize on any cap screws.



After nearly 5000 hrs of grinding time I have used all the teeth combos at one time or another and well over 90% of the machines out there. I can tell you they all Cut well, However some systems cut better and some work Exceptional. for a low horse >50 HP I might recommend you try the Multi-Tip design from Alpine Machine. For Higher HP machines I would recommend the Sandvik teeth and the Revolution Wheel the rotating Mass and the chip clearing design of the teeth is Awesome!

Now The Most important thing to do though, no matter what type of cutting system you have is; learn to, and become a Master at, the art of "On Machine" Tooth sharpening! This will cut your tooth cost by 75% and make the machine, What ever you own, operate the way it was designed to. You will never see A Sawyer worth his salt cutting with a Dull Chain! they constantly tune their chain and arrive to work every morning with Sharp Chains! as a Great Stump Grinder You should take your job as serious as they do if you want to play on the same field as them.
Best of luck!
 
Master Sharpener!

Ok be ware I will provide some shameless plugs here!
#1 get a Dewalt Cordless 4 1/2 inch angle Grinder $300
#2 out fit the above grinder with a Green wheel from Alpine Machine $175
#3 buy 2 extra battery's and have enough chargers to charge at least 3 battery's at a time! $175

it will take you 3 battery's to sharpen a Sandvic wheel if you are good, as many as 5 if you are learning or just let it go too long! at least 2 required to sharpen an 8 tooth Multi tip wheel.

when sharpening Imagine you are creating a shaver .... a round edge will be similar to beating a stump to death with a ball peen hammer ????? the closer to a 90 degree edge you can make the better off you will be.

I Sharpen my teeth EVERY night after 5-8 hrs of grinding time. this makes sure my chips are smaller than your little finger nail and mix nicely with surrounding dirt. A round DULL tooth will "STRING" out your stumps especially in Soft wood!

Grind off your face first thinning the carbide, then grind the sides and top attempting to create a point of 90 degrees or there about so as to act like a shaver.

this action will Quadruple the usable life of your teeth when the carbide gets thin enough to start fracturing then and only then replace your teeth.

I also take my Dewalt to grind with me so if necessary I can Tune up the teeth as the day progresses! my Machine is fully Remote control so I watch the cutting action full time if it is cutting better one way than the other or the chips start coming out way bigger than they should I spend the time to look at the cutting teeth. This action may take a few minutes but in the long run it saves both time and money!

I incorporated this Idea as a result of a conversation that I had with a Sawyer buddy of mine, and a post I got replied to on this site, where in stump grinders were spoken down to, and looked upon as some one who could not make it other wise in the tree Business. This as you well Know is Crap. but I thought I would go about educating those that would listen about what it will take to improve standing in the industry and make us all better.!

If you call Kieth at Alpine Machine he can hook you up as well as give you any advise you may ask for! if this was helpful please like the post!

good luck!
 
Good advice on sharpening the teeth and the equipment to use, but keep in mind carbide dust is toxic and should be contained. Be careful.
 
Good advice on sharpening the teeth and the equipment to use, but keep in mind carbide dust is toxic and should be contained. Be careful.

X2

Fairbanks, Thanks for sharing. I have one question! I have the sandvik wheel on my 8018 TRX and those carbide are much harder then lets say Rayco Super teeth. My green wheel on my bench grinder has difficulty sharpening the carbide. Are you using the green wheel from Alpine or are you using the diamond wheel? If your using the green wheel, how long does the wheel last until its junk? I need to change my sharpening method and your method sounds good. Thanks!
 
Oly---

X2

Fairbanks, Thanks for sharing. I have one question! I have the sandvik wheel on my 8018 TRX and those carbide are much harder then lets say Rayco Super teeth. My green wheel on my bench grinder has difficulty sharpening the carbide. Are you using the green wheel from Alpine or are you using the diamond wheel? If your using the green wheel, how long does the wheel last until its junk? I need to change my sharpening method and your method sounds good. Thanks!

I never sharpen the teeth On a bench grinder cause you have to take them off of the machine!
Kieths green wheel has lasted me 2 summers so far and will last another 2 years I'd imagine!

You must use a light touch! let the wheel do the work not your muscles and dress the wheel daily with the ceramic dressing tool provided! I highly recommend daily tune ups on the teeth otherwise once you get too round it takes up to 5 mins per tooth to sharpen them if you get excessively worn! The carbide on my sandvic teeth is as hard as it gets and I have no problem getting it just right! With the DeWalt 18v xrp you can not press too hard or the grinder will stall out .... So it is perfect for this job!
If you are woried about carbide dust of which there is a negligible quantity use a small particle face mask ... There is no silica in these types if carbide so all the dust is comprised of is Tungsten and Carbon
 
Great advice! One question I have is about the rock tooth for the sandvik wheel. How does it work and does anyone have pictures of one? There is a few on eBay for sale and I am curious on how they work?! The pictures I have found are not that detailed in just unsure how they work an where they are placed on the wheel? Any help would be nice. Thanks.
 
Another option on the 4.5" Grinder is to purchase a minimum 1,200 Watt Inverter (I use a 2,000 Watt). Attach it to the Battery in your truck or trailer, then you can use a standard 120 Volt angle grinder. I have a 2,000 Watt on my truck and a 5,000 Watt in my trailer. The trailer has 2 trolling motor batteries and 60 Watts of Solar panels on the roof. Its like having a very large silent generator that you never have to start. It will also fire up your drills, and any other electric tools you may have. We also use dremells for quick touch up on chains, In my old trailer I even had a Oregon electric Chain Sharpener and a 6" grinder with standard / Green wheel.. Just food for thought.



Great advice! One question I have is about the rock tooth for the sandvik wheel. How does it work and does anyone have pictures of one? There is a few on eBay for sale and I am curious on how they work?! The pictures I have found are not that detailed in just unsure how they work an where they are placed on the wheel? Any help would be nice. Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Ok be ware I will provide some shameless plugs here!
#1 get a Dewalt Cordless 4 1/2 inch angle Grinder $300
#2 out fit the above grinder with a Green wheel from Alpine Machine $175
#3 buy 2 extra battery's and have enough chargers to charge at least 3 battery's at a time! $175

it will take you 3 battery's to sharpen a Sandvic wheel if you are good, as many as 5 if you are learning or just let it go too long! at least 2 required to sharpen an 8 tooth Multi tip wheel.

when sharpening Imagine you are creating a shaver .... a round edge will be similar to beating a stump to death with a ball peen hammer ????? the closer to a 90 degree edge you can make the better off you will be.

I Sharpen my teeth EVERY night after 5-8 hrs of grinding time. this makes sure my chips are smaller than your little finger nail and mix nicely with surrounding dirt. A round DULL tooth will "STRING" out your stumps especially in Soft wood!

Grind off your face first thinning the carbide, then grind the sides and top attempting to create a point of 90 degrees or there about so as to act like a shaver.

this action will Quadruple the usable life of your teeth when the carbide gets thin enough to start fracturing then and only then replace your teeth.

I also take my Dewalt to grind with me so if necessary I can Tune up the teeth as the day progresses! my Machine is fully Remote control so I watch the cutting action full time if it is cutting better one way than the other or the chips start coming out way bigger than they should I spend the time to look at the cutting teeth. This action may take a few minutes but in the long run it saves both time and money!

I incorporated this Idea as a result of a conversation that I had with a Sawyer buddy of mine, and a post I got replied to on this site, where in stump grinders were spoken down to, and looked upon as some one who could not make it other wise in the tree Business. This as you well Know is Crap. but I thought I would go about educating those that would listen about what it will take to improve standing in the industry and make us all better.!

If you call Kieth at Alpine Machine he can hook you up as well as give you any advise you may ask for! if this was helpful please like the post!

good luck!

What grit is the green wheel from alpine machine?
 
Are you sure it's a "green wheel" you got from Keith? The one I got from him is a diamond wheel, it's lasted almost 3 years, mostly sharpening Alpine Stump grinder teeth. Only green wheel's I've seen are green. The one from Keith is brown.

Stumper63
 
Yes it is green and I use it for sharpening my Magnum teeth as well as for sharpening all the teeth in all my wheels! It works great it's expensive but it works Awesome!
 
Has anyone tried the Tomahawk tooth set up from Leonardi as a replacepment for the Rayco super tooth, and also tried retipping or retooling the rayco tooth from Stumpcutterking?


Been using tom ahawks for 4-5 years and happy with them,Retipping is a real art and not worth the hassle,They really need to be baked on for success.
 
I have a DeWalt charger that plugs in to my lighter. I can put a battery in it and it charges in about an hour. Kind of nice if you were gonna use a grinder on the jobsite.
Next stop Alpine for a diamond wheel, damn tools almost as bad as saws!
 

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