Old Silo Filler Converted To Heavy-Duty Wood Chipper

Old Silo Filler Converted To Heavy-Duty Wood Chipper MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous “A friend who owns a local junkyard gave me an old 1930 Case flat belt-driven silo filler which I converted into a heavy-duty wood chipper Works great ” says Vance Jones Iron Mountain Mich The silo filler was originally designed to ride on a pair of axles and had a steering tongue all of which were missing Corn bundles were laid down into a long metal tray located on front of the machine and a chain-driven auger was used to pull the corn bundles into the cutter knives The chopped corn was then blown into the silo Jones shortened the tray and turned the machine around to face backward He also mounted it on a single axle and added a solid tongue and a pto shaft “I use my Deere B 25 hp tractor to operate it It has plenty of power to do the job ” says Jones who built the unit last winter “The silo filler had sat around for a long time but it’s made mostly from galvanized steel so it’s still in good shape It came with four 14-in long chopping knives and they’re still there but now they’re chipping wood instead of chopping corn ” A local machine shop removed the belt pulley and made an adapter to mount a pto shaft Jones used 4 1/2-in handheld grinder to sharpen the knives and finished sharpening them with a file to touch them up He also greased the gears and chains that drive the auger “It’ll chip 3 to 4-in dia wood with no trouble ” says Jones “I reach in to feed brush and get the branches started and from there a drum with metal teeth on it delivers them into the cutting knives The cut-down tray is still long enough that I can’t reach in too far for it to be dangerous If the knives ever start to plug up because I’m putting too much wood in I pull on a clutch-type lever located next to the tray to disengage them “A number of people have seen me use it and are amazed at how well it works I spent about $400 whereas a new commercial pto-driven wood chipper sells for about $10 000 ” Jones says he came up with the idea because he has six acres with a lot of spruce trees and spruce budworms have killed a lot of them “I cut up the tree trunks for firewood and convert the leftover limbs and brush into wood chips I’ve seen stories in FARM SHOW where farmers converted one-row corn choppers into wood chippers I found one but the owner wanted $500 for it which was more than I wanted to pay So when I found the silo filler I decided to see what I could do with it ” He says he’s old enough to remember farmers in his area using this kind of 4-wheeled silo filler back in the 1930’s and ’40’s “In those days they pulled the machine around from neighbor to neighbor at silo filling time There probably aren’t too many of these old silo fillers still around ” The silo filler still has its original blower spout However Jones didn’t want chips blowing all over so he cut the bottom out of a big burlap bag and tied it over the end of the chute “It directs all the wood chips down toward the ground and into a small pile I have a walking trail on my property and whenever I want to spread more chips on it I just shovel them into my Cub Cadet 6 by 4 utility vehicle I go down the trail and dump them wherever they’re needed ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Vance W Jones W7949 Herzog Rd Iron Mountain Mich 49801 ph 906 542-6955

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