Forage Chopper Makes A Great Brush Chipper

Forage chopper makes a great brush chipper WOODLOT EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 11-2-3 When Jack Hoffman decided he needed a brush chipper for his wintertime tree-trimming business, he found out there wasn't a good pto-powered model available and he couldn't justify the cost of a special-built commercial model. "Then I got to thinking how easily brush goes through a forage chopper when you pick up a branch at the edge of a field and I decided to build my own," he told FARM SHOW. The first step was to remove the cutterhead and shroud from a junked one-row No. 10 International "direct throw" chopper built in the late 1950's. He built a frame around the cutterhead and fitted it with 3-pt. mounting brackets and a pto coupler so he can direct-drive it with the tractor pto. "It's important to make sure you don't hang onto branches when you feed them because it works so fast. It chews them up into 1¢ in. wide chips and throws them as far as 40 ft. Commercial units chop into smaller pieces because they spin at as much as 20,000 rpm's versus 540 rpm's for this machine," says Hoffman. He says the chipper is extremely quiet when idling and only makes noise when you feed into it, unlike commercial units that set up a constant whine. He can feed it with green wood up to 4 in. in dia. and dead wood up to 3 in. in dia. Hoffman spent about a week putting the chipper together. He spent $50 for the junked chopper, $90 to have the chutes fabricated, and $30 for miscellaneous other parts. Both chutes hinge upward for travel. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jack Hoffman, Rt. 2, Monticello, Iowa 52310 (ph 319 465-4200).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.