Wood chipper: operating principle and features of use, video review of the original wood chipper. Wood chippers What to pay attention to when working with wood chippers

They have long been popular in our country, since forests cover most of its territory. Every owner of this type of enterprise must make every effort to increase its profitability.

This can be facilitated by a wood chipper. It helps to process a huge amount of substandard wood, which is usually thrown away, into a highly valuable and very high-quality product.

What is she doing?

The main purpose of this type of equipment is to process wood into chips. Recently, the demand for it has increased sharply, as the industry produces OSB boards from chips. They are very popular among buyers, as this material provides a real opportunity to build a cheap and high-quality house.

What types of wood waste crushers are there?

Each crusher can be mobile or stationary. Depending on the device, they are drum or rotary. But the techniques go even further, dividing them into other varieties:

• rotary tool with a vertical or horizontal shaft arrangement;
• hammer crushers;
• disk and cone models;
• screw and roller varieties;
• type.

Some features

Disc types of crushers work by using a rapidly rotating disc with a cutting edge to break the wood into chips. Discs can be flat or conical, and machines with the latter type are considered more powerful. This is especially true when their surface is profiled.

It is believed that a wood chipper with more knives on the working disk can process more raw materials in a shorter period of time.

The fact is that models with fewer knives work by chopping all the material within one cycle, while in varieties with several cutting surfaces at least one knife constantly comes into contact with the wood.

Raw material supply methods

The feed mechanism can be vertical or horizontal. A wood waste crusher that can use an additional conveyor to feed it will cost more. In general, feeding methods are divided into manual and forced. But much better and safer are those varieties that have a vacuum or gravity feed.

Nutrition

A stationary wood waste crusher, which can be rented in almost any major city at a negotiable price, is in most cases equipped with an electric motor.

Such machines are equipped with hydraulic feed systems. Most often they are used in urban environments, when cutting branches are processed.

Mobile varieties are equipped with powerful diesel engines, and sometimes are simply built on the basis of wheeled ones. The process of their operation is greatly facilitated by the fact that the material is fed into the drum automatically, no human intervention is required.

What's the price? A wood waste crusher costs about 260 thousand rubles or more.

Wood crushers are widely used not only for industrial purposes, but also for private purposes, as they make it possible to make maximum use of production waste and obtain additional profit from it. The use of a wood waste crusher in private estates helps to avoid fires, as well as provide fuel for boilers or fertilizer for the soil.

This article explains what types of crushers there are, how to choose the most suitable option for each specific case, and how to make a crusher with your own hands.

Working with wood always involves a large amount of waste material that needs to be disposed of somehow. This can be done using crushers. They allow you to grind the material into chips, which can be used to make cellulose or fiberboard. Most wood processing enterprises use industrial crushers to cope with large amounts of production waste and obtain cheap and high-quality raw materials from them.

Crushers can also be used in private homes. For example, if there is a garden on the property, it needs to be trimmed every year, and this creates a mass. Some homeowners simply burn cut branches, but this is harmful to the environment and is a violation of fire safety (especially during a special fire regime).

In addition to cut branches, other wood waste that requires disposal may accumulate on the estate - old furniture, remnants of boards after landscaping the house and site, etc.

The ideal solution to the problem would be to use a wood waste shredder. Such a unit will allow you to obtain a significant amount of useful fertilizer for the garden from cut branches. Sawdust is an excellent material for mulching the soil, thanks to which the soil in beds and under trees remains moist and loose longer, providing plants with the best conditions for development.

Only environmentally friendly wood waste can be used to fertilize and mulch the soil. The remains of old furniture may contain additives harmful to garden plants, so it is strictly not recommended to use such wood chips in the garden after grinding.

Operating principle of wood waste crushers

Using such equipment, you can grind wood and obtain granules or chips of the same size. If the granule size is 0.5 cm or more, this process is called crushing; if smaller, it is called grinding.

Shredding or crushing of wood waste occurs in various ways:

1. Bending followed by breaking.
2. Trituration.
3. Broken after a strong blow.
4. Fixation and further shift.
5. Compression and then crushing.
6. Cleavage with rupture.

The crusher operation process itself looks something like this:

1. Two shafts with teeth rotating towards each other “absorb” a branch or a piece of board.
2. The grinding process takes place inside the crusher.
3. Through the outlet sleeve, the chips are either fed to the machine, or simply poured to the side if we are talking about small volumes.

Types of crushers

Shredders for wood waste can be classified in different ways. Depending on the mechanism of operation, they are:

1. Autonomous.
2. Electrical.

Autonomous crushers run on gasoline or diesel. This allows you to use them anywhere without being tied to a power source. Such equipment is used in large areas and far from residential areas.

The disadvantage of autonomous crushers is that they are quite noisy and emit toxic substances when burning fuel.

Electric shredders can operate virtually silently and without harmful emissions. Also, due to the absence of the need for refueling, such equipment is lighter. The price of electrical equipment is also lower. True, the power of such crushers is usually less than that of fuel-powered crushers.

The type of knives is important when choosing a crusher. Cutting mechanisms can be as follows:

1. Disc knife. This type of knives is used for crushing small branches and bush waste up to 2 cm in size. This mechanism is simple and also creates high-quality chips.
2. Milling mechanism. Suitable for working with thick branches. However, when processing raw material, it can become clogged and require periodic cleaning.
3. Milling turbine mechanism. This type of knives is universal, since such equipment allows you to chop both large and small branches.

You can see one of the crushers designed to produce sawdust in action in the following video

The shredder allows you to work with boards that may contain nails. However, the chips obtained in this way may be large and not of very good quality. However, you can continue working with such chips by passing them through a hammer crusher. So, you can further grind the raw material and then use it in the production of fiberboard.

How to make a crusher with your own hands

To make a crusher at home, you need to choose the right engine, blade mechanism and body parts.

Engine selection

To select a motor of suitable power, you need to know how large the waste will need to be crushed.

IMPORTANT! If the power of the selected engine is about 3-4 kW, it will be possible to process branches up to 4 cm in diameter. A motor with a power of 6 kW can cope with chopping branches up to 15 cm in diameter.

Also, when choosing an engine, you need to decide whether the crusher will run on gasoline or electricity.

Knife selection

When making a crusher yourself, simple mechanisms are usually used. For example, you can install a set of circular saws or a twin-shaft mechanism with knives.

To avoid the need to constantly sharpen the blades during operation, it is necessary to use saws with carbide tips.

Case manufacturing

Sheet metal or galvanized steel can be used for the crusher body. Welded structures made of steel pipes are usually used to supply raw materials and the outlet hose.

Although such a homemade crusher may not look very presentable, it will cost less than a factory one, will be easier to operate and will cope with its main task.

Assembly of elements

The installation process begins with the assembly of a frame from a metal profile. Then the engine is installed inside. Behind it is a shield with a hole for the shaft. It is necessary to install the assembled disk with fixed knives into this shaft.

After this, you need to make a casing with a compartment for receiving branches and an outlet sleeve.

For ease of use of such a crusher, you can weld a handle, as well as an axle on which you can put wheels.

Conclusion

A wood waste crusher is undoubtedly a useful unit both for industrial enterprises and in private homes. This mechanism makes it possible to utilize a fairly large volume of wood residues of any origin without harming the environment, and at the same time makes it possible to once again use the product obtained by grinding wood (sawdust or wood chips).

Processing and disposal of wood waste is a headache for enterprises whose activities are related to the procurement and processing of wood, but not only them.

Country property owners also regularly face the problem of removing branches left after clearing the garden, uprooted stumps, and wood construction waste. A simple and useful device - a wood chipper - will help solve all these problems, and perhaps make money.

What is a crusher and why is it needed?

During the planned deforestation and removal of round timber, a huge number of branches of all sizes remain in the cleared area.

Burning them on site is dangerous and irrational. Exporting them in their natural form is expensive and inconvenient - having a fairly small mass, they take up an unreasonably large volume.

It is also impossible to leave them: the tree, rotting, turns into a breeding ground for forest pests.

We should not forget that wood in any form is a valuable source of cellulose. Every recycled branch, every twig is a new newspaper, book page, notebook for a schoolchild.

A crusher will help to significantly facilitate the processing of wood waste. Wood crushed directly at the felling site takes up little space, is easy to transport, and is completely ready for further processing.

Kinds

The industry offers wood crushers of various designs. The choice of one model or another directly depends on the amount of work expected. Large enterprises involved in deforestation prefer autonomous devices that are installed on tractors and are guaranteed to cope with any amount of waste. For a country house or cottage, it is rational to purchase a portable crusher with an electric drive.

There are several main types of wood crushers, each of them has its own characteristics:

• disc crusher;
• drum chopper;
• rotary unit with a vertical or horizontal shaft;
• hammer crushers of various designs.

Disc chippers and drum chippers are great for woodworking businesses. These units can easily cope with thick branches, and if necessary, they will break whole trunks into chips. The quality of the resulting chips allows it to be used for the production of wood boards, bypassing the additional processing stage.

Rotary units, or shredders, are ideal for processing wood waste from construction. Wooden beams removed from destroyed dilapidated buildings, boards used as formwork, as a rule, are replete with various metal objects, these are self-tapping screws, staples, nails. These devices allow you to crush wood and separate it from metal.

A hammer crusher for wood is excellent for crushing finished wood chips to bring its size to the desired fraction. The main part of the device is metal hammers on a pendulum suspension.

For home and garden

For home use, a very powerful unit is unlikely to be needed. An electric crusher with average characteristics can easily cope with the work of disposing of gardening waste.

This useful device, installed in the country, will help solve a number of problems. Among other things:

• will get rid of constantly accumulating debris in the form of branches and uprooted stumps;
• will allow you to save significantly, wood chips are an excellent fuel that can replace the usual coal, firewood, gas;
• will produce sawdust, which is one of the best materials for mulching plants;
• will help you make money on the chips obtained as a result of crushing, because this is an excellent material for creating wood boards and producing paper.

Even if the amount of wood processed is not too large, the crusher is guaranteed to pay for itself, since waste that was previously burned or rotted can be recycled, thereby contributing to preserving the ecology of the planet.

DIY making

You can buy a wood chipper at any hardware store. The industry offers devices of any power, for every taste. Of course, if you have the skills to work with metal, you can make a full-fledged wood waste crusher with your own hands. It is unlikely to reach industrial volumes, but it will definitely cope with work at the dacha.

Selecting a device circuit

There are different types of wood chippers, each with their own pros and cons. In principle, if you have the proper experience, tools and materials, you can make any of them at home. Here it is important to soberly assess your strengths and proceed from the amount of work that will be performed by the crusher. The best option for home use is a disc crusher for wood. On the one hand, it is easy to manufacture, on the other, it has sufficient performance.

The working part of a homemade crusher is a disk with knives mounted on it. Rotation is transmitted to it through a belt drive. The disk rotates, the knives bite into the wood, breaking off chips from it. The chopped wood is thrown outside, stored near the crusher or filled into bags.

Preparation of tools and materials

Before you start making the device, you should prepare the tool. To work you will need:

• welding machine;
• Bulgarian;
• drilling machine or electric drill, you can get by with a mini-machine, a drill mounted on a frame, providing an accurate drilling angle;
• set of tools (keys, screwdrivers);
• brush and paint.

To manufacture the working part of the crusher, you will need a steel disk with a diameter of about 30 cm. The thickness of the metal must be at least 16 mm. This disk, in addition to fixing the knives, performs the functions of a flywheel, therefore, the greater its mass, the larger the branches the unit can handle.

Cutting tools - knives. They can be purchased, selected by size, or made independently from a hard steel plate about 7 mm thick. The knives are fastened with bolts.

The electric motor power for this device should be about 3000 W. This power is enough to cope with the volume of waste generated in a standard garden plot. The shaft is made of steel rod; bearings are selected according to its diameter. A drive pulley is also installed on it.

Among other things, you will need sheet steel to make the casing, a square for the ejector blades and mounting brackets.

Assembly

It's best to start by creating a drawing. It is not at all necessary to prepare full-fledged design documentation; a sketch indicating the main dimensions of the wood crusher is sufficient.

The work begins directly with the disk. A hole is drilled in its center. The diameter of the hole must match the diameter of the shaft. To fix the disk, a cut is made under the key; instead of a keyed connection, you can use a suitable flange for bolts.

Using a grinder, grooves are made in the disc for knives. The optimal number of them is 4. Holes with a diameter of 8-10 mm are drilled along the edges of the grooves, with their help the knives and ejector blades are attached to the bolts. It is convenient to use a square as blades, the shelf of which is placed under the knife.

The body is made from sheet steel about 5 mm thick. It consists of two identical sidewalls, between which a side made of steel tape is laid. One part of it is welded to the sidewall, and bolts are used to attach it to the second.

Wood waste crushers are an indispensable tool for every organization or individual involved in any type of woodworking. Since this type of activity certainly leaves a lot of unused material, for example:

• branches;
• foliage;
• wane;
• bark;
• branch;
• slats;
• croaker;
• and other trimmings.

Wood waste crushers will help any enterprise or entrepreneur not only get rid of large amounts of waste, but will also allow you to obtain first-class material for the production of fiberboard or chipboard. The method of grinding wood residues brings not only economic benefits, but also enormous environmental benefits. Since the burning of wooden remains throughout the country, on such a scale, produces a huge amount of smog polluting the atmosphere. By using wood waste crushers at each enterprise, you can make a significant contribution to cleaning up the country’s ecology, and this method will also allow you to make your craft virtually waste-free.

Types of wood shredders

The principle of operation of the wood waste crusher lies in its two shafts rotating towards each other, on which rotors with teeth are located, they also work as hooks for branches. You just need to point a branch or cutting a board towards the rotors, they will pick it up and instantly crush it into chips. Chips, in turn, through a special outlet sleeve, can be immediately loaded onto a car or any kind of bunker, since their supply can be directed in different directions and supplied to a height of up to 2.5 meters.

Such a mechanism is driven by electric motors with a power of 2 kW to 4 kW, if the supply voltage is 220 volts; if this unit is connected to a voltage of 380 volts, it may be equipped with more powerful drive motors. In this case, the specific power will be about 4-6 tons per hour.

Dimensions of loaded elements into wood waste crushers can be as follows:

• from 180 to 240 mm – width;
• from 140 to 220 mm – diameter;
• length is unlimited.

There are also hammer crushers of wood waste, the principle of their operation is to cut off chips from damp or damp branches, the fiber part of which can clog the rotary shredders.

Equipment such as wood chippers can operate in several ways, this does not affect the final result, the only difference is that each of them is optimally suited for certain types of trees or their condition. There are the following operating principles:

• compression, under regulated pressure, resulting in crushing of the fibers;
• splitting into small parts;
• kinks in the rotor compartment, resulting in the branch breaking into small pieces;
• fixation of the supplied material, with a shift in different directions, which leads to grinding of the fibers into small parts;
• fracture as a result of a powerful blow.

Depending on the technology, there are the following wood waste crushers:

• drums;
• disk;
• cheek;
• rod;
• conical;
• rotary;
• hammer;
• drums;
• roller

Advantages of using a wood chipper

Regardless of the principle of operation, wood waste crushers are designed to clear areas of wood waste from both production and everyday life. For example, every year municipal services, when cleaning parks and residential areas, collect tens of tons of similar waste, which is either burned or delivered to landfills for solid waste, which is an irrational use of such production materials.

The construction industry annually cuts down tens, or even hundreds of hectares of forest, only for the production of certain building materials, the main component of which is wood shavings. The use of a wood waste crusher will also make it possible to preserve natural green spaces. Which will also give a positive result. In addition to preserving natural resources, this can also be called a contribution for the future to clean up and preserve the environmental situation in the country.

See also - DIY garden shredder

Very often, gardeners and municipal services are faced with the question of recycling household waste in the form of various bushes, branches and tree trunks. If large wood waste can be sawed up and used in wood-burning stoves, then other tree debris is simply thrown away or burned. With the tightening of environmental requirements, this type of disposal began to raise a lot of questions from the relevant government services, which began to impose penalties on the culprits. The appearance on the market of mechanisms, branch shredders, made it possible to solve all these issues.

Mechanical disposal of wood waste

The process involves passing cut tree trunks and branches through the nozzle of a wood chipper equipped with a disc or rotor with blades. The result is wood pulp (mulch).

The advantages of this type of wood waste processing:

• Legality of this disposal method. Throwing this type of waste into garbage containers not approved by utilities, and dumping in the wrong place may result in a fine. Burning of garbage is also prohibited.
• Getting excellent fertilizer. For an individual gardener, it is unacceptable generosity to remove biological waste from the garden plot. Thus depleting your land.

The use of artificial fertilizers is not as effective as natural components. Using a wood chipper to grind wood waste, it is possible to obtain excellent component of compost fertilizer. Shredded sawdust is sprinkled on beds and garden paths.

Businesses have also learned to make a profit from grinding waste in the form of bushes, twigs and other plant components, obtaining various compositions of organic fertilizers.

The disadvantages include the price of a crushing apparatus for grinding waste from tree processing. Although it is worth noting that due to savings on fertilizer, it is possible to recoup the costs of a wood chipper, not to mention business projects for the sale of fertilizer additives.

Types of crushers for crushing twigs and branches

There are two main commonly used wood chipper mechanisms:

• autonomous (petrol or diesel);
• electric.

The advantages of a combustible fuel shredder include autonomy of production. When fuel is available it will work at any distance from power sources, which is of great importance for working in large areas and far from electrified settlements.

Gasoline branch shredders are more powerful and can process a volume of about 70 mm.

The disadvantage is noise and toxic emissions. Although modern technologies reduce these problems to a minimum. It is also worth noting that maintenance is more complex.

Electric grinding allows you to work with much less noise than on gasoline. There are no harmful emissions. In addition, it is much lighter in weight.

The price of electric shredder models is lower than gasoline ones, as is the power. But tree trunks of about 40 mm are quite tough for an electric crusher.

The main disadvantage is the attachment to the power source. Electrical failures and lack of voltage make the use of an electric shredder model useless.

Types of knives used in wood chippers

For shredder motors cutting mechanisms are of great importance devices. Let's note three types of knives:

Power of crushing mechanisms for chopping branches

Unit power – important component in processing branches. In addition to the thickness of the shredded branches, the volume of processing and the duration of uninterrupted operation of the shredder depend on this.

Not all consumers need powerful branches shredder mechanisms, so the manufacturer distinguishes devices according to different purpose groups:

• non-professional (amateur;
• semi-professional;
• professional.

Non-professional wood chipper models do not have much power(around 1.6 kW). Capable of chopping branches up to 30 mm. They operate on electric motors. They are quite capable of maintaining a garden plot with new plantings.

Models of the second level have a power of 2.6 kW. Can be gasoline or electric. Copes with branches up to 40 mm.

Professional crushers have increased power up to 8 kW. Equipment weight up to 100 kg. They run on gasoline engines. Allows you to chop branches up to 75 mm.

What to consider when choosing a wood chipper?

For an amateur gardener, there is no need to purchase a professional shredder. With a constant power source just buy a simple model branch chopper.

If you have old stands of bushes that you plan to cut down, it is advisable to purchase more powerful models of crushers.

Professional models of shredders are suitable for utilities and entrepreneurs.

In addition to power and power sources, you should pay attention to the design of the chopper blades. Since different cutting plane devices make it possible to obtain shredded wood waste of different sizes, such as small sawdust and small chips.

Additional crusher options

Household models of branch shredders, in addition to crushing branches, small tree trunks, can also grind other organic waste: grass, wood chips, various plants. This is especially true after the end of the harvest of garden crops: tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. Processed and used seedlings serve as excellent components for compost and caring for garden beds.

What to pay attention to when working with wood chippers?

All mechanisms of this type require special care and proper use in accordance with the documentation. The main thing that you must pay special attention to in order not to spoil the mechanism:

• items to be disposed of must be no larger than the processed volume specified in the shredder instructions;
• prevent stones, plastic, fabric, glass, etc. from getting into the receiving funnel;
• do not treat shrubs or roots with soil on the root system;
• To minimize wear on the shredder, it is preferable to process fresh wood waste.

Safety requirements when working with a shredder

All work on crushing twigs and branches must be carried out wearing protective glasses or a mask. Depending on the power of the wood chipper, wood chips may fly, so it is advisable to completely cover your face and head.

The gloves on your hands should be tight-fitting and not slip off your hands. You must dress in such a way that parts of your clothing cannot get caught in the wood chipper mechanism. Do not remove stuck objects while the engine is running.

A branch chopper is a necessary tool on the farm. The price of simple models allows almost everyone to purchase it. Currently, it is being widely introduced into all private households. And only the lack of information about its benefits does not allow it to be used everywhere.

It is possible to predict that in the near future, the shredder will become an indispensable piece of gardening equipment any farm.