Chipper thing

[superlightr]

Im after a thing that chips wood in - ie branches go in one end and small chopped up bits the other.

Any advice on what to get. (the funnier the better although some serious one would be good)

[Davi]

not in a funny mood, so you'll have to accept serious

If it's small and powered by an electric motor, it's sod all use for anything much over the size of twig you could chew up and spit out using your mouth.

If it's small and petrol and you have a reasonably small usage requirement, it just makes a boring job a little more enjoyable. Though no quicker. In fact probably slower.

If it's very big, cost as much as your car and petrol, it's ace, but not really that viable for the average british garden

They do make things a lot more compact, but I found it easier in the end to just get a towbar and take the stuff to the dump, or pay a man with a "proper" chipper a few quid to come round and clear up!

[Pothole]

http://www.hss.com/c/9000003/Chippers-and-Shredder...

[Laurel Green]

Well, on this fine sunny morning, would just like to say, I'm feeling chipper. That is all.

[superlightr]

Im moving towards this Bosch AXT Rapid 2200 - Electric Shredder

Accept what posters have said, it will be low use and I think this will do the job for me.

[Davi]

what are you planning to chip, and how much of it? I think the electric one I bought is at my brothers house, buried in their shed. They collected it from my parents, where it was buried in the shed, after they asked to borrow it when they saw it buried in my shed

I would highly recommend hiring a electric one for a day before purchasing, best case scenario is you'll save yourself £120, worst case is you spend another £30...

[deckster]

I've got some Bosch 1600W thing, think it was around £150 from B&Q. For what I need it for it's a fabulous bit of kit and will happily chew through anything up to an inch or so thick. Any more than that and you're out of luck, but for getting rid of general pruning and light hackery it's great.

[ldt]

I've got a Bosch ATX 2000 HP shredder and it is brilliant. It works on a Archimedes screw principle and automatically draws in branches up to around 40mm thick (depending upon hardness) and it is amazing to watch. The fact that it autofeed is great because it will have digested the last branch in the time it takes to pick up another one to feed it. It is also very quiet. We have a reasonable sized garden and have found it really useful for reducing large volumes of cuttings to fit into the green bin.

Be very careful with purchasing though because most cheap chippers work on a rotating blade principle (and I think this includes the similarly named ATX 2200 Rapid) so you need to manually force the branches in. I tried one of this type (not the ATX Rapid) and it was completely useless making loads of noise and very little progress whilst requiring lots of manual effort.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the ATX 2000 HP to anyone though and it can be bought for a bargain £120 now.

Edited by ldt on Monday 24th May 12:52

[MKnight702]

My Dad has a Bosch screw type shredder that I borrow and it tackles most things in the garden well enough with one exception. It will not do Laurel, it does the branches up to about 35-40mm but just cannot cope with the leaves, a few laurel leaves gummed together will cause the thing to stop and you then have to unplug and unblock.

As an alternative, last year I hired a petrol driven monster. That chomped through pretty much everything I threw at it. Quite scary though, it grabbed and dragged in very quickly so you had to let go very sharpish or you were going in too

[HiRich]

I bought an AXT Rapid 2200 last summer, replacing an old-fashioned "flat disc" model. I use it for ivy, lime tree branches (full pollarding every second year) , pyrocanthus, rambling rose and similar, both fresh and dried.

I would describe it as only OK. Obvious benefits are that it is on hand for today's pruning (even if that's just 15 minutes shredding), will take the pollarding (about 6 hours shredding) and of course you get the output for mulching and composting. It's also quite quiet, quick to set up and generally handle. Problems though have been:

• A bad tendency to produce long strips of bark - much worse than the old machine which was much better at real "chipping to buggery"
• It can only comfortably handle an inch, not the larger size claimed. Some hard wood bits will really piss it off. So with big work like the pollarding, that means more time sawing off the the length that won't go through.
• It does have a tendency to clog at the blade
• It doesn't have the "pull" that the old machine had. Unlike the old machine, once you have got it through the feed hole it can tend to just sit there rather than get pulled on to its inevitable death.
• You do need a special bin/bag. An Ikea bag, or a hippo bag you have spare work fine (don't wast money on the Bosch one) or a box. But the old machine would take old compost bags which were just the right size.

So whilst it may be the best at its price point, I would now be more interested in jumping to the next price point of about £250 - mainly for it's ability to comfortably deal with the sort of stuff I need to shred.

[Henry-F]

It depends on what you want to put through the machine. The electric machines from the DIY chains are really for garden trimmings rather than any sort of "tree". Certainly they won't perform as close to an industrial unit as, say a cheap pressure washer will. I bought a second hand version of this


earlier on in the year and have been quite happy with it. You need to make sure the blades are kept sharp for best results.

I looked at loads of different options. To be fair I have quite heavy stuff to chip when I put it to work round the place although not an Arborist. Saved money by buying a petrol engined machine rather than a diesel one. Auto-feed is a must and make sure it's got a fully functioning auto stop device.

The unit handles a bit of vegetation without too much fuss. Obviously ruled out anything from the DIY chains as limited to pretty small garden cuttings. User fed more professional machines seemed a possibility but a load of aggro to use. Self feed really speeds things up no end. A bit like diggers you'll generally always get your money back as and when you look to get shot of it.

Just Googled your chosen machine and one of these might be a bit on the large side for your needs but I'd already typed up the response. If anyone's looking for a more industrial machine let me know and I'll tell you what I found out on my searching.

All the best.

Henry

[superlightr]

good advice - its not tree trimming. So a small bosch should do it.

[Henry-F]

As I said I started to post then Googled your chosen tool, realised you're needs were probably a little less industrial but thought I might as well post up having done the typing. I did a lot of homework prior to my purchase which might be useful to someone looking for similar.

Henry

[treehack]

This would pretty much do it
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=onXcTeTcGQk&fe...

[N Dentressangle]

superlightr said:

Im moving towards this Bosch AXT Rapid 2200 - Electric Shredder

Accept what posters have said, it will be low use and I think this will do the job for me.

Gets better reviews than most:

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews169423.html

and doesn't sound as crap as the one we borrow from Mrs D's parents occasionally.

Can't help thinking about this when I see a chipper, personally:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qWFhDvURLg