How fine would a wood chipper chip. . . .

[Robert R]

if a wood chipper could chip wood?

I am interested in making some bedding for horse stalls.  What you can buy is shavings, which are nice but a little big or sawdust which I don't like to use.  What is pretty near perfect is the long strands you get when you cut a log with the grain and your chainsaw is really sharp.  I have never run a wood chipper.  What does one of them make?  Is more like the mulch you can buy in a back (little wood chunks) or closer to big sawdust. 

[ohsoloco]

The big ones that the tree services use that I've been around make little chunks of wood (if it's bigger branches). 

[Captain]

You need a circle mill 

The wife loves the sawdust from the Peterson....especially the price....

Captain

[DonE911]

Yup... what captain said.

Pine dust off the Peterson is perfect....  not dusty and not chunky.  Degrades fast when spread on the pasture with the poop.

I get $10 for s10 sized truck full....  that only takes a little while to make too 8)

[Robert R]

Well gosh, guess I'll just have get one then.  The Mrs. might go along with it, strictly for horses purposes.   

What about when you run small stuff through a chipper/shredder, like the brush clean up on a job.  That is what I was thinking of using.

[Ed_K]

 My 3pt chipper will do up to 6". I can dial it down to 3/8" chips, but their still chunks. Salsco makes a shavings machine, but a peterson would be a better choice.

[Tom]

Some Chippers have screens that will not expell chips until they fit through the screen.  The smallest I am aware of is 1/2 inch.

If a fellow wanted to get into business providing bedding for horses, a shaving mill is the only way to go.

[Ron Wenrich]

There's one basic problem with chips.  They really don't make that good of bedding, since the wood isn't really shredded.  You might as well throw in pieces of boards.

They used to make a machine called a duster.  You can reduce slabs down to sawdust.  It was a coarse sawdust.  I thought it was very similar to a fine mulch.

You can also go the wood hog route.  That gives a shredded material that gives the absorption you want. 

Wood chippers can be adjusted to give a real chip.  But, it takes a lot more time to chip up the slabs.

For the stringy material, I guess you'll just have to stand there with your chainsaw pulling that fine stuff.  You probably could invent some type of a machine that would use multiple saw bars on a common shaft.  Run your slabs through it and make stringy bedding.

[rebocardo]

Too bad you do not live close to Atlanta, after I am done with a few cords of split firewood, I have barrels of the stuff left. I have been dumping at the back of my property trying to fool myself into thinking it will turn into dirt someday.

[Robert R]

It'll turn into fine dirt if you first put it under horses or chickens.

[bottlefed89]

I own a tree service, we run vermeer chippers.  You can make the chips about any size you want.  They have hydraulic wheels that feed the brush in, so between playing with the knife sharpness, varying the feed speed, and varying the engine/cutter wheel RPM (ALSO DEPENDS ON THE TYPE OF WOOD) you can get about whatever size you want.  From what I've seen the stuff you'd want is more like what I get from the stump grinder.  it's more like what's left after chainsaw ripping through wood. 

[Jason_WI]

I am going to make a New Holland 717 chopper into a chipper. It is a cut N throw type forage chopper. I am going to make a pan for the front feed. changing the feed rate is simple as changing a sprocket, It has 9 knives that are configured in a spiral cut fashon. With a slow enough feed rate you may be able to make shavings with it. You can find these at auctions for 100 bux as they are way too small for todays farms.