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Morbark 3036

Started by Wrenchman, August 02, 2008, 12:03:46 PM

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Wrenchman

Anybody have any experience with blowing chips into van trailers out of a whole tree chipper? We're having issues with filling the front of the trailers and also plugging the chute with fine material.

judochop


Definitely no experience here but a shot in the dark I
would ask is there a vent out of the van? If so is it plugged
causing a back pressure slowing down the flow of what you
blowing in there especially the fine stuff ?


Wrenchman

Yep, 4 vents per side on the van trailers. We also have an open top trailer that the chipper can't push it to the front.

We've put a blower system on the discharge chute to help prevent plugging and also hoped the added air would help throw the chips further, but to no avail.

Maineloggerkid

Im no expert, but are the gears and/or hydraulics in the blower unit in servicable condition? How old is the machine, does it need some TLC??

Im not saying that its beat up, Im just tossing some questions out there.
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Wrenchman

Blower was rebuilt with new bearings and balanced, new hydraulic motor as well. Chipper is in good mechanical shape, chips great but the majority of the time, it will only throw the chips roughly 40 feet.  Van trailers are 45 feet and the open top is 48 feet.


Im not saying that its beat up, Im just tossing some questions out there.
[/quote]

Not a problem. No, it's not a pile of junk  ;). We average 375-450 tons of chips per week so the chipper works well. Just not happy with sending a trailer out not completely loaded on long hauls to the mill. (Especially with fuel prices nowadays).

Ron Wenrich

No experience with whole tree chippers, but have been around mill chippers without blowers.  First I would ask if the chipper was filling the front of the trailer before.  Our chipper won't blow the front of a 40' van.  I haven't seen a whole lot of mill chippers that will blow all the way to the front.

If you're getting lots of fine, I would have to ask how the anvil is set.  If the anvil gets too close you'll get real fine stuff, too far away and you get big slivers.  

Is the angle right on the blades?  Dull blades or poor angles will give you fine material.  

Are the paddles worn on the chipper?  We have had to change ours to get better air flow.

I'm kind of assuming that the mill chippers and whole tree chippers are fairly similar in operation.
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Dave Shepard

Welcome to the Forum, wrenchman.

A friend of mine is on his second 3036, and I think all of his chips go into vans now. I believe it has no trouble filling a 40' van. I've seen quite a few that have come down from VT, so I don't think they'd be going home part full. If I see him, I'll ask.


Dave
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bull

A friend of mine chips my slab wood for me and his 3036 will blow a good 100 foot from the chipper. what shute do you have, is the bottom open from the start of the arch to the top, it should be, also do you have the power angle shute with the hydralic advance on the shute....

Wrenchman

Ron, I believe the specs on the anvil are between .040-.080, ours is set for .060. The knife holders on the drum have not been changed as far as I know, so I'm assuming the holder angle is correct. The knives that we use come straight from Morbark, so the angle on the cutting edge of the knife should be correct as well. Unfortunately, there are no paddles on the side of a 3036 drum. Morbark expects the knife and knife pocket to throw the chip up the chute. We are chipping mainly tree tops, so we do get quite a few fines from the needles, leaves, and small branches.

Wrenchman

Dave, thanks for the welcome. I'd appreciate it if you talk to him...any information on what he does would help us greatly...thanks.

Wrenchman

Bull, the chute has been a long story for us. The original chute with the hydraulic deflector would direct the chips just fine into the trailer but would plug with fines and not alot of distance. The chips would always ride at the top of the chute, but the fines would fall to the bottom, building up enough to eventually plug it. The fix for this was to put a flat paddle blower into the bottom of the chute where these fines accumulated.

We have experimented with round and square chutes flange mounted to the end of the original chute with a deflector at the end. The latest revision is an 8"x8" chute on the end of the original chute. This has proven to be the best so far with minimal plugging with the help of the blower system. We have improved the distance it will throw the chips, but they still fall short of the front of the trailer. This chute is open on the bottom for the last 3 feet.

bull

How fast are you feeding, are you bogging down and not letting the machine catch up ??? May have to slow down your feed rate and let the Machine max out RPM rather than force feeding,. lost time with plugging vs slower feed rate = lost dollars. How fast are you filling a trailer.. my friend Keith fills a trailer in apx 1 hour here...

Samuel

We run Peterson's in our organization but they have the same problems with plugs with certain wood profiles- especially wood that is in excess of 2 years old.  The drier the wood is, the more fines you produce, causing plugs if you do not keep the RPM's up.  Also the feeding speed should be dropped back and possible the anvil on the chipper wheel needs to be adjusted or changed out.  I know with even a 1/16th of an inch being out causes things (especially quality) to go hay wire.

As far as the trailers goes, we are utilizing super b trains in the bush loading from the top.  If you want to check out our chipping ops follow this link and check out the movie titled Env Stewardship.  When that opens check out the video #2 of the chipping operations.


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Jeff

Yep. Sure have. Run a chipper for a couple summers but that was way back in the day. We would have trouble filling the fronts of 40's if we were chipping a lot of small wood that amounted to more tops and brush and leaves then wood fiber.  Ours was a morbark but I cant remember what model, althought the chipper was morbark. I do remember it was a two knife chip pac and the loader was not a morbark but a prentiss. Chip pac was powered by a cummins. There also was no blower per say, other then the fan paddles in the chip pac. the force of the chipping propelled the chips into the fan. Along with all of thew things Ron mentiones, some things we would do to help get the chips to the front.

First, ya gotta maintain sharp knives. that means changing frequently. Dull blades slow the chipper, lessening the distance the chips will throw. We also had a 6 foot chute extension that was used when filling the fronts and removed as the vans filled.  Try to have some pretty good stem wood reserved to run through when you start to see that tell-tail hump of chips in the front that tells you the front aint filling.
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