Craftsman wood chipper

[thool]

I have a pile of brush that I'd love to burn, but town prohibits it, so chipping is the next best thing. Found a used craftsman wood chipper model 247.775880 that in good shape for the money. The 8.5 motor is in excellent shape. I can see the the shredder blade, which looks like a small lawnmower blade, and it has nicks and looks dull. There are also chipper blades that I cannot see, but suspect have to be sharpened or replaced.

What does this effort involve? Is it good enough to sharpen, or is replacing a better option?

 

[gdocktor3]

I don't have that exact model, but a similar craftsman and it works, but is a pain in the ***. The chips discharge, actually fall out the bottom and it has to constantly be repositioned or the chips back up. It's not like a large chipper that shoots the chips. If it's something you will only use once or twice, you might be better off renting a Vermeer from HD. After that one or two uses, you then have to store it somewhere until you use it again years down the road. It's more hassle than useful. Here's the manual. Read up on changing the blades http://pdfstream.manualsonline.com/0/08fc472c-de55-4d2f-8810-c24134bd8ba3.pdf

 

[gungatim]

I've bought and flipped a couple of those. first one was the silver craftsman, I used it a couple times until I nearly put my eye out with **** shooting back out the in feed chute. wife thought I got in a bar fight when she saw the black eye and bruises. I sold it immediately. 2nd one I had given to me when the owner had the same thing happen to him, so I sold it as well. it was the red craftsman version. neither had a manual so no idea on the blade sharpening process.

all I'm saying is I hat those things and they are dangerous as hell, so whatever you do keep safe distance, wear gloves, eye protection, etc. maybe sharpening the blades keeps kickbacks from happening but i'll never use one again if I can help it...just BE SAFE!

 

[PMD1966]

The small, looks like lawnmower blade is secured with Loc-Tite. had to heat the bolt to remove it.

 

[thool]

Thanks, I'll feed from the side, wear gloves, eye protection, hearing protection, a cup...

 

[drink]

I have a pile of brush that I'd love to burn, but town prohibits it, so chipping is the next best thing. Found a used craftsman wood chipper model 247.775880 that in good shape for the money. The 8.5 motor is in excellent shape. I can see the the shredder blade, which looks like a small lawnmower blade, and it has nicks and looks dull. There are also chipper blades that I cannot see, but suspect have to be sharpened or replaced.

What does this effort involve? Is it good enough to sharpen, or is replacing a better option?

Years ago I owned a Troy-Bilt chipper shredder. If you kept the blades sharp it would do a lot of light chipping work but they are not that good of a machine. A problem I faced was the chute where the branches go was very narrow and not all branches are perfectly straight. This resulted in having an electric chainsaw at my side to quickly cut the crooked branches so they would feed into the chute. If the blades were sharp they would chip straight branches quickly but if they were dull I would have to shove them through with a push stick. That got old really quickly.

When I replaced the blades it was more of a job than I expected but I was able to do it. Afterwards it was something I didn't look forward to doing.

The model number you provided showed it came new with a Tecumseh engine. Sears still has some parts available but some parts are no longer available.

Do you have a landfill that accepts yard debris at no cost to dump for county residents? If yes, I would consider simply dumping the branches there if not too far away, or simply burn them in your fireplace (preferred method).

 

[drink]

I used my chipper mulcher to mulch leaved in the fall. It had a large hopper on the top and it would mulch a lot of leaves into some pretty good compost. Mine was made out of metal and it had a tow bar so it could be pulled behind a garden tractor. The blades on my model cost too much and the thing wore out way too quick. My local mower shops were not sure if they could sharpen the blades either.

 

[thool]

Sharpened the chipper blades (the 2 attached to the rotating plate) yesterday. They were kind of hard to get to, but really needed to be honed. The shredder blade is next on my list.

 

[redmondjp]

Sharpened the chipper blades (the 2 attached to the rotating plate) yesterday. They were kind of hard to get to, but really needed to be honed. The shredder blade is next on my list.

You can still get parts for that machine, which was made for Sears by MTD:

https://www.partstree.com/parts/mtd...95d099-craftsman-chipper-shredder-2002-sears/

My brother has that exact same model.

 

[thool]

Fwiw, I sharpened the chipper blades and the shredder blade. A little tricky to get to but the thing performs well. Engine is pretty strong and was able to chew through a 3 inch green branch with some effort.