STIHL Electric chipper (in depth)

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In the past I’ve accumulated material, then hired a chipper and spent a day reducing the pile to mulch (click here to view)

This is a hassle because of the room the accumulating pile takes up and the potential fire risk. And there is the time wasted driving to another town to pick up the hire.

The Stihl 355 is really light weight so it can be rolled most places in the garden. Nice big wheels.

As I detailed in the previous blog entry (click here), this chipper has some quirks.
The shredded material is deposited inside a shroud where it sits, and builds up until it blocks off the exit chute. Most of the blade clearance issues I have are when this backed up material jams the blades.

Last week I did some more mulching into one of the raised gardens. First lot I had to mulch was a softwood tree. Softer than willow.



When the shroud fills up, I drag the chipper back a bit clearing the exit chute and creating a trail of shredded material. I swapped between the ‘leaf’ and ‘branch’ settings, which reverses the direction of the cutting blades.



Starting a second row. This was pohutukawa which has a lot harder wood.



At the end of the day, I had two rows of mulched material.



The ‘blade rose’ is pretty amazing. 


It’s designed to run in both directions and it looks like the only difference between the two ‘settings’ on the control panel is that the harder material is driven into a groove in the plate positioned above the blades.




Though most of the chipper is made of plastic, they have used aluminium castings where extra rigidity is needed.

After the last blog post, I made a comment on Facebook about how I feel that this chipper has been designed to make sure people don't cut their hands off.

Actually I think it's been over-designed!
The blade cover is held on with two 'crazy long’ bolts.
Total pain to unscrew. The chipper doesn't run unless these are screwed in tightly.

   

The feed chute is really tall. I’m pretty sure it’s designed to be longer than any human arm. I don’t like it but a mate that helps me out does.

The exit chute is so flat that there seems to be no way that you could get a hand up there. So tight that if you don’t keep a close watch, material backs up.

As I’m working, I’m checking in the gap between the body and the cowling.
I’m surprised that Stilh didn’t build in a fan to blow the chips away from the bottom of the exit chute.



The video below gives an example of the chipper working.
You can see me tapping the exit chute to dislodge chips. Midway through I swap over to the ‘harder material’.
You’ll see the ludicrously long time it takes to clear the blades due to the ‘safety’ screws.




This was a job I did earlier in the year. Big pile of willow prunings.

   


Anything too big to chip is firewood.

      


No problems with bamboo



Second job with willow prunings. I got two loads this size done in a day.



Another example of creating a line of mulch by dragging the chipper back as it fills the hopper area.

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