On 23 Feb 2007 13:24:07 GMT, Huge wrote:

No. I have a 2kW shredder and it's a useless pain. It blocks up
all the time and won't shred anything thicker than your thumb. Oh,
and the safety features are a PITA, too. You can't get anything with
side branches into the feed chute and it's a right pain to take apart
when it blocks up.

Hmm, I've got a 2.5kW shredder and it's fine. It's also easy to take apart,
just one big thumbscrew to undo and it hinges open at the cutting plate.
The knives are double sided and secured using allen bolts and it wolfs down
branches up to 1" dia. The blades are mounted on a heavy flywheel so it
doesn't tend to jam unless one is daft.

However the big models have powered feeders and can handle huge bits of
wood and can be stacked with branches then you walk away and load some
more. That's a huge time saving over any noddy household device. Since I've
got to thin out upwards of a tonne of wood a year I've been looking at
buying one for the PTO on my tractor but they cost big bucks. At present I
use a billhook and muscle power to reduce branches to brash and logs usable
in the log burner.