Anyone got any experience of electric garden shredders that can cut wood
up to 40mm diameter. Are these devices much good? There are a number
of makes any recommendations?


--
Michael Chare

I had a Performance Power one eventually gave it away, it did OK on branches up to 30mm but seemed to struggle to chip up green stalks and leaves the most frustrating thing about it was the time it took made even longer by having to unclog it every so often. In the end it was quicker and easier to cut up branches into lengths easily transportable in the car and take to the recycling facility.

Richard

On 11/08/2019 11:19, Michael Chare wrote:
Anyone got any experience of electric garden shredders that can cut wood
up to 40mm diameter.Â* Are these devices much good?Â* There are a number
of makes any recommendations?



I haven't seen the inside of a garden shredder, but I have a paper
shredder which uses the following (but much smaller) type mechanism
that's used in this video (and a million other YT shredder vids).

Big Shredding Machines !!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzb6zDFg3WQ

If common garden shredders don't use the above, why don't they? Seems
pretty effective at breaking things, and could be made enclosed for safety.

--
Adrian C

I don't think it is a matter of the type of mechanism more a power issue. As I always say you can be underpowered when it comes to machinery but never have too much power.

Richard

On 11/08/2019 12:36, Tricky Dicky wrote:
I don't think it is a matter of the type of mechanism more a power issue. As I always say you can be underpowered when it comes to machinery but never have too much power.

Richard

I use a 13.5 bhp lawnmower for this

Actually 45mm is the level at which I keep the branches for firewood.


--
"First, find out who are the people you can not criticise. They are your
oppressors."
- George Orwell

On 11/08/19 11:19, Michael Chare wrote:
Anyone got any experience of electric garden shredders that can cut wood
up to 40mm diameter. Are these devices much good? There are a number
of makes any recommendations?

I've had a Screwfix Titan brand quiet shredder for a couple of years. It
uses a slowly rotating sharpened cog type of blade to cut the branch
against a stationary surface. In my experience, it's a very good
machine, very rarely jamming (which is usually my fault for not emptying
the box often enough, or trying to push too much stuff through). Even
when it has jammed, it is very easy to put the machine into reverse to
clear the jam. In that respect, it is many times better than the
fast-rotating lawnmower-type blade shredder I had before the Titan,
which jammed every couple of minutes, and required a dismantling of the
shredder to clear the jam.

The Titan will handle 40mm branches, but it isn't made any more. The
current McAllister equivalent gets poorer reviews, and although
apparently slightly more powerful, is at least 5kg lighter - so I'm not
sure where the weight has gone. Maybe it has a less reliable motor?

Anything woody larger than 40 mm I saw into 20 - 25 mm lengths, and dry
for burning on the wood-burning stove.

--

Jeff

On Sun, 11 Aug 2019 11:19:11 +0100, Michael Chare wrote:
Anyone got any experience of electric garden shredders that can cut wood
up to 40mm diameter. Are these devices much good? There are a number
of makes any recommendations?

I've got one, but don't use it much. Be aware that the maximum diameter
is of a round straight branch with no side branches. Most plants aren't
like that, so you'll spend a lot of time chopping up branches so they
will go in. Thinner branches can go through a slot, so some side twigs
will go in, but it still won't take anything with substantial side
branches. Mine also won't do much with leafy material - anything not
woody comes through slightly crushed but not shredded.
In the end it seemed much easier to put the small stuff on the compost
heap unshredded, and the big stuff on a bonfire.

Mike

On 11/08/2019 11:52, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Sun, 11 Aug 2019 11:19:11 +0100, Michael Chare
wrote:

Anyone got any experience of electric garden shredders that can cut wood
up to 40mm diameter. Are these devices much good? There are a number
of makes any recommendations?

I have a Bosch ATX-25 TC shredder, one of these
https://tinyurl.com/y5nfm6ms , which claims to be able to shred
branches up to 45mm, although IME that might be a touch optimistic,
but not a lot. I am reasonably pleased with it. If I have any
criticisms they are that you can't immediately see how full the
collector is getting, and it can be a little awkward to remove it for
emptying when it is full. The so-called 'turbine' cutter does
sometimes get bunged up with hard shreddings, necessitating a complete
halt in the proceedings while the cover is opened up and the turbine
cleared.

It replaced an earlier Bosch shredder with a corkscrew-type blade,
that couldn't handle such large branches, and anyway the blade had
become chipped over the years. But it had an open discharge that you
simply put a bucket under, much simpler and easier than the ATX-25.

Anything bigger than 40mm I either take directly to the dump for their
green waste recycling skip, of just pile it up in an unobtrusive
corner of the garden to house beetles or other bug life.


I have an earlier version which IIRC was rated to 35 mm although 30 is
more realistic. Mine is the "noisy" design which has a flymo-like blade.
They get through stuff at an amazing rate until the blade gets blunt, at
which point you reverse it. I have never had any success at
re-sharpening because they have an induction-hardened edge and once that
is gone, the blade is dead.

These are a lot cheaper than the "trade" type which have gear-like
cutters. I reckon they are fine for domestic use but if I was in the
trade I would not touch them because you could get through several sets
of blades in a day. (The price would not be the issue, rather the time
wasted changing them).

On 11/08/2019 11:19, Michael Chare wrote:

Anyone got any experience of electric garden shredders that can cut wood
up to 40mm diameter.Â* Are these devices much good?Â* There are a number
of makes any recommendations?

IME the first question to answer is what kind of stuff you need to
shred... many garden shredders are aimed mulching down clippings and
small branches, and are a slightly different style of machine from a
chipper which is aimed mostly at reducing the volume of tree waste.

Initially I had one of the old Bosch "quiet" helix style ones. Which was
ok on woody / dry stuff, but clogged easily on leafy green stuff. The
cog based ones are somewhat better I am told. The "noisy" ones are
usually better on leafy green stuff, but slower on branches. Beware some
expect the branches to be fed into a different chute, where they are
then chipped away somewhat more slowly. That also tends to mean they
need to be straight ish, and free of side branches - so lots of prep work.

For my current requirements (lots of tree pruning and little else), I
found the lekky ones fairly poor in general, and too much like hard work
all round. So I went for a semi-pro 9hp chipper with a 270cc motor
spinning a large drum with a couple of substantial resharpenable blades
on it. That claims to do 80mm branches. In reality it can actually do a
bit more if you let it take bits at the branch - i.e. let it shred a
bit, then pull the branch back before the drum looses too much momentum,
give it a mo to spin up again, and repeat.


--
Cheers,

John.

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"newshound" wrote in message
...
Mine is the "noisy" design which has a flymo-like blade. They get through
stuff at an amazing rate until the blade gets blunt, at which point you
reverse it. I have never had any success at re-sharpening because they
have an induction-hardened edge and once that is gone, the blade is dead.

thats odd I have a AL-KO shredder and sharpen the blades two or more times a
year and it been going for over 10years and never Jams at all.


-

What sort of wood, presumably not oak or Mahogany!
Brian

--
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Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Michael Chare" wrote in message
...
Anyone got any experience of electric garden shredders that can cut wood
up to 40mm diameter. Are these devices much good? There are a number of
makes any recommendations?


--
Michael Chare

Yes the one the council used last Thursday was on a large truck and powered
by a powerful engine, and was extremely noisy. If you have a lot to do
hiring one of those for a couple of hours might be the best approach, but
give your neighbours ear plugs first..
Brian

--
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The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Tricky Dicky" wrote in message
...
I had a Performance Power one eventually gave it away, it did OK on branches
up to 30mm but seemed to struggle to chip up green stalks and leaves the
most frustrating thing about it was the time it took made even longer by
having to unclog it every so often. In the end it was quicker and easier to
cut up branches into lengths easily transportable in the car and take to the
recycling facility.

Richard

"Adrian Caspersz" wrote in message
...
On 11/08/2019 11:19, Michael Chare wrote:
Anyone got any experience of electric garden shredders that can cut wood
up to 40mm diameter. Are these devices much good? There are a number of
makes any recommendations?



I haven't seen the inside of a garden shredder, but I have a paper
shredder which uses the following (but much smaller) type mechanism that's
used in this video (and a million other YT shredder vids).

Big Shredding Machines !!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzb6zDFg3WQ

Fark. I assumed it wouldnt work with the car engine, but it clearly does.

It would be interesting to see if it can manage a hydrogen gas cylinder.

If common garden shredders don't use the above, why don't they?

Not that cheap presumably and not that fast either.

Seems pretty effective at breaking things, and could be made enclosed for
safety.

On 11/08/2019 19:44, Brian Gaff wrote:
What sort of wood, presumably not oak or Mahogany!
Brian


I suppose it would be mostly bush trimmings. At the moment we chop the
stuff into maybe 6" lengths to go in a plastic tub. We then take several
tubs to the tip a few times a year. I was wondering if a shredder would
chop the stuff up into smaller piece so we could get more into the tubs,
or have a proper compost heap. The council takes 1 wheelie bin every
two weeks which is usually full of grass.

--
Michael Chare

On 11/08/2019 20:32, Michael Chare wrote:
On 11/08/2019 19:44, Brian Gaff wrote:
What sort of wood, presumably not oak or Mahogany!
Â* Brian


I suppose it would be mostly bush trimmings. At the moment we chop the
stuff into maybe 6" lengths to go in a plastic tub. We then take several
tubs to the tip a few times a year. I was wondering if a shredder would
chop the stuff up into smaller piece so we could get more into the tubs,
or have a proper compost heap.Â* The council takes 1 wheelie bin every
two weeks which is usually full of grass.

A chipper will normally chop into ~1cm long segments. A shredder might
go finer, depending the type.


--
Cheers,

John.

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On Mon, 12 Aug 2019 05:27:29 +1000, jleikppkywk, better known as
cantankerous trolling senile geezer Rodent Speed, wrote:


It would be interesting to see if it can manage a hydrogen gas cylinder.

It would be more interesting to see you shut your stupid senile gob just
once, you troll****!

--
Website (from 2007) dedicated to the 85-year-old trolling senile
cretin from Oz:
https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/r...d-faq.2973853/

Brian Gaff wrote

Yes the one the council used last Thursday was on a large truck and
powered by a powerful engine, and was extremely noisy.

Yeah, that’s how they do it here when removing trees.
With the chips going into a massive bin on the truck.
Tho they don’t actually chip the main trunk itself.

If you have a lot to do hiring one of those for a couple of hours might be
the best approach,

Not clear if they rent those out and you'd
need a truck license to drive it anyway.

but give your neighbours ear plugs first..

They're not that bad, but you can certainly hear it streets away.

"Tricky Dicky" wrote in message
...
I had a Performance Power one eventually gave it away, it did OK on
branches up to 30mm but seemed to struggle to chip up green stalks and
leaves the most frustrating thing about it was the time it took made even
longer by having to unclog it every so often. In the end it was quicker
and easier to cut up branches into lengths easily transportable in the car
and take to the recycling facility.

Richard

On Mon, 12 Aug 2019 10:07:13 +1000, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:

Yes the one the council used last Thursday was on a large truck and
powered by a powerful engine, and was extremely noisy.

Yeah, that¢s how they do it here

FLUSH yet more of the typical, meaningless, senile bull****

--
Website (from 2007) dedicated to the 85-year-old trolling senile
cretin from Oz:
https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/r...d-faq.2973853/

On 12/08/2019 07:28, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Sun, 11 Aug 2019 21:03:12 +0100, John Rumm
wrote:

On 11/08/2019 20:32, Michael Chare wrote:
On 11/08/2019 19:44, Brian Gaff wrote:
What sort of wood, presumably not oak or Mahogany!
Â* Brian


I suppose it would be mostly bush trimmings. At the moment we chop the
stuff into maybe 6" lengths to go in a plastic tub. We then take several
tubs to the tip a few times a year. I was wondering if a shredder would
chop the stuff up into smaller piece so we could get more into the tubs,
or have a proper compost heap.Â* The council takes 1 wheelie bin every
two weeks which is usually full of grass.

A chipper will normally chop into ~1cm long segments. A shredder might
go finer, depending the type.

The Bosch shredders do much the same, about 1-2cm. Yes, shredding will
allow the OP to get much more into his tub, but then there's the risk
of the tub being too heavy to lift! Shredding also speeds composting,
but it still takes many months to break down woody shreddings. Adding
nitrogenous fertiliser helps. Some people use their own pee. I used to
put woody shreddings straight onto the garden as a mulch. I never
shred soft green weedy stuff. I don't see the point. It went straight
onto the compost heap, but as I haven't yet made room for one here,
into the garden waste recycle bin.

The problem I have with compost, is what to do with it! Given my
gardening interest goes about as far as cutting, pruning etc, I never
really find a use for compost, but now after more than ten years of
cutting grass, and managing trees etc, find myself with many cubic
metres of the stuff.


--
Cheers,

John.

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\================================================= ================/

I am with you John, since my neighbour cut down his laurel bushes we only have a handful of bushy shrubs to deal with which get hand trimmed as soon as they reach fence height the cuttings bagged and taken to recycling. As I mentioned before shredding was a mind numbing job that seemed to take longer to do than bag and rid.

Richard

On 11/08/2019 11:52, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Sun, 11 Aug 2019 11:19:11 +0100, Michael Chare
wrote:

Anyone got any experience of electric garden shredders that can cut wood
up to 40mm diameter. Are these devices much good? There are a number
of makes any recommendations?

I have a Bosch ATX-25 TC shredder, one of these
https://tinyurl.com/y5nfm6ms , which claims to be able to shred
branches up to 45mm,

I have a similar older Bosch shredder (paid £20 for it on local Facebook
page) which copes with even very hard wood of 40mm and more.

I believe the screw type mechanism in these is the best for 40mm branches.

Mike

On 12/08/2019 13:00, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Mon, 12 Aug 2019 09:55:01 +0100, John Rumm
wrote:

The problem I have with compost, is what to do with it! Given my
gardening interest goes about as far as cutting, pruning etc, I never
really find a use for compost, but now after more than ten years of
cutting grass, and managing trees etc, find myself with many cubic
metres of the stuff.

Why not just spread it thickly on the flower beds...if you have them.

Yup, there are some... but that would mean digging the stuff up and
ruining the nice slope I have that the mower will still reverse up so as
to drop the next lot at the top of the pile ;-)

(I could also distribute some round the perimeter of the garden which is
all trees)


--
Cheers,

John.

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On Sun, 11 Aug 2019 19:46:50 +0100
"Brian Gaff" wrote:

Yes the one the council used last Thursday was on a large truck and
powered by a powerful engine, and was extremely noisy. If you have a
lot to do hiring one of those for a couple of hours might be the best
approach, but give your neighbours ear plugs first..

I hired an electric one for half a day that was pretty quiet and
handled largish branches with ease while not clogging with the small
green stuff. The cheap one I got (can't remember if it was dirt cheap
on eBay or free from Freegle) makes a load of noise, struggles with
larger stuff and clogs easily with green stuff. The difference is that
the good one runs at low speed and pulls wood through and chomps it,
while the crap one is just a spinning disc on a motor and you have to
shove stuff through to feed it.

On 12/08/2019 09:55, John Rumm wrote:

The problem I have with compost, is what to do with it! Given my
gardening interest goes about as far as cutting, pruning etc, I never
really find a use for compost, but now after more than ten years of
cutting grass, and managing trees etc, find myself with many cubic
metres of the stuff.

Could you not dry it out between now and November the 5th?


--
Adam

On 12/08/19 09:55, John Rumm wrote:

The problem I have with compost, is what to do with it! Given my
gardening interest goes about as far as cutting, pruning etc, I never
really find a use for compost, but now after more than ten years of
cutting grass, and managing trees etc, find myself with many cubic
metres of the stuff.

If you have an allotment association nearby they might be interested in
taking it off your hands. New members taking over old plots which have
been cropped for years, and have been pretty much exhausted of
nutrients, could find decent compost very useful.

--

Jeff

On 12/08/2019 18:59, ARW wrote:
On 12/08/2019 09:55, John Rumm wrote:

The problem I have with compost, is what to do with it! Given my
gardening interest goes about as far as cutting, pruning etc, I never
really find a use for compost, but now after more than ten years of
cutting grass, and managing trees etc, find myself with many cubic
metres of the stuff.

Could you not dry it out between now and November the 5th?

I did accidentally set it on fire once when a nearby bonfire spread into
the heap a bit... It all looked like it was mostly out / dying embers at
bed time, the following morning there was a smokey hedge and the wooden
containment built from old pallets that was previously there was not any
more. I had to leave a sprinkler on it for a couple of days to finally
put it out.

So not entirely sure its something I want to repeat in case I wipe out a
shed, a row of trees, or the gas fired boiler room for the neighbour's pool!



--
Cheers,

John.

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On 12/08/2019 19:35, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 12/08/19 09:55, John Rumm wrote:

The problem I have with compost, is what to do with it! Given my
gardening interest goes about as far as cutting, pruning etc, I never
really find a use for compost, but now after more than ten years of
cutting grass, and managing trees etc, find myself with many cubic
metres of the stuff.

If you have an allotment association nearby they might be interested in
taking it off your hands. New members taking over old plots which have
been cropped for years, and have been pretty much exhausted of
nutrients, could find decent compost very useful.

Actually that's not a bad idea - if its free to the recipient, they
ought to be happy to dig it up themselves ;-)


--
Cheers,

John.

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| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Michael Chare wrote:

Anyone got any experience of electric garden shredders that can cut wood
up to 40mm diameter. Are these devices much good? There are a number
of makes any recommendations?

For some time I have had, and been very pleased with, an Alko
SP5000, cog type. It has recently needed the capacitor replacing,
but that was reasonably easy and inexpensive.

It claims 40 mm capacity, and seems to cope well with whatever I
can get through the feed slot. I have yet to make any adjustments
to the cutter.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
@ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.

On 13/08/19 01:21, John Rumm wrote:
On 12/08/2019 19:35, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 12/08/19 09:55, John Rumm wrote:

The problem I have with compost, is what to do with it! Given my
gardening interest goes about as far as cutting, pruning etc, I never
really find a use for compost, but now after more than ten years of
cutting grass, and managing trees etc, find myself with many cubic
metres of the stuff.

If you have an allotment association nearby they might be interested in
taking it off your hands. New members taking over old plots which have
been cropped for years, and have been pretty much exhausted of
nutrients, could find decent compost very useful.

Actually that's not a bad idea - if its free to the recipient, they
ought to be happy to dig it up themselves ;-)

There are stables near here with a "well-rotted stable manure - fill
your own bags" sign at the gate. I often see cars parked there and
someone with a spade and old compost, sand, thick poly waste bags etc,
filling them.

--

Jeff