permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Scott Pittman wrote:
> I'm looking for information on a good wood chipper.  Most of the ones I 
> have experience are twig chippers - even tho' they advertise "up to 4" 
> diameter branches".  Something that I can ship to the third world and 
> maybe duplicate there would be nice.  I am looking for something that 
> will take wood from pruning up to four inches without strain.  I would 
> love to be able to covert to bio diesel if such a model exists.

Procure a second hand chipper from a sawmill, smallest one available. They 
use knives that would be easy to hand sharpen, in a jig.
Ususlly powered by a large 3 phase electric motor and used to chip slabs (hardwood and softwood) they could be used to convert landscaope 
waste up to and possibly beyond 4" to compostable biomass and/or mulch. Here's where biodiesel comes in; instead of using electric power 
just substitute a small diesel engine.

Both engines and chippers could probably be had inexpensively second hand from companies handling used sawmill equipment; tractor motors 
would be perfect for this application used directly, with transmission and through PTO power. If users of the chipper have a farm tractor 
they could connect PTO to the appropriate drive train which might include a gearbox orr system of pulleys to get the RPM necessary to get 
the chipper rotor up to operational speed and with adequate torque to not bog down with 4" material.

--
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech