# Picked up a small chipper/shredder



## great white (Dec 30, 2018)

I've been needing a chipper shredder for a while now. Nothing big, just enough for twigs, smaller branches and leaves. But one never popped up locally at a price I wanted to pay. They were always beat up, overused, neglected and always waaaay than more they were worth.

The other day, an older MTD 5 hp one popped up. 275bucks. Price was in range. It's an older model, which means everything is steel. That's a plus to me. Only things plastic on it are the wheels, the air cleaner cover and the handle on the pull cord. 

Ser number pegs it as a 1991 model.

I went to look at it. It ran half decent and was a bear to get running, but it was -10c out that day. The owner ran a couple branches through it and it at least worked. 

So 250 bucks changed hands and it was on it's way home with me:









It's a typical piece in the usual condition for used small equipment for the east coast. Used, not well taken care of and just expected to work until it dies. Not much maintenance, not much care. Just hold out as long as it can and then throw it away once dead. 

But this old soldier has weathered the abuse well and is still in decent shape, despite obviously minimal care. Well, those days are over my old friend; I take good care of my stuff and this will be no different. Welcome to a new life.

I fire it up at home and run a branch through it to get a baseline for how it does (or doesn't) work. It starts easily after a few hours sitting in a heated garage. 

Well, it at least shredded the stick. But it more beat it to death than chipped it. I had to push a finagle it to keep it working on the stick end. And it’s really noisy with a metalic “clank” noise as it spins up or stops. I really didnt like that noise.

I shut it down and haul it into the garage to check the chipper blades and discover I'm being generous calling then "blades". They are more like round edged bludgeoning blocks of steel. Well, they need sharpening, no real surprise there. Par for the course in an old used peice of yard equipment.

You can remove just the blades, but I decided to just split the chipper housing and check everything out for good measure. That metallic “klank” noise fresh in my memory.

The disc is frozen to the engine shaft, so I just decided to leave it be. A puller wouldn't budge it and i didn't want to be pounding on what is actually the engine crankshaft. 

There's a smaller lawn mower type blade on the back of the disc to mulch leaves and twigs and that is also dull as the day is long. You can tell as the chipper blades dulled and became less and less effective, people had started to jam larger and larger sticks into the mulching section to chop them up. Result: the light duty blade gets beat to crap.

There's also 12 metal flails that do the final stage of mulching/shredding on the disc. They’re in groups of 3 and fling outward when running. Some are frozen in place (rust) and are discovered to be the source of that metallic “klank” noise I was hearing.You can tell they've never been touched in the way of sharpening or maintenance. The profile is damned near worn away on the leading edges and every one of them in generally rounded over. Luckily, they are mirror images front and back, so all I had to do was pull them off, clean them up, lubricate and re-assemble with them flipped around and it's a factory fresh edge again. 

Tomorrow I'll sharpen and balance the blades, straighten up a few of the metal bits and put it back together. While doing that, I'll clean it up and put a few other minor bits back to right as well. 

So 250 bucks and a bit of labor and I've got myself (what looks to be) a decent chipper shredder. For it's intended uses at least. It's never going to chip up 4-6 inch branches, but it will work fine for my yard clean up purposes.

If I had rented one, that would have been around 50 bucks a day, so if it lasts more than a week (will for sure), I’m money ahead.

Not too shabby.

Next winter, I'll probably pull it apart again and give it a nice fresh coat of paint.


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## great white (Dec 30, 2018)

Well, in my typical obsessive fashion, I couldn’t wait until tomorrow.

I spent the evening tearing the chipper apart. Then grinding, filing and stoning the blades to razor sharp edges. Balance them all and then reassemble the chipper.

So at 11 pm, I rolled the chipper out behind the detached garage and fired it up (nearest neighbor is nearly 3 acres away). Sounds 100x better than it did  before, which I atribute to freshening up the flails, lubricating everything and balancing all the blades. Metal “clank” noise is gone now. 

After it had a chance to get some heat in the engine, I grabbed the other half of the stick I used to test it before the R&R.

Push it in to the chipper feed shoot and.... BRAAAAAPPPPP!

SWEET ZOMBIE JESUS!!!!! 

It was so fast and violent it scared the living crap out of me! 

The 4 foot long stick (approx 2-3” diameter) disappeared faster than I could follow and it was just.....gone. On the ground at the output chute was just a hint of sawdust,  but nothing else. 

Poof! Gone.....like it was just erased from existence...

Where I had to push the stick in to get it to do anything before, it now sucked it in so violently I almost didn’t have time to let go! I was so shocked all I could do was fling my arms out to the sides and away from that pit of screaming death, mildly stunned by what the eff had just happened! 

Barely even slowed the engine down.

So yeah: sharpening the blades and setting things to right have made it a completely different machine. Well worth the effort! If I wanted, I’d say this machine could now be sold for nearly twice what I paid for it with just a little paint touch up and a wax job. Very, VERY happy with how it turned out.



Still a light duty machine, but it will work fine for my uses for many seasons to come. I’ll just be sure to use it within it’s limits and keep up on the maintenance.

Now for an oil change, air filter and new spark plug. Then fog the engine and drain the gas. Off to bed it goes until springtime.

Next winter, when I have fewer projects already on the go, I’ll tear it down again, do the required maintenance, clean it up and give it a fresh coat of “MTD Red” paint to rid it of it’s rusties and scratches.


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## mickri (Dec 30, 2018)

Did you take any pictures of the insides and the blades.  I have a similar craftsman chipper that has never seemed to work very well.  Maybe I'll have to have another go at trying to sharpen the blades.


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## tq60 (Dec 30, 2018)

Word of caution...

Do NOT use too large of log (burn those) or wood that is too dry.

The disk is mounted directly on the motor shaft and the shaft can snap.

Do NOT ask us how we know this...

Our shaft snapped outside of the engine so what to do...?

The bolt hole was deeper than the crack so we were able to Fri d some away and weld it up.

Bolted it to the mill table and used the mill to true it up, turning the shaft while cutting with mill.

We made a set of pillow blocks to support the chipper and converted to belt drive.

Worked great until the connecting rod no longer wanted to stay inside the engine...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk


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## JPMacG (Dec 30, 2018)

I have that MTD model myself.    Using it will be a learning experience.  You will gradually learn how to feed it so that it does not get jammed.  The big chute is not good for much - just leaves and small twigs, provided that you feed it slowly - don't let them build up in the chute..  The small chute works well for long straight branches.  Do wear ear and eye protection - it is painfully loud and can shoot chips in any direction.  Also, be aware that the motor shaft tends to pick up fibers and they can wrap and get wedged into the oil seal, causing oil to leak.  Check your oil level at every start and if it starts to consume oil then inspect the oil seal on the shaft.  I killed one engine that way.  Fortunately a friend had a spare engine that was a direct fit.


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## Superburban (Dec 30, 2018)

My parents had one like that, back in the 80's.  Worked good, but not great for branches over 3" or so. branches like evergreens, and shrubs, it ate up great. The branch cutter blades were not that sharp from new. I thought many times about taking them off, and sharpining them, but never got around to it.

After I moved here, I found one like this during the annual big item trash pickup. Had a bad bearing on the chipper shredder shaft. Had to cut the old bearing off the shaft, but after a new bearing, it works great. I like it better, because it has belt drive, and a much heavier cutter/flywheel. It really bogs down the 5hp motor when you engage the cutter.

Keep the engine tuned up on yours, and it will treat you well.


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## dlane (Dec 30, 2018)

Neighbor in Bay Area was to cheep to buy a load of gravel so he got out his craftsman chipper and put rocks in it thinking it would spit out gravel, then he wanted me to fix it, sure give me your credit card I’ll get “all” new parts for you.


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## projectnut (Dec 31, 2018)

I have a little newer Craftsman model (1993) I purchased new from Sears.  It cost $495.00 at the time, so according to recent sales it seems to be somewhat holding it's value.  The biggest difference I can see is that mine has pneumatic tires, the gas tank is over the cylinder head with access to the sparkplug, and the engine is a Briggs IC model with low oil shutoff.

Almost all the internal shredder parts and many hardware parts are available through MTD. 
https://www.mtdparts.com/equipment/...redders-vacuums-parts/chipper-shredder-blades

 I put in new flail hammers, chipper blades and shredder blade a couple years ago.  This fall I used it to  shred 30+ yards of leaves and small branches.  I have no idea what the original volume was, but the machine is supposed to reduce the volume to 10% of the original.   If that number is correct I started with around 300 yards of material.

Long ago I got tired of constantly changing out the bag so I made a discharge pipe out of 6" round heating duct with a couple elbows so I could blow the debris into a trailer.  I removed the discharge down chute and used a 6"  floor register boot as a transition from the chipper shredder to the pipe.  I had to use a couple pieces of angle iron to secure the boot to the main body of the shredder. 

Here's a link to something similar someone has done for a tractor mower:





I also made an attachment so I could remove the leaf intake chute and attach a 4" diameter suction hose for cleaning debris form gardens and along fence lines.  This modification entailed also making new plate to cover the shredder blade and a set of wheel brackets and attaching swiveling wheels since the original rear support is part of the intake chute assembly.

These machines can be extremely useful and can be modified for almost any chipping, shredding, or vacuuming task at hand.


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## great white (Dec 31, 2018)

projectnut said:


> I have a little newer Craftsman model (1993) I purchased new from Sears.  It cost $495.00 at the time, so according to recent sales it seems to be somewhat holding it's value.  The biggest difference I can see is that mine has pneumatic tires, the gas tank is over the cylinder head with access to the sparkplug, and the engine is a Briggs IC model with low oil shutoff.
> 
> Almost all the internal shredder parts and many hardware parts are available through MTD.
> https://www.mtdparts.com/equipment/...redders-vacuums-parts/chipper-shredder-blades
> ...


Most craftsman model chippers form that era were actually rebranded MTD's, so it may very well have been the same (or similar) unit. Tank over the engine and pneumatic tires tends to indicate to me that it's an 8hp, vice a 5 hp. Otherwise, they use the same housings.

I like the vacuum hose idea, I may steal that!


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## great white (Dec 31, 2018)

tq60 said:


> ...Worked great until the connecting rod no longer wanted to stay inside the engine...
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk




Classic small engine death, tossing the con rod. Usually an oil problem. Primarily due to the lack of it, although it can also be for want of more frequent changes. All my small engines get hourmeters to prevent the latter. I check every time before each start to catch the former before it's a problem. Less common is governor problem, allowing the engine to over-rev. That's a seasonal check for me, confirming governor RPM control and adjusting as necessary. Many people don't realize that the governor setting can very often "drift" over a season of running and vibrating and without an rpm gauge, it's easy for the rpm to creep up over the spec'd rpm redline. If that happens, it doesn't take much time to over stress the tiny aluminum con rod cap and bolts. And becuase they're built to a price point, it's not even forged or billet, usually  they're cast and machined. Not a recipe for an abuse/neglect sustaining part.

in 50+ years, I've only had one small engine toss a rod and that was a forgone conclusion because of previous owner abuse. By the time I got it, the bottom end had gone through so many stress cycles, it was only a matter of time before it was going to make a window in the side of the block.

Small engines lead a hard life just by the nature of their application. They actually need more maintenance than other engines, not less. The average homeowner just doesn't realize that. Gotta give them every chance you can to live as long as they can through that abuse.


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## great white (Dec 31, 2018)

mickri said:


> Did you take any pictures of the insides and the blades.  I have a similar craftsman chipper that has never seemed to work very well.  Maybe I'll have to have another go at trying to sharpen the blades.


Sorry, no. Didn't take any internal pictures....


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## projectnut (Dec 31, 2018)

I'm sure mine is a rebranded MTD.  It has just enough differences and a grey paint job to qualify as a Craftsman.  It is a 5hp model.  I was too cheap to spend the extra $100.00 for the 8hp model. The 1993 model (247.795950) is the only 5hp one I've seen with the tank over the engine.

I initially bought it to grind tree branches at the family cottage.  We have well over 100 trees and at the time had cleared out a few to remodel the house.  Everyone in the area was more than willing to take the firewood size logs, but there was no way and no place to dispose of the brush.  I used it for a couple years grinding brush, but then the local township opened a recycling center where we could drop off brush and leaves.  The shredder sat idle for a few years until the trees at our house started need in trimming.  Then it went back to work.

As for a picture there are parts drawings for both the MTD and Craftsman models on the Sears Parts Direct and MTD websites.  All you have to do is type in your model number and it will bring up the correct drawings.
https://www.searspartsdirect.com/mo...odelSearch&q=247.795950&searchTerm=247.795950

The sites are a bit different in that the Sears site only displays parts that are still available.  The MTD site shows all the parts, but highlights in blue those that are no longer available.  In most cases I think you'll find parts at the MTD site to be less expensive.  The same chipper blades cost $27.73 from Sears and $20.15 from MTD.

I haven't ordered parts from MTD for a few years.  I do remember the last time I bought chipper blades they were case hardened.  At the time they claimed sharpening them wouldn't be a good option in that they would dull quickly once they were sharpened beyond the case hardening.  They no longer make that claim on their website.  As a precaution I saved all the parts I replaced just in case they became unavailable in the future.

As an FYI the Craftsman model numbers do work on the MTD website.
https://www.mtdparts.com/equipment/...redders-vacuums-parts/chipper-shredder-blades

They show the comparable MTD model.


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## hman (Dec 31, 2018)

dlane said:


> Neighbor in Bay Area was to cheep to buy a load of gravel so he got out his craftsman chipper and put rocks in it thinking it would spit out gravel, then he wanted me to fix it, sure give me your credit card I’ll get “all” new parts for you.


You GOTTA be kidding!  That kind of idiocy is almost beyond belief.  Maybe y'oughta have posted this story to *ALL ABOUT GOOFS & BLUNDERS YOU SHOULD AVOID!*


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## Superburban (Dec 31, 2018)

hman said:


> You GOTTA be kidding!  That kind of idiocy is almost beyond belief.  Maybe y'oughta have posted this story to *ALL ABOUT GOOFS & BLUNDERS YOU SHOULD AVOID!*


To you and me, yes. But there is many folks out there, that just do not understand physics. Just get a job at HD, or Lowes for a bit, you will meet plenty of them. One of the best ones, I went out to unlock a riding mower a costumer just bought, expecting to load it into a pickup, or trailer. NO! this guy was going to have his son ride it while he pulled it with a tow strap from his car, the 6 to 8 miles across town to his house.


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## hman (Jan 1, 2019)

Shudder!


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## great white (Jan 1, 2019)

projectnut said:


> As for a picture there are parts drawings for both the MTD and Craftsman models on the Sears Parts Direct and MTD websites.  All you have to do is type in your model number and it will bring up the correct drawings.
> https://www.searspartsdirect.com/mo...odelSearch&q=247.795950&searchTerm=247.795950
> 
> The sites are a bit different in that the Sears site only displays parts that are still available.  The MTD site shows all the parts, but highlights in blue those that are no longer available.  In most cases I think you'll find parts at the MTD site to be less expensive.  The same chipper blades cost $27.73 from Sears and $20.15 from MTD.
> ...



Yep. I did look up the blades and flails, but the flails on the one I have are different than the ones you linked to. The link shows flails as a casting, where as the flails in mine are all seperate. I actually prefer it seperate, as they are easily made from 1/4” flat stock.

In theory, I coukd do the same with the chipper blades and small mower blade if I wanted. Ie: make them instead of buy them.

That’s what I like about the older equipement: all steel and parts are fairly simple to produce in a home metal shop if you need to.


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## great white (Jan 1, 2019)

dlane said:


> Neighbor in Bay Area was to cheep to buy a load of gravel so he got out his craftsman chipper and put rocks in it thinking it would spit out gravel, then he wanted me to fix it, sure give me your credit card I’ll get “all” new parts for you.


Not trying to “call you out” or anything like that, but I have a hard time believing anyone could be that dense. Surely, natural selection would have killed of that line of genes long before grtting a chance to attempt such and asinine thing....


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## jim18655 (Jan 1, 2019)

I had that model and it was  a real workhorse. I used it about 10 - 12 years and it cleaned up leaves from 2 large maple trees and all of the branches from a 80' tall, 60" diameter weeping willow. Made nice mulch for flower beds and the garden. I sold it when I moved and it still was doing its job. If you rotate large limbs as you feed it will grind them better/easier.


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## dlane (Jan 1, 2019)

GW, that’s exactly what he did for about two seconds, he wasn’t the brightest candle on the cake “so to speak “
He did good at his profession though he was a SJ police officer now working for Amazon security..

Edit: there’s no shortage of stupid in this state


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