Jeff Lindsey

A quick review the Harbor Freight PREDATOR 6.5 HP (212cc) Chipper Shredder. I got mine with a coupon at around $499.

It came mostly assembled and well packaged. Almost all the bolts are 10mm or 13mm, making maintenance easy, and it came with good instructions. This chipper/shredder uses the HF predator engine, which appears to be a clone of a 1990's Honda engine. This engine is very common, and there's a lot of videos about how to maintain, repair, and modify it.  Parts are cheap and plentiful. This is normal gas engine, not a two stroke that requires a gas/oil mixture.

I have used it a bunch recently. It's a great tool. I chipped about 15 kitchen size garbage bags of salmonberry shrubs, spruce limbs, and alder branches today, giving the chips to my mom. That represented about 30 minutes of chipper operation, this thing chips fast. The chips are small, less than 1 inch and more cube shaped than flake shaped. I like the chip size and shape a lot.

Only two stoppages, each caused by me feeding too large spruce limbs into the the branch chipper portion. Each was easy to clear, but required me unbolting the back plate to clear the stoppage. This was a good exercise, because it showed me how easy the cutting blades will be to replace- dull blades on a chipper cause issues, those need to be easy to sharpen or replace. No stoppages on alder or salmonberry, even at slightly over the 3" diameter limit. I did not use the larger hopper feeder that is designed for light vines or pine needles or whatever. Just branches.

My mom's husband and my lumberjack friend who was running my biochar barrels as I cut branches were both impressed with the performance of the machine. It starts easy, but it is a pull start like a lawn mower so it is not for the elderly or the physically disabled. It is also quite loud, I equip foam ear plugs under noise cancelling ear muffs when using it. It is moderately heavy, as it needs to be to remain steady while operating, but it has wheels.

I don't like the cheap way the chip collection bag "attaches" to the machine, as it is just a draw cord tightening around the outlet.  It comes off occasionally, which can result in the loss of a few chips. I'll make a modification to improve this, but used a bungee cord today. I also don't like the wheels. These squeak and don't turn smoothly when I pull the machine along my gravel driveway. I'll replace the wheels with something better if I have time, but there's no urgency.

I did add a fuel system cleaner to the gas because of condensation in the tank is a real issue on the coast, plaguing all sorts of small engines.  

Anyway, this is a great tool. I am using it to fill large raised beds along the contour  lines of my hilly homestead, creating terraces and foot paths while clearing out the terrible salmonberry shrubs that choke out everything else and are a real fire danger.  With this tool, those become a fantastic raw material.  

Here's a link to the chipper
https://www.harborfreight.com/65-hp-212cc-chipper-shredder-62323.html

Highly recommended.

r ranson wrote:It turns out the size I need is only 12x12".  
I might get to visit the fancy wood shop this week and see if they have anything.

R,
Its Baltic Birch, like the tree.  Two things to consider.
First, Baltic Birch is a finished product, and it a relatively  thick finish, but you can sand through that finish trying to sand out dings and nicks. Once you sand through that finish, you hit layered glue areas that will not take paint consistently.  It is generally not made to be sanded on that finish, that's the "finish"
Second, cutting a plywood sheet down to 12x12 panels is going to involve quite a few cuts. Using a table saw that is not set up for sheet breaking is going to involve a lot of  clumsy lifting and that many cuts on a sheet is going to expose any lack of squareness on your saw/blade/table. Since people will be looking at this panel, any lack of square is really going to pop to the eye. Also, your blade, unless it is a fine finish blade and you use the right technique, will splinter the finish.  

I am guessing that you don't have a track saw, which is the best tool in my experience for accurately breaking down sheet goods. Since that's about a $600 investment, you probably won't to pick one up for this project.

The fine wood stores near me are not places I go to find bargains, and they do not stock normally priced plywood.

Amazon has those panels, 4 for $28. Your art supply store is padding their margin quite a bit.

-Jeff

I don't know about penetration of the paint into the material, but I would think the product called hardwood - which is in the engineered woods family- would work better for this purpose than plywood.

It is pretty cheap, easy to move, easy to cut without power tools, thin, durable and widely available.

Think of an old time clip board or a peg board for hanging tools. Those are both made of hardwood.

A lot of lumber yards will have off sized cuts of it for sale at a discount, you could also scavenge it from cheap old furniture.

I'm making a piece of furniture with sliding doors, mid century style. Classic usage for hardboard. I paid ten dollars for two off sized quarter sheets of it.

I have also seen a lot of art done on chipboard sheets, Amazon has those.

Fellow PNW's and those wishing to grow PNW plants,  get to know/do business with  permie member M.K. Dorje Sr.

He has a fantastic permie nursery outside of Eugene. I've twice bought fruit trees  and bee friendly plants from him.  His knowledge about what will grow where and how each plant contributes to the local bioclimate is deep and broad.  

We are hoping to entice him from his nursery, which is alive with energy and love for the land, to consult on permaculture plantings  on our homestead and take a mushroom spotting adventure with him once the rivers are safely canoeable.

Time to go plant the bee balm we purchased yesterday, the flowering peach trees are going in tomorrow.

https://permies.com/t/273705/Fruit-Trees-Plants-pickup-Oregon#2874081

I've used olive oil on leather - as the Roman Army did, and they were all about keeping leather working- and old furniture, and handles, and many dozens of staves/sticks. Interestingly, some of my olive oiled leather spent quite a bit of time in a swamp and jungles. No rancidity.

I've used flaxseed oil, the edible kind, on furniture, bread bowels, bird houses, and cutting boards.

Never had a problem.

Wood was preserved, and preserved well, before the addition of complex  petroleum compounds to oils.

I would rather deal with the rancidity of a natural oil- which I have never seen or smelt in my own experiences but I am not denying can happen- than the residue of chemicals added to oils.  

I don't use used peanut oil on outside wood projects because of bears. I try not to summon bears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g613q8Ikyk

This whole series of videos is highly indicative of a constant communication occurring with plants.

Just because we cannot sense a thing does not mean that a thing does not exist.

Isolation in rural environments can be terrible.

It's all well and good for the isolation to be voluntary, but when you can't easily travel 20 or 30 miles despite the weather, or illness, or injury- it is a whole different game.

The US is big. Long distances can kill or impoverish you. That's why they hung horse thieves. Isolate someone and you potentially kill them; you certainly  make their lives much more difficult.

Bike are great. I've lived on one, travelled across states on one, built and repaired them.

You cannot bike with a twisted ankle, or the flu. You cannot carry an injured person to care with one, or a hurt animal. Your ability to carry supplies- a sheet of plywood or a yard of wood chips- with one is limited. Old people do not often drive perfectly, but driving a gravel road uphill with supplies is lot more doable for most 70 year old's (and up)  than doing that on a bike.

The car or truck may not be as political or as aesthetically  pleasing as a bike. It is certainly more expensive to maintain.  But the utility of the truck or car, particularly in a less than ideal or emergency situation cannot be compared to the bike.

Get the bikes, use them, get bike trailers and fat tires, and all the cool gear that makes the bike even more useful but consider getting or keeping a  car or truck for those hard times.

Just my .02 cents and I wish you all well.

I burned incense, swept the earth, and waited
for a poem to come...
Then I laughed, and climbed the mountain,
leaning on my staff.
How I'd love to be a master
of the blue sky's art:
see how many sprigs of snow-white cloud
he's brushed in so far today.

From Yuan Mei (1716-1798)

Taoist poetry is my overall favorite, especially since the deconstructionists polluted the western poetry tradition post WW1.

Chris Clinton wrote:Just to throw it out there, I've got about 275 seedling if anyone's interested. Other stuff too. Mainly thinking local, I haven't really looked into shipping logistics/legalities.

I got seedlings from Chris today, packaged so well that not even the USPS could kill them.
Great product, in great shape, and a real value- I got more than I paid for.

I would encourage anyone wanting Osage Orange seedlings to deal with Chris!