The taper lock 2012 drive flange is good to go. Been watching more stump grinder videos on YouTube. Looks like stump grinder break a lot of shit. Ordering an extra set of stump grinder teeth and having a few extra cutter pockets on hand is definitely good idea. For better or worse my cutter head and frame is definitely bigger and heavier than the commercially available ones. But every rotating part is replaceable, rebuildable, upgradeable, so if I bend the 1 inch drive shaft, cut another one and throw it on there or just pick a bigger one, any size up 2 inch, get the appropriate 2012 bushings, pillow blocks and put it back together again. I think I'll figure out a way to decorate the stump grinder with at least a few of its extra parts, that way they are always with the stump grinder. It looks like the most likely way to ruin a cutter pocket is to throw a tooth and keep grinding away, using the tooth holder aka cutter pocket as a cutter.
More of the same. Everywhere I look those greenteeth cutters are the shit. Not all other typed of teeth are sharpenable. The teeth should be sharpened. Worn teeth can be rebuilt by carbide tool maker machine shops, there's probably only 5 or 6 of these places left in the USA. Cost is about 60% to 70% of the cost of new teeth. Also a well maintained machine with sharp teeth can out cut a neglected machine with 3 or 4 times more power. Also keep damaged but still useable teeth, resharpen what's left, save them for shitty stump grinds where there's likely contact with concrete and/or steel or just run them till they are worn down to nubs. Also the carbide tool shops won't retip shattered or chipped teeth with missing chunks that go down to the base metal. The original greenteeth last the longest are very hard, but they are more likely to explode on a rock. The rebuilt teeth are a little softer and usually only chip on a rock. The greenteeth cheap knock offs are just that, cheap knock offs.
Then the guard. I think the stainless diamond tread looks cool. There is plenty of room around the guard incase I want to make a bigger cutter head. I'll probably fill in most of that gap between the angle and the diamond tread.
It lives. Still missing several critical safety systems but I'll figure it out. It kicks up a lot of dust even with a cutter head top speed of about 2,000 rpm. So cranking the cutter head speed up to 3,000 or 4,000 rpm may not be practical.
I ran it today a lot. Burned the oil out of the muffler. Gave it a good shake down. Set screws keep falling out of the pillow blocks. The driven pulley set screws fell put and so did the key stock. So I tack welded they key to the shaft in one spot and replaced the set screws with bolts and tightened the shit out of them way more than I could with a set screw.
I had set screws backing out of a 1 SS Shaft in my mud boat, What I did was slowly drill a detent in the shaft where the set screws touched, I believe this allowed the shaft to turn just a few thousands and put even more tension on the set screw threads. Never had a problem after that.
Yeah I can drill the set screw landing points next time I take it apart as the shaft will have marks on it where the set screws landed. Split collars hold the shaft from walking.
The stump grinder with out any flexible chip guards really scatters the wood chips everywhere. No picking them up until I add the rest of the chip guards. But I dont really want the stump be grinder to get stuck in a pile of its own wood chips. I tried it on a traditional stump in the field, where the stump is sticking up about 14 inches above grade so that I would see it when I'm on the tractor. 3 things. It's definitely faster to cut stumps off as near ground level as practical. Probably about 3 or 4 inches above grade that way you don't get into too much dirt. It needs more power. A lot more. At least double. It's fine for little 3 and 4 inch stumps with the gx390. The cutters dig in better off top speed so I'll take my 9 inch driver pulley and replace it with a 12 inch. The cutter head spinning around 1,200 to 1,500 rpm is where it's at. The 12 inch pulley will put me at 1,600 rpm max if the motor spins at 3,800rpm.
The stump grinder nearly paid for its self this weekend. I ran the hell out of it and nothing fell off and I don't think anything moved. Set screws kept falling out of pulleys last time, especially on the cutter head, replaced those with Allen head bolts for this session. No more falling out. Still need more power.
Just checking the boards after the cup finals and saw your posts. If I remember correctly you're in NM?? Reason I mention that is that I'm betting that a shop that can refurbish drill bits for the oil field could refurb your grinder teeth. We used to offer that service. Not really that different if a shop is set up for the drill bits. The bits used-esp the rock bits we repaired all the time. Might be a closer by/reasonably price option. There are many such shops that provide this service to the oilfield.
The one shop I know does stump grinder teeth was in MI, MN I believe. They recommend filling up a USPS flat rate box and sending it to them. Where's the place at in new Mexico that might do it? I'll look them up.
Like the second death star it's fully operational but not finished. It will inflict damage as expected but some of the niceties are absent.
No worries,, I was just curious about your design,,, I'm not worried about niceties ,,, functionality beats out niceties.
Oh I was trying to use the stump grinder to mow down small trees, yeah don't do that. It tried to climb one of the trees, sent the handle bar down onto my leg. Potentially could cause a broken femur or hip nearly threw me on the ground. Only use on stumps. I did use it successfully on brush, trees less than an inch in diameter, not worth using a chainsaw on. I'll take a picture of it today I forgot to grease the pillow blocks when I put it away. I was tired and limping when I finished with it sunday.
Whoa ,, that sounds like it could get deathly dangerous,, if it kicks back to much . I've got one of those Billy Goat walk behind Brush Hogs ,,, it's got them solid ,, stationary handle bars ,, so going up hills or down hills , over bumps ,, it'll work you to death just trying to keep a hold of the machine,, was thinking about trying to give the handles a little give so you didn't have to keep doing those "bends and thrusts " with the damned thing . Anyone know if this is a big health / safety hazard in doing this ??
When it kicks back it wants to go "up". It's bigger and heavier than any commercial unit under about $4,000. It's more like a $5,000 to $6,000 machine. Main thing is the over kill cutter head. Normally to get a 13 inch cutter head with greentheeth, you get a 16 to 20hp engine. I only have a 13 or 14hp engine that I bought for $100, that's probably really 11hp at 4,200ft elevation.
