Shredding/chipping leylandii

[Tim Downie]

Having grubbed out my hedge, I now have a huge pile of branches to deal with, probably about 3 skip loads.

Next problem is how to dispose of them.

Options include:

o Big bonfire. Pros- cheap. Cons - no good site handy for a bonfire.

o Skips. Pros - easy. Cons - expensive.

o Hire a chipper (& operator) and disposal of chips in garden. Pros - plenty of space to use the chippings. Cons - man came out today and did that sucking through the teeth bit and said that the bushieness & density of the hedge would probably choke his machine.

o Buy a garden shredder and shred what we can. Pros - relatively cheap and I end up with a shredder at the end of it. Cons - won't handle the thicker/bushier stuff and I might end up with a *broken* shredder at the end of it.

Any other suggestions? Would something like this

be up to the job (assuming we avoid stuffing anything too thick down its throat)?

Tim

[Adrian]

Quickest and tidyiest is a _proper_ shredder - We had 12 x 40ft pines removed just after Christmas - proper Tree Surgeons came with a unimog-mounted, hydraulically driver shredder which ate everything from 4" diameter down.

made one heck of a noise - and a large pile of chippings...

Back at the last house I did the 'bonfire' route - possible a bit unecological - but very satisfying !

Regards Adrian

[manatbandq]

You spoke to the wrong person. We had South Bucks Tree Surgeons who came with a huge trailer based shredder that dumped the chippings into another trailer. Think of a combine harvester throwing the corn out of the spout. They also had an "angle grinder on a wheelbarrow" stump grinder to lower the level of the remains so we could cover them with soil.

MBQ

[tinnews]

What a waste of good heating fuel! OK, so it's a bit more labour using the smaller bits but when we fell trees we make firewood down to

2" diameter or even less.

Having used everything down to that size you can shred the rest with a 'lighter' shredder.

[Adrian]

True - but in our case we still have a ginormous pile of 3ft logs waiting to be converted into fire-sized logs.

Have made friends with a nice man up the road who owns a petrol-powered log-splitter

Back in Suffolk I took out a couple of hundred yards of mature (even geriatric !) leylandii - and decided that (as firewood) they were more trouble than they were worth. Even after several years drying they were still full of sticky sap that got everywhere, and they didn't burn all that well either in our stove.....

Take care !

Adrian West Cork - Ireland

[Tim Downie]

I suspect I just need to do a bit more phoning around.

I want one! ;-)

Any ball park figures on how much I should expect to pay to hire such a beast (& operator)?

Cheers!

Tim

[Huge]

No. I have a 2kW shredder and it's a useless pain. It blocks up all the time and won't shred anything thicker than your thumb. Oh, and the safety features are a PITA, too. You can't get anything with side branches into the feed chute and it's a right pain to take apart when it blocks up.

If you can't burn it, I'd get a man with a big shredder in. When we had our oak tree cut down (too close to the house), they shredded everything less than about 6" diameter. We kept the shreddings and used them as mulch.

[tinnews]

That's what we're burning and it's pretty good actually. It needs seasoning well (preferably 12 months) but in that it's very little different from most wood. It's much better than pine and seems rather better than aspen. I'm surpised you had difficulty burning it after 'several years', not our experience at all.

[AJH]

Yes in the absence of a chipper snedding the branches out and cutting the logs down to ~30mm diameter for fuel minimises bulk. The remaining lop and top can then be diced in the back of a small vehicle or even diced on the ground and then forked into a dumpy sack.

We reckon on about 15:1 reduction in volume by chipping and 3:1 by dicing.

AJH

[AJH]

I agree, leylandii is not a bad fuel if dried and kept dry, softwoods being less dense seem to re absorb moisture if left uncovered.

AJH

[AJH]

About GBP200/day +VAT from a small operator in NW Surrey and that would include removal of 1 transit sized load of chip (say 2.5m^3).

AJH

[Steve Firth]

Leylandii didn't burn well? Your stove needed to be replaced.

Leylandii, apply match, stand well back.

[Andy Dingley]

Cost one of my neighbours his E-type Jag

_Don't_ burn Leylandii unless you know what you're doing, i.e. you've burned it before and you have adequate space to do it in (several times more than you think). Leylandii is chock-full of resins and burns somewhere between ferociously and explosively. _Many_ people get seriously surprised by how out of control a Leylandii bonfire can get.

[Dave Fawthrop]

|!Having grubbed out my hedge, I now have a huge pile of branches to deal |!with, probably about 3 skip loads. |! |!Next problem is how to dispose of them. |! |!Options include: |! |!o Big bonfire. Pros- cheap. Cons - no good site handy for a bonfire. |! |!o Skips. Pros - easy. Cons - expensive. |! |!o Hire a chipper (& operator) and disposal of chips in garden. Pros - |!plenty of space to use the chippings. Cons - man came out today and did |!that sucking through the teeth bit and said that the bushieness & density of |!the hedge would probably choke his machine. |! |!o Buy a garden shredder and shred what we can. Pros - relatively cheap and |!I end up with a shredder at the end of it. Cons - won't handle the |!thicker/bushier stuff and I might end up with a *broken* shredder at the end |!of it. |! |!Any other suggestions? Would something like this |!

be up to the |!job (assuming we avoid stuffing anything too thick down its throat)?

Our local tip (Domestic Refuse Site), FREE, has a place for green waste, The would take a Leylandii no problem. Every so often the bring in a

*huge* shredder and haul everything away to compost

[dennis]

I have had the whole of a galvanised steel fire bin glowing red-white burning conifer bits. They burn so well that you get a blast of red hot flame several feet in the air and no smoke if you do it properly.

[Adrian]

Don't we all The unimog was a nice piece of kit also...... ....but too many toys here already !

The whole job cost us 800 euro - that was three men plus the 'mog and chipper - and they worked a good 'full day'.....

If it was only one or two of the trees I might have had a go myself - but they were a bit on the big side (three of them were about 15" diameter) - and the telephone line was dangerously close to where the trees had to fall - so I chickened out !

However - I shall be logging up the remains - when it stops raining for long enough. Even the locals are saying it's been a particularly wet Autumn - Winter......

Ah well

Adrian

[Andrew Gabriel]

A friend of mine did that. It was followed by a very large insurance claim to get all the neighbours' cars resprayed, on which the fall-out had landed.

[Adrian]

Oh - very strange. We also had a supply of silver birch (from the local council / heath management people) - and, compared to that, ISTR that I found the leylandii a waste of time..... even after a couple of years seasoning..

Only got a little woodburner in the new house out here - so it's 'for fun' rather than whole-house heating as back in the UK. We're in the process of installing a ground-water heat-pump as well....

Regards Adrian

[Steve Firth]

Hmm, I've got a 2.5kW shredder and it's fine. It's also easy to take apart, just one big thumbscrew to undo and it hinges open at the cutting plate. The knives are double sided and secured using allen bolts and it wolfs down branches up to 1" dia. The blades are mounted on a heavy flywheel so it doesn't tend to jam unless one is daft.

However the big models have powered feeders and can handle huge bits of wood and can be stacked with branches then you walk away and load some more. That's a huge time saving over any noddy household device. Since I've got to thin out upwards of a tonne of wood a year I've been looking at buying one for the PTO on my tractor but they cost big bucks. At present I use a billhook and muscle power to reduce branches to brash and logs usable in the log burner.

[Huge]

Mine's the same, except the screw's about 60mm long, so needs unscrewing about 30 or 40 turns. I'd cut it shorter, except in goes into the control box to act as the interlock to stop it starting when you've the cover open.

What I should do is take the feed chute off and throw it away and cheat the interlock so I can cut the thumbscrew down to a sensible length.

When I find the round tuit, anyway.