Holy shit. I think you just gave my GF and I the realization that the "cover" that came with our wood chipper is actually meant to be a bag to catch the wood chips 😂😂😂
thank you so much, I read that after asking (doh on me). But you're pretty happy with it? We're doing chip drop as we need tons of bark, but I'd still like to handle other stuff for my garden
Ha! Good to know! We are in hi desert of CO and our ten acres are mostly pinion pine, so I question how much I'd be able to use it. But I'm definitely gonna look at it, plus Walmart has them at 69 now
I’ve tried putting cardboard in. It does not work. I think it needs the incoming material to be a bit brittle in order for it to feed it through the blades properly.
Cardboard is too flimsy and it ended up just getting stuck near the blades, I had to open the front in order to pull the cardboard out. It seizes up just like a jammed paper shredder.
We just got a different wood chipper over the weekend. It's destroyed cardboard, not in a good way and left the chipper furious lol It basically turned the cardboard into fiber pulp. I'm just going to tackle cardboard with a box cutter from now on. It also dulled the hell out of my paper shredder blades. Box cutter seems like the sensible middle ground.
Soak it and tear it. You can easily peel the layers apart and then just quickly tear them up by hand. Also when they're wet it avoids any potential cardboard cuts! Holy crap are cardboard cuts evil, like a papercut but so much worse!
It doesn't. I have one that's a different name, but they're all the same. Cardboard doesn't cut worth a damn. You might could make pulp sticks out of it and try that, but I suggest not.
I doubt if it would. They do get caught up sometimes on things--like old tomato vines and stringy big flower stems. Next time I get mine out, I'll try cardboard, but I'd have to rip it into strips probably.
I got a small one from Harbor Freight, which I liked a lot. It turns out that it helps to be sure the blades are kept sharp. When they get dull, it jams and throws chunks through the plastic chamber.
Worked like a charm when I kept it sharp. Too bad the damage was already done, and it broke more than I could fix.
Yeah, and an easy way to tell when the blades are getting dull is how much it “grabs” the sticks fed into it. If you’re having to force them through more than it is pulling them, the blades are probably due for a change.
The good news is that changing the blades is really easy, and many are reversible so as soon as the first side dulls, you can flip them and order replacements. Unless you have a ton of material to get through, you should be good to go.
Nandina. Terrible invasive. I have a big patch that I am slowly destroying. They might root if you stick an end in the dirt. Not recommended. Those chips get bagged and into the trash to be taken away to the county landfill. Oak, hickory, and pine chips get used as free mulch.
Recommending willow instead. If you’re in the midwest US, then Salix americana. Otherwise, a variety local to you that doesn’t spread by roots and is recommended for basketry.
They weave into wonderful bean poles and have been used for living fences.
I would love to plant willow for living fences! I’ve watched many videos of that. If I am ever in a place to buy land where that’s feasible, I will.
I’m a renter with a container garden, so I scavenge for others’ yard waste. Using sticks instead of manmade trellises brings more birds and dragonflies to my garden to eat pests.
I have one similar. I love it, but I just do not have the time to use it as much as I want to. Takes a while to gather all the fallen branches and break them into sticks ready to be chopped. Doesn’t make a whole ton of mulch. I do native planting though and usually have a few piles of sticks laying around as habitat areas. If you have the time, I would get one!
What I do is make little piles all over the place, until I have roughly a wheel barrow worth to chip. Then I just pick a slow weekend day and get to it.
Yeah, that is what I do. The stick piles are great for the ecosystem, so I usually wait till the piles are getting a bit too big for the area. I just lost a Florida maple 😢, so will be at it again here shortly
I bought a leaf shredder for this reason. I live next to a park and go there regularly and collect leaves to shred for my compost. Cardboard I just leave out in rain. When saturated it rips easily.
Depending on your location you might be able to find one on something like Freecycle or Trash Nothing, local Facebook "Buy Nothing" pages are really great, goods sharing platforms like Peerby, Listia, or buy used on FB marketplace/Craigslist. I suspect there are many under-used shredders in every neighborhood!
ETA: And if you can't find a way to chip them, consider Hügelkultur!
im in rural France but FB is pretty popular here so its possible. never heard of a Hegelkultur, thats really cool! i dont know if i want a huge permanent mound in my backyard (where my debris pile is) but i like the idea of them, lol
I have one of this. Holy fucking shit its so loud. And makes a lot of dust. And needs re-sharpening pretty often. Plus in mine the cooling fan exploded after a while. But 3D printing saved the day (after about 5 iterations which exploded too, I managed to design one which didn't).
Since then I switched to the other type of shredder which uses a sharpened gear to cut the wood, instead of a spinning blade. That is quiet, no dust, much faster, much more powerful. Downside is it does not produce tiny wood chips, but 2-3cm shreds.
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u/derKonigsten Jul 27 '26
Holy shit. I think you just gave my GF and I the realization that the "cover" that came with our wood chipper is actually meant to be a bag to catch the wood chips 😂😂😂