Rotoe-Hoe Shredder

[Raider 2]

I brought home a Roto-Hoe shredder today. It is similar in design to the Mackissic hammermill shredders. It has a new Briggs OHV 6.5hp engine on it and is in good condition overall. I ran a few items through it this afternoon and I'm not sure the side chipper is set up correctly as it seems to not work well at all.

Anyone have an idea what the clearance should be between the chipper blade and the sheer blocks? Should the blades be sharpened about the same profile as a mower blade or ? Any other tips to get the most out of this machine?

I thought I might want to take the mill off of the wagon and mount it to the front of my Raider in the future like the Mac attachment but before I put too much thought into that venture I'd like to get the shredder working efficiently.

I'll put up a picture or two shortly.

[Jim_M 178]

I have a Roto-Hoe power head with the chipper, rear tine tiller and snow blower attachments. The chipper is the same as the stand alone unit that you have. As soon as I get a chance I'll look it over and see if I can get you some measurements. It will probably be next week sometime, I've got a lot going on right now.

[Raider 2]

[puddlejumper 67]

addmittedly I know nothing about this little mill. But the hammers in a big mobark,Haybuster, or a feedmill for livestock are not sharpened. Looking at your pictures the hammers appear fine,They would be rounded off on the ends from use if wore bad and yours appear to be fairly square. I think you may be missing heavy screen on the bottom I can see the bars accross the bottom but they appear a little to open. :D

[Raider 2]

The hammers are in great shape and have never been turned (they have 4 useable sides). There is a screen on the bottom towards the engine. The bars you see I believe are removeable to tune the output grind. I need to play with that as green weeds seem to get matted up easily.

I ran this for a half hour this weekend and put a whole bunch of juniper, pine and maple trimmings through it up to about 1-1/2" dia. and the mill handled it really well. I fed most of it right in the top. It's the side chute chipper that isn't very effective. The blades are a little blunt and look to be ground on both sides some like a knife rather than a sheer so I think they need to be fixed up right and I just need to find out what the sheer block clearance should be set at from the blades.

The briggs runs great and the whole setup is pretty easy to use but not at all safe with all the potential to get pinched, banged, shredded, torn, sliced, deafened, blinded or burned. Not a machine to turn one's back on or let one's guard down while using.

[GlenPettit 1,716]

On the MacKissic Shredders, the clearance is exactly 1/2" from the hammerheads to the screen, and they also have four possible edges which just seem to stay sharp "square" forever (if your avoid rocks). Good Luck with it, you'll really enjoy the work it can do, Glen

[Raider 2]

Thanks. This model has two different cutting areas. The main one is the hammermill, the other is the side chute which has what looks like 4 mower blades on the end of the drum for chopping bigger stuff against a block before it goes into the hammermill. These blades can be seen on the right side of the third picture and through the side chute in the fourth picture. I think I'll try and get an online manual from Mackissic since they're still in business and try and use a general interpretation of the design to make sure mine is set up optimally.

[puddlejumper 67]

No Hammermill likes (soft material) we Have a big industrial mobark Tub grinder at work that will eat RR ties as fast as you can load it with a thumb on a 210 excavator.You have to keep it full or it starts chunking football size chunks out the top maybe 60feet (you definetly pay attention).That said a trash bag full of leaves or grass clippings Will make it ***** and bellar and a bag of cloth rags means shut her down and spend 1/2 a day trying to clean it out.

[Raider 2]

I have been playing around with the shredder lately. I removed all of the bars that make up the outlet grate on the bottom and found I can throw whatever I want into the shredder without bogging it down. The stuff comes out a little courser than grass clippings which works nicely for composting. I can shred a bunch of weeds in a hurry now and if they're not quite fine enough can throw them in for a second pass. I'm going to get some small lynch pins (if I can find them small enough) so that I can pin each bar individually for quick adjustment of the grate opening. Right now the bars are all held in by a piece of wire running through them all on both ends.

I'm happy this shredder is working out because I make a lot of compost from my yard and garden and the process is much quicker and easier with shredded ingredients. My original shredder was very frustrating because it plugged up so often and badly. This old thing, while dangerous as hell, is much easier to work with. I just need to be alert while using it.

[Raider 2]

I got some small lynch pins and tried out the shredder with different numbers of bars in the bottom. I ran a bunch of weeds and spent peavines through it this afternoon and it worked excellent with every third bar installed. The compost pile is smoking hot right now!

[bgrindrod 0]

My neighbor tossed a hammer mill that was originally an attachment on a rotohoe. I am building a frame to mount a 6 horse (or so) Tecumseh engine so I can run the thing. There is an 8" a belt pulley on the hammer mill shaft. I would like to know how big a pulley of attach to the engine. Raider: is there a gear motor on your engine? The drive pulley seems sort of big.

[Raider 2]

You're right that is a big pulley, no it is not a gear motor. I'm not sure but I can check if you like, I think this is set up around 1:1 drive. I have to engage the clutch slowly or kill the engine and the hammers are really flying when the shredder is operating! The cheapo MTD and Craftsman type are direct drive so it makes sense to me that it would be geard pretty high but I'll have a look at it and confirm.

This machine has really made garden life better for me so far, I've made more compost in a Summer than I have in the last five combined. This Spring I might try throwing a couple of carp in the shredder to see what happens. I usually bury them in a hot pile whole and keep the windows closed for a few days. Maybe this will speed up the smelly part of the process :ychain:

[WheelHorse_of_course 99]

I have the Macissic and the recommend a specific RPM. I have it on my Charger 12 which provides plenty of HP so I never changed the pulleys but keep it at about 1/3-1/2 throttle.

I am on my way to bed, but I think one of my posts mentions the correct RPM. If you cannot find it I'll look it up in the morning.

:ychain:

[WheelHorse_of_course 99]

Here's the info:

MacKissic says the rotor should run at 2300 RPM +/- 150 RPM