Semi OT: Stumpy gets a transplant

[Evan]

Remember Stumpy? (OK, not everyone does)

That's the old rototiller I converted to a stump grinder by swapping out the tines for an old Briggs flywheel with half a dozen carbide teeth silver soldered on the rim. The transmission was dead so it was removed and the main shaft is driven directly from the engine via a belt.

The old Stumpy:



The old Stumpy worked really well on stumps that had been allowed to decay for a while. However, I have been doing some logging to clear dying fir trees near the house and I have some sizable brand new stumps to remove. Stumpy needed to grow a pair.

The new Stumpy:

Since I built Stumpy I gained some sawmill quality carbide tooth gang saw blades. These don't resemble consumer type saw blades. They are far heavier and each carbide tooth is about 3/16" square by 1/2 to 3/4" long. As I have no saw capable of using these blades I took the poorest of the lot and Stumpy got a transplant.



As luck would have it the blade is about 1 inch larger in diameter than the old Briggs flywheel. That's perfect as the flywheel serves to prevent the blade from taking too much of a bite. The bladed is mig welded to the existing flywheel retainer.

The Blade:



The stumps were prepped by digging out around them and pressure washing the dirt and rocks off of them, then allowed to dry.

30 minutes later the stumps shown above are history. It cuts 10 times faster with some chips as big as your finger flying 10 feet away at times.

[Ken_Shea]

Nice transplant, how is the vibration level while un-stumping

That sure looks handy.

[John Stevenson]

Neat, what's it like engraving you name on the decking

What about slicing one of those blades up and making parting tools out of them ?
.

[2ManyHobbies]

Heh, that's what, a 6-7 inch blade on 3 HP? Doesn't slow down much does it?

[Evan]

I have it set so that it slips pretty easily. I don't want it taking off across the yard if I lose my grip on it. It also stops it from trying to leap over the stump.

Those blades are incredibly sharp and are designed to chop through nails and stones that might be incorporated in the lumber.

Vibration isn't bad at all, I accidentally managed to get the blade pretty well centered.

[Dawai]

I was playing with some shuriken inside the house once, throwed one of them into a piece of plywood and it came off it, ran around that wall, around the side wall, around the wall behind me, off the wall and across my foot..

I had a row of bloody dots across my foot..

Some shuriken you got there Evan..

[Evan]

I have more. The one I used on Stumpy is the one on top.

[andy_b]

i'm going to have to keep my eyes open for some of those blades. my dad has an old tiller similar to yours and i do have some stumps that need grinding. what would i search for on fleabay to find some? sawmill blades?

andy b.

[Evan]

They are gang saw blades with the exception of the large one on the bottom.

[bruto]

Interesting machine. I suspect that a similar job could be done with an old edger-trimmer if you don't have an old rototiller handy.