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Small shredder advice?


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I planted some native trees/shrubs as a hedge around our garden about three years ago, and they are now at the stage where some of the larger trees need cutting back (mainly the wild cherry and field maple, but some of the hawthorns need a trim too).  The waste from these would all be woody, with stems up to around 20mm in diameter.

 

I'd like to be able to shred these and use the waste as mulch, but thought it might be useful to consult the forum hive mind before choosing what to buy.  This shredder would only get used once or twice a year, and only then for a relatively small amount of waste, so I'm reluctant to invest a small fortune in a  professional machine.  Noise isn't really a problem, given the relatively short time it would get used.  For convenience I'd prefer an electric unit, rather than an engine drive unit, but it does have to be man enough to handle woody stuff, not typical hedge trimmings..

 

Anyone got any recommendations, please?

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(Just before anyone asks - Jeremy and his village got bonfires banned).

 

I had a thread on this 2 years ago, where I ended up with a Qualcast Electric one from Argos. The Qualcast was a rebrand of what seemed to be a standard mechanism in a lot of them. It has proved satisfactory for what I do across a couple of renovation projects and my own garden. The reason I went for that was that it was £90 whilst the others with the same mechanism were up to £150-200.

 

It does not do substantial branches (yes, I know - a definition on wheels), but they can go for somebody's log burner outside your valley, especially where you are. It does not cope brilliantly with very green branches, but is acceptable to me OK. What it does do is compress the stuff about fourfold to fit in the garden dustbin.

 

I think you have 2 options - go for something that is petrol driven and a heavy duty shredder; or go for something more like mine that is more a compressor and crusher.

 

Bosch, for example, have some electric ones at more like £300-400.

 

I would suggest going for a decent electric on the best deal, which is cheapo enough to give away or throw if you hate it, and consider something bigger if you turn out to need it. I would say borrow mine for a day, but it is rather a long way and I am not due down there in the next month.

 

Bosch: https://www.garden4less.co.uk/bosch-quiet-garden-shredder-2500W-axt-25-tc.asp

What seens to be the current version of mine at Argos: https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7501935

 

F

----------------------------------------------

So .. bought one of the 2.8kw electric ones this morning for just around £90 (Qualcast / Argos), and it was happy to shred probably 80% of all the stuff.


Shredded some of the stuff already in the skip, which made enough space that the shredded remainder (except obvious fire wood) would fit in the space created thereby. @recoveringacademic will be keeping a couple of bulk bags full back so that I have some available if I need any.

 

The shredder is adequate for branches up to about 40mm, and just needs not to be driven too hard.

 

I can see me having this, and a secondhand lower end petrol powered one able to do things up to about 3-4" - and not one of the middle sized ones.

 

Thanks for all the help.

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited by Ferdinand
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Similar to mine from Screwfix, McAllister, reviews well, same price

https://www.screwfix.com/p/mac-allister-yt623105x-2800w-100kg-hr-shredder-220-240v/727FG

 

Similar looking to mine from Makita. From about £200.

https://www.alanwadkinstoolstore.co.uk/machinery-c111/shredders-c249/ud2500-garden-shredder-2500w-electric-240v-p38443/s41905

 

In the absence of a better deal, I would go for the Screwfix, but you may prefer the more expensive Bosch which does seem to chop better with double the throughput.

 

Bosch:

 

 

 

This one is more like mine:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XGRVgvHMNc

 

Ferdinand

Edited by Ferdinand
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Many thanks, I'd just been looking at the Screwfix one, seems to be the same as the Qualcast, and a Spear and Jackson, so it looks like there is a fair bit of badge engineering going on.  My local Screwfix have one in stock, and it seems to have a lot of reasonably OK reviews, so I think I'll just pop in and get one.

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I am in the same position, this year is the first time in six years that I have had to prune my dogwoods, fuchsia and a few other shrubs and although I can have as many bonfires as I like I would prefer to reuse any waste I create out of the garden. Was given a “Broken”  mulcher recently and need to find the time to see if it’s an easy fix.. I made about 30+ cuttings from the stems I cut  and will see if they grow, have had good results from cuttings in the past and have such a huge garden that it’s easy to plant 30 or more shrubs and then forget where you put them ! 

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I bought the Screfix one three weeks ago. Last weekend spent 5 hours over 2 days shredding up to the 4cm odd limit branches and it coped admirably, I was scared to put thicker ones in, but it seemed like it will cope with anything up to the thickness of the hole that you can push them into. First time I had ever used such a device.

 

The only drawback of a smaller chipper seems to be that you have to cut branches off any wider bushier examples that you have.

Edited by AliG
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Having shredded some larger branches with an industrial petrol chipper that I hired, I would never do it again. I found it took a long time preparing the branches to be chipped (removing smaller branches to leave straight branches). The chipper would stop fairly frequency as something had caused a blockage. In the end I borrowed a trailer and took all the remaining branches to the skip to be recycled.

 

chipping2.PNG.615a8061b29044899fa4e84799680a00.PNG

 

 

 

370525506_chipping1.PNG.2d0254b91fc5f205694f6e9410fec261.PNG

Edited by ultramods
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5 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

That pile above looks as if it would be around ten years worth of stuff from our, relatively newly planted hedge!

134243581_chipping3.thumb.PNG.2ea03a636fa37f0680a906e67b2936fd.PNG

 

 

To the right you can see the amount I had to chip.

 

With smaller branches and the recommendations of a particular shredder you might be OK, however for the cost of hiring the chipper and the time that it took, as I say I would never do it again, compared to taking the branches to the skip 10 minutes away.

 

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My main problem is that the stuff I've pruned off is pretty spiky (hawthorn/blackthorn) and also takes up a lot of space (won't fit in the car).  Using loppers to just cut a few side branches off so the stuff will fit the shredder is easy enough, and I can just put the chips down on top of the existing chips that I've laid over the weed membrane.  The cost of the shredder is less than half the cost of a skip...

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I have a small shredder similar to the ne above, I find its adequate for smaller amounts.

 

As I live in a woodland area we tend to get loads of larger branches and the occasional tree coming down in winter, so hire a large Timberwolf every couple of years to deal with the deadwood stock pile. Farmers round here burn Hawthorne because of the thorns.

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1 minute ago, Triassic said:

Farmers round here burn Hawthorne because of the thorns.

 

 

I can't say I blame them.  I find the blackthorn worse, as if one of those spines end up in your finger it seems to cause a heck of a lot of inflammation.  Normal gardening gloves seem hopeless, so I dug out a pair of deerskin working gloves that I picked up in Idaho years ago.  Pity they don't seem to sell the same sort of really tough gloves over here, or if they do, I've not seen them around.

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No one had cleared our garden in 3 years due to the building work. I wanted to get it ready for the grass to go down in a few weeks.

 

I bought a Black and Decker Scorpion saw a couple of years ago on Black Friday.

 

We cut any extra branches too big to squeeze in the chipper off using this. 90% off branches would fit in the chipper. Every time it is windy we seem to lose a few.

 

Any branches too thick for the chipper, we chopper up with the Scorpion and then gave away to someone with an open fire.

 

The chips went back around the edges of the garden.

 

The chipper blocked a few times, mainly due to putting stuff with leaves in it, but it wasn't a big deal. It took about a minute to clear it out. You don't need to cut every side branch off, most of the thin ones I just squeezed into the sides of the main branch and pushed right through.

 

 

Edited by AliG
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48 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

blackthorn worse, as if one of those spines end up in your finger it seems to cause a heck of a lot of inflammation

I used to lay hedges For a living before moving onto stone, at the end of one arduous day after cleaning up the brash and rounding up the fires I was walking back to the tractor, there was a small log about 100mm x 200mm long and without thinking I thought it would be good to kick it really hard to get it to hit the fire that was some ways off....... stupid stupid stupid. It was a blackthorn and what I did not see was a large  spike (they are poisonous and that’s why @JSHarris suffered inflammation) the spike went through the top of by wellington boot and a serious amount went directly into the top of my foot. I was in the middle of some remote field in Lincolnshire with an ancient tractor  and a long drive to the nearest A&E,  this was before mobiles. Unable to walk out and incapable of driving the tractor with this spike still in my foot and still sticking through the boot I tried to pull it out and it snapped of leaving a good chunk in my foot. A&E tried for a long time to dig it out by cutting in as far as they dared  but without major foot surgery they could not get at it and sent me away with antibiotics, it took 3 courses of pills as each time I thought it was better I would then knock my foot  and the poison would set of another major inflammation....... I guess at some point my body just absorbed all the bad stuff as after a few months of problems it cleared up for good. Anyway seriously off topic........  but don’t feck around with blackthorn! 

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I am also considering one of these to clear up. A Karcher sweeper, owners seem to swear by them.

 

https://www.viking-direct.co.uk/en/p/6362001?cm_mmc=Google-_-pla_gen_cleaning-and-catering_gosc-_-cleaning-and-catering-_-6362001&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6Nr3psTX4AIVirHtCh3I2Qi2EAYYASABEgIYo_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

This whole having trees to look after is new to me. I got a letter from the council telling me to cut them back from around lamp posts. I spoke to the next door neighbour and she paid £140 to get it done.

 

I bought one of these loppers that @JSHarris mentions. What an awesome piece of kit, can cut branches over 20ft up from the ground.

 

https://www.screwfix.com/p/fiskars-telescopic-bypass-tree-pruner/4166t

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, ultramods said:

Having shredded some larger branches with an industrial petrol chipper that I hired....

 

Now that’s not a chipper....

 

This is a chipper ...!! Tracked diesel Linddana TP 160 ... the 160 refers to the maximum branch size, this is it chewing an 8m tall Leyllandi...

 

 

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5 minutes ago, PeterW said:

 

Now that’s not a chipper....

 

This is a chipper ...!! Tracked diesel Linddana TP 160 ... the 160 refers to the maximum branch size, this is it chewing an 8m tall Leyllandi...

 

 

2A9ADDBA-1B43-4005-9907-A307845A795C.MOV

 

That's the type I had.  The amount of stuff it can chew up is unreal. 

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3 hours ago, AliG said:

I am also considering one of these to clear up. A Karcher sweeper, owners seem to swear by them.

 

https://www.viking-direct.co.uk/en/p/6362001?cm_mmc=Google-_-pla_gen_cleaning-and-catering_gosc-_-cleaning-and-catering-_-6362001&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6Nr3psTX4AIVirHtCh3I2Qi2EAYYASABEgIYo_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

This whole having trees to look after is new to me. I got a letter from the council telling me to cut them back from around lamp posts. I spoke to the next door neighbour and she paid £140 to get it done.

 

I bought one of these loppers that @JSHarris mentions. What an awesome piece of kit, can cut branches over 20ft up from the ground.

 

https://www.screwfix.com/p/fiskars-telescopic-bypass-tree-pruner/4166t

 

 

 

 

You are getting off fairly Scot free so far - hope that you do not have problems with any big ones.. There is a reason I take great care to check trees when buying a rental.

 

This little tree at my grans former cottage cost 3k to remove. In one day. Shredder at about 4 minutes. Tree is about 25-28m, and already a big tree in the when dad lived there as a boy in the 1930s.

 

 

 

My extendible loppers came from Aldi, and also include a pruner type blade. Probably not as industrial strength, but probably half the price.

 

F

Edited by Ferdinand
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We had a tree survey done before we started, I had to have it for planning as its a conservation area.

 

We have around 30 trees and one was identified as problematic. It was growing across the pavement and towards the road at about a 35 degree angle. I had to get some trees on the boundary trimmed before we started work and decided that as the guy was coming I didn't want to be responsible for this tree falling over on someone one day.

 

It was vastly cheaper though as only 9m tall.

 

Now that I have the loppers hopefully I can keep things in check myself. I do need to pay a guy to cut the hedges though as they are around 4m tall so that you cannot see in from passing buses.

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