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Walk-Behind Stump Grinder
“After seeing a home-built stump grinder in FARM SHOW, I was inspired to build my own walk-behind model. My total cost was less than $600,” says Tim Gasser, Prairie du Sac, Wis.
  The stump grinder rides on wheelbarrow tires and uses the handles off an old rototiller. It’s powered by a 13 hp engine that Gasser bought at Harbor Freight. The engine mounts on a 2 1/4-in. thick by 12-in. wide piece of elm wood and is used to double belt-drive the grinder’s teeth.
  “I tried to build it as simple as possible and used off-the-shelf parts so it can be easily fixed,” says Gasser. “The wood frame is light and rigid and absorbs a lot of vibration. The entire unit weighs about 200 lbs. and is only 24 in. wide so it’ll easily fit into tight spots.”
  He bought the stump cutter teeth at Baileys (www.baileysonline.com) then bought a 6-in. gear, drilled holes in it, and bolted the cutter teeth to it. He welded the gear to a hub that he installed on a shaft with a couple of pillow block bearings.
  “If I did it over again, I’d use a bigger gear because it would give the belt pulley more clearance. It would also let me use a bigger belt pulley on the cutterhead, which would gear it down a bit more. And it would improve the belt’s traction on the pulley,” says Gasser.
  “At first I used a single V-belt, but it didn’t last more than a few hours so I switched to double V-belts. They’ll last more than a year before they have to be replaced. I sharpen the cutting teeth every 4 hours or so.”
  He uses his car and 4 by 8 trailer to pull the grinder around. “The car gets more than 30 mpg so it saves a lot of fuel compared to hauling it in my truck,” says Gasser.
  The home-built stump grinder has already paid for itself many times over, says Gasser. “It works best on stumps less than 2 ft. in diameter, although I’ve used it on stumps up to 3 ft. However, those big stumps aren’t much fun to tackle with a grinder this small. I get pretty sore if I operate the grinder for a whole day, so if anyone wants to build a stump grinder like mine I’d recommend using the biggest motor possible. Also, it would be nice to have adjustable height handles.”
  Gasser says the grinder is built so it’ll rest on its handles when he tips it all the way back, “which makes changing cutters a lot easier”.
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Tim Gasser, 59010 Denzer Rd., Prairie du Sac, Wis. 53578 (ph 608 354-4191; timgasser1@yahoo.com).


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2012 - Volume #36, Issue #6