I have a Mantis Chip Mate from a garage sale, with new blades, but not operating manual. It doesn't seem to be manufactured anymore. Anyone have instructions or a manual available?
The Mantis Chip Mate was actually made by a Swiss company called Stoeckler, under the model name Bio-Shredder LGM-600. Neither Mantis nor Stoeckler seem to have service parts or info on these models. Given the blade material the edge did last long and would dull out quickly on hardwood material - best to attack only pencil diameter material or soft material. The manual is of limited use but boiled down you have the following info:
STEP 1 UNPLUG IT! (Seems silly to say but just in case someone of less mechanical inclination reads this.......) Also being made in Europe, all the fasteners are Metric, not SAE/Inch.
The motor/drum assembly must be removed from the chute housing to get to the blades (7 - 5mm allen head bolts holds the drum inside the chute housing). A "T" handle hex wrench a minimum of 6" long will work to access some of the tigher clearance areas. Use a WIDE Large blade screwdriver the help separate the drum halves if they don't come apart too easily. The drum is the motor so it will stay with the smaller plastic housing part - DO NOT force the drum off the small housing part.
A 10mm open end wrench is needed to turn the bolts into the wedge/blade assembly on the drum (ie. turn the bolt head so it screws IN) to loosen the wedge assembly until the blade and wedge can be removed from the drum.
The blade goes back in the wedge blocks so the the bottom of the blade rests against the wedge and not the drum (ie the sharp edge against the wedge not the drum). Make sure the holes in the blade fit over the bumps in the wedge.
You'll next need to remove the counterknife inside the chute house and make sure the edges therer are sharp (you can flip the part around to use any of the 4 edges and bolt it back in or file them sharp and reinstall into the chute housing, BUT LEAVE IT LOOSE.
You need to adjust this counterknife distance from the drum knives. You'll need a 3.5" wide or so piece of shim stock that is 0.3mm thick. Put the drum/knife assembly back in the chute housing and rotate the drum around until one of the drum knives is under the counterknife. Insert the 0.3mm shim stock between the drum knife and counterknife. Push the counterknife down and tighten the 2 bolts that hold it in the chute. Pull the shim out, rotate the drum to the other drum knife and check for clearance to the counterknife. As long as it rotates by and does not hit you should be ok, but if they are really close, re-adjust the counterknife for 0.3mm clearance to the highest knife. Make sure the gap does not exceed 0.5mm or the unit will not chip/shred properly.
Put everything back together and make sure the bolts are tight!
Should be good to go. Given the blades don't seem to be of any particulary great hardness, I would feed material slow and easy and avoid any hardwood material over 1/2" in diameter. If you need new blades you need to search around to see what can be ground down to fit. Find yourself a person who really knows how to sharpen blades and they should be able to cut something down to fit.
Good luck.
Hi Phil. I actually have the original sales brochure and an original manual for the Mantis Chipmate. I have two of these machines. When I purchased one from a women she had the manual and original tool kit that came with it.
If you want to email me your address I will make a copy of both of these and mail them to you.
Hope this may be of some help.
Jim Vosper (Victoria BC, Canada)
Email - [email protected]
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I not only need to change the blades I need new blades. Mind are no longer sharp, and one has a ding in it, so they don't chip so well. Can you actually sharpen them?
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