Garden chipper/shredder

A garden chopping/shredding apparatus comprising:

• a frame;
• an upwardly open intake hopper on the frame having a lower end;
• a generally horizontal blade plate in the lower end rotatable about an upright axis and formed about the axis with a plurality of angularly spaced apertures;
• respective flat blades carried on the blade plate and having cutting edges above the apertures;
• a plurality of prechopping blades carried on the blade plate and projecting upward therefrom, the prechopping blades having cutting edges inclined upward and inward toward the axis;
• drive means for rotating the plate and the blades in a predetermined direction about the axis, for defining with the cutting edges of the flat blades a generally planar and circular orbit perpendicular to the axis and having an inner periphery offset radially outward from the axis, and for defining with the cutting edges of the prechopping blades an upwardly tapered frustoconical orbit centered on the axis and having a small-diameter upper end and a large-diameter lower end;
• and
• a deflector plate fixed against rotation in the lower end of the hopper and having a panel with a lower cutting edge juxtaposed with the orbit of the flat blades and an inner edge juxtaposed with the orbit of the prechopping blades, the panel forming an acute angle open backward into the direction of rotation with the orbit of the flat blades, the panel's lower cutting edge extending generally tangentially to a circle centered on the axis and having a greater diameter than the inner periphery of the orbit of the flat blades.