Making your own potting soil

We had several trees chipped, but the chips are too large for composting to make potting soil. Any idea how to grind down these large chips into much smaller pieces?

G'Day BillGrubs, Have you thought of running the Rotary lawnmower over the chips?
I have a garden mulcher that can handle up to 2" tree limbs if fed in slowly so it would handle the chips OK. You can usually hire them at reasonable costs check out the places that hire out garden equipment.
Regards Brian

Does the garden mulcher grind the chips into small enough pieces to use them in potting soil?

A previous neighbor and I went together and got a truckload of mulch from the local utility company years ago. For my casual woodland setting, the rough mulch was okay to use as-is. For my neighbor, she wanted the mulch much finer so she ran it through her chipper/shredder twice and it did greatly reduce the piece size. You may want to consider just buying one bag of mulch (hardwood mulch in a fine grind is my preference) at one of the box stores. Don't get the stuff that's dyed though. There's also a brand out there called Black Gold which is partially composted wood mulch and is almost black in color. It would all depend on how much you need I guess compared to the hassle and expense to rent equipment. You could also let your own rough mulch compost down for a year or so and you should end up with some finer pieces. Or you could try sifting through the stuff with a screen made out of hardware cloth and maybe end up with enough small pieces.

Thanks for the suggestions Cindy!

G'Day
If you feed the chips through several times they will eventually be fine enough but even so it must be composted before use. If you plan on having an ongoing supply then as suggested above even the big lumps will eventually decompose. I had the impression that all you wanted to do was use up some already existing material if this is not so but that you want an ongoing supply of potting mix. Can you access a sawmill or cabinet maker? You need to get hardwood sawdust, here it is Eucalypt from sawmills and with the Cabinet maker anything not pine. I don't know the hardwoods that you would get in USA but I suspect Oaks or Poplars etc.
Brian

I just have a huge pile of wood chips where we had lots of fallen trees and a lot of green underbrush chipped a few weeks ago. I know they have to compost over some time, but the chips are too large. Perhaps we will use them for ground cover and find another source for the compost pile. I am currently collecting a truck load of grass clippings and now am adding old horse manure to the pile. I know the chips would eventually break down, but don't want to start with such large chips. I buy really good compost from the city for $30 a ton which is pretty cheap. As you can see, I always get a little carried away with such projects. I will look into the hard wood saw dust locally.