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NPORS Stump Grinder Training (N606)
A stump grinder throws stone, grit and metal a long way, and the cutting wheel does not stop the moment you let go of the controls. Two days covers checking the site before you start, setting the machine up, working the wheel across the stump in control, and keeping everyone else out of the arc. Run on request, on your own grinder and your own stumps.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N606 Stump Grinder different
About this course
The NPORS N606 Stump Grinder category covers the pedestrian and tracked stump grinders used by tree surgeons, grounds maintenance teams, landscapers, estates, parks departments and highways crews to remove stumps after felling. It covers the site survey, setting up and stabilising the machine, working the cutting wheel across the stump under control, dealing with the arisings, and the daily checks and tooth maintenance that keep the machine cutting rather than snatching.
The hazards are specific to this machine. The cutting wheel throws whatever it meets: soil, grit, flint, brick, buried wire, old fence staples and the remains of nails driven into a tree fifty years ago. That material travels, and it does not stop at the operator. Underground services near a stump are a real risk in gardens, verges and around old boundaries, and so are drains, service ducts, kerb edges and tree roots running under a wall. The machine itself is heavy, works on uneven ground and often has to be walked into position through a gateway or down a slope.
Two days works through the job in the order it actually happens. Finding out what is under and around the stump before anything is switched on. Setting the exclusion area, using mats or boards where there are windows, cars, glass or people nearby, and agreeing who keeps the public away. Positioning and stabilising the machine, then sweeping the wheel in controlled passes rather than driving it into the stump. Managing the arisings and backfill. Then shutting down, checking teeth and pockets, and leaving the site safe.
- The machine: pedestrian and tracked stump grinders, the cutting wheel and teeth, guards, controls, the emergency stop and the travel functions
- The pre grind survey: underground services, drains, ducts, walls, kerbs, buried metal in old stumps and what is on the other side of a fence or a window
- Setting up: positioning, stabilising, ground conditions, gradients, mats and boards, and setting an exclusion area that reflects how far material really travels
- Grinding technique: controlled sweeps, depth of cut, working round the stump, root runs and avoiding snatching or overloading the wheel
- Teeth and pockets: inspection, wear, replacement, and why a blunt or missing tooth changes how the machine behaves
- Noise, dust, vibration and eye protection, and duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and PUWER 1998
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N606 Stump Grinder category, registered with NPORS and recognised nationally
- An NPORS Red Trained Operator card, or a Blue Competent Operator card where you hold the relevant NVQ, carrying the CSCS logo while your CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date, or a traditional NPORS card where the work is not construction
- Operators who survey and set an exclusion area before they start the wheel rather than after the first stone hits a car
- A record of training that satisfies a client, an insurer or a principal contractor asking how your stump grinder operators were trained
Who should attend?
Tree surgery and arboriculture businesses, grounds maintenance and landscaping contractors, estates and forestry teams, local authority parks and highways crews, utility vegetation contractors, golf courses and sports turf teams, and construction and civils sites clearing stumps before groundworks. It suits both the operator who grinds occasionally after a felling job and the crew who do it all week. If the same crew also fell and process the timber, the N602 chainsaw category covers the cutting and N603 covers the chipper.
Entry requirements. You should be at least eighteen for the card to be issued as a plant category, fit enough to manoeuvre a heavy pedestrian machine on uneven ground and to work outdoors, and able to follow spoken and written English well enough for the theory test, though an interpreter or a reader can be arranged on request. No prior card is required for the novice route. For the version of the card that carries the CSCS logo you need a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass at Operatives level taken within the last two years, which we book for you. Tell us at enquiry whether your machine is pedestrian or tracked, and whether your work is gardens, verges or open ground, because the practical is built around it.
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Course content
What you will cover
Classroom on the machine, the survey, the ejecta risk and the duties, then the rest of the time on the grinder setting up, grinding stumps out and shutting down, with theory and practical testing at the end.
The machine, the ground and the duties
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and PUWER 1998 as they apply to stump grinding
- The manufacturer's handbook, machine capacity and the limits of the grinder you run
- Machine components: cutting wheel, teeth and pockets, guards, controls, travel and the emergency stop
- Surveying the stump and the ground around it, including buried services, drains, ducts, walls and metal in old timber
- Ejecta: how far material travels, guarding, mats and boards, and setting a realistic exclusion area
- Stability and terrain: gradients, soft ground, kerbs, gateways and getting the machine to the stump
- Teeth, wear and replacement, and the effect of a blunt wheel on control and loading
- Noise, dust, hand arm vibration and the PPE required for grinding
On the grinder
- Pre use and daily checks including guards, wheel, teeth, pockets and controls, and reporting a defect
- Surveying the work area and setting an exclusion area before starting
- Moving the machine to the stump safely, including gateways, slopes and soft ground
- Positioning and stabilising the grinder for the first cut
- Grinding a stump out in controlled sweeps, working the root flare and managing depth
- Dealing with arisings, backfilling and leaving the area safe
- Shutting down, inspecting teeth and pockets, and securing the machine
Method of assessment
How the N606 stump grinder test works
NPORS assess the category by theory test and practical test. Training and assessment run together, and where you tell us at enquiry which grinder you run and what kind of sites you work, the practical is built around them.
1. Enquiry and group
Tell us how many people, where, and whether your machine is pedestrian or tracked. Four sit the novice course with one instructor and one machine, six can sit the experienced worker test. We quote per group.
2. Pre course check
We work out who is a genuine novice, who is an experienced worker and who is due a refresher, agree whether you need the CSCS logo version of the card or the traditional NPORS card, check the CITB test where it applies, and take the details NPORS need.
3. Training
Classroom on the machine, the survey and the duties, then the rest of the time on the grinder. On your own site we use your machine, your stumps and your access.
4. Theory test
The NPORS theory test, open questions and multiple choice, covering legislation, machine components, the pre grind survey, ejecta and exclusion, technique and maintenance.
5. Practical test
You carry out the pre use checks, survey and set up, position and stabilise the machine, grind a stump out under control and shut down, assessed against the NPORS test specification.
6. Registration and card
We register the pass with NPORS and apply for your card, with the CSCS logo where you hold a current CITB test, or as a traditional NPORS card for grounds and arb work.
After the course
What is under the stump matters as much as the stump
Stumps sit where trees were planted, and trees were planted before the drain, the duct, the supply cable and the boundary wall. A grinder that meets a service does not stop politely. On garden and verge work in particular, the survey before the machine starts is the difference between a routine job and a day with the network operator, and it is worth pairing this ticket with cable avoidance training for crews who work near services regularly.
The other thing that changes behaviour is honest talk about how far the machine throws material. Operators wear the visor and think the risk is covered. It is the parked car, the greenhouse, the child at the window and the colleague standing at the wrong end of the arc that generate the claims. Exclusion distance, boards and mats and somebody keeping the public back are part of the job, not an optional extra.
- N304 Cable Avoidance Tool for crews grinding stumps in gardens, verges and near services
- N603 Wood Chipper Shredder, the machine that usually comes on the same job
- N602 Chainsaw Maintenance and Cross Cutting for the felling and processing crew
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment test booked with us where the work is on construction or highways sites
Build your course
Who is coming, and how many
We do not run these to a timetable. The course is built around your people: how experienced they are and how many of them there are, which is what sets the length and the cost. Pick the mix and we will come back with a date and a price.
The course builder needs JavaScript. Without it, tell us how many people and what experience they have and we will price it up.
N606 Stump Grinder FAQs
NPORS publish a two day novice duration, with four candidates, one instructor and one machine. Somebody already grinding regularly usually takes the shorter experienced worker test, and a refresher is shorter again. We confirm both when we quote, because the length follows who is on the course.
Four on the novice course and four on a refresher, with one instructor and one machine. NPORS allow six on the experienced worker test, so an experienced crew can be carded more quickly than a crew of beginners.
Both fall in the category, but they handle differently and the practical is built around the machine you run. Tell us at enquiry which one it is. If you run both, say so and we will cover both in the training.
The survey before you start is part of the course: plans where they exist, visual clues, drains, ducts, walls and the age of the stump. Where crews grind near services regularly it is worth adding the N304 Cable Avoidance Tool category so somebody on the team can sweep the area properly with a CAT and Genny.
Further than most operators expect, and the material includes grit, flint, brick and old metal from inside the stump. That is why the course spends real time on exclusion areas, mats and boards, and on who is responsible for keeping the public back while the wheel is turning.
No. Three machines, three categories. Most arb and grounds crews take N602 for the chainsaw, N603 for the chipper and N606 for the grinder, because the same people do all three jobs. Booking them together usually means fewer visits and less downtime.
For construction and most highways work, the CSCS logo version, which requires a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass within the last two years. For private gardens, estates and arb work the traditional NPORS card is usually the right answer and avoids paying for a test you do not need.
Yes, and it works better. We train on your grinder, on your kind of ground, with your access problems and your stumps. There are no scheduled dates: we run it when you can release the crew and the machine.
NPORS courses are priced per course, not per person. What you are paying for is the instructor, the registered tester and the machine time, so the figure turns on four things: the category, which route your operators need (novice, experienced, conversion or refresher), how many people are coming, and whether we run it on your site or at one of ours. It is also why a squad works out considerably cheaper per head than sending operators out one at a time. Use the course builder on this page: tell it who is coming and it works out how many days the course takes and how many times it has to run, which is what the price is built from. Then ask us and you will get a figure for that exact group rather than a list price with conditions attached.
We run NPORS courses across the UK rather than out of one fixed centre, and for most categories the better answer is that we come to you: your operators are assessed on the machine they will be using anyway, nobody loses a day travelling, and for a group it costs less. If you would rather come to us, we have centres at Trent House in Stoke, Pride Park in Derby, Europa House in Manchester and Kingsway House in Liverpool. Tell us where the work is and we will say honestly which way round makes more sense.
There is no fixed timetable to wait for. NPORS courses here are run to order, which means the dates are built around your programme rather than ours, and a single operator or a full squad can normally be booked in within a couple of weeks. If you have a card about to expire or a start date to hit, say so when you enquire and we will work to it.
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