Abstract: A vehicle tire carcass or refuse shredder including a downwardly tapered feed hopper widening at the base directly overlying a stationary toothed rack and a rotary cutter assembly, the latter comprising a plurality of disk-like cutters interdigitated with the rack teeth. The cutter disks each carry cutter bits at 180.degree. spacing, each with obliquely angled leading cutting edges and sloping rearwardly and radially inward from each of said leading cutting edges. The side edges of the cutter bits cooperate with the adjacent rack teeth to shear off the flaps or chunks of rubber or other material being gouged from the tire carcasses or other refuse items by the pointed tips of the cutter bits.

Abstract: An apparatus for removing the wire-reinforced inside rim cores of automobile tires and the like so as to permit shredding for fuel or other use of the remaining carcass, such apparatus principally featuring axially aligned reciprocative action tubular cutters, associated tire positioning and centering mechanism including conjointly actuated centering arms, an annular tire support platform that yieldably supports the tire at a level initially above the lower cutter, and a centering cone member that precisely centers the tire as the upper cutter approaches cutting engagement with the tire, and further featuring an upper cutter assembly that carries a stripper that presses the severed or partially severed cores through the interior of the lower cutters and in the process thereof completes the severance of tire wall material over the edge of the lower cutter.