How to get the feather plate out of a barrel chicken plucker with bottom on barrel.

[jlpj]

I'm in the process of building a chicken plucker out of a plastic 55 gallon barrel. I read many articles online about building one this way and several versions of it, so I decided to build one leaving the bottom on the barrel and putting a feather shute on it so the feathers and water did not fall right down on the motor and gear box. It seems like a very good idea. I have installed the feather plate and ready to drill the holes in the barrel for the plucker fingers. My problem is once I install the fingers in the side of the barrel, will I be able to pull the feather plate up and out of the barrel without having to try to pull all or at least some of the barrel fingers out. I'm not sure that I'll be able to get the fingers in the side of the barrel to bend enough to let the plate pass. I'm also not sure if I can get those fingers out without ruining them.
I'm wondering if anyone has built a chicken plucker like this and figured out an answer for this problem. I hope that I'm overlooking something very simple.

 

[raingarden]

Taking the fingers in and out will ruin them and be a lot of trouble. You have to be able to wash the feathers out with a hose. Better to build a shield/cover over the motor and gear box and perforate the bottom of the barrel. Some pictures would help.

 

[jlpj]

I'm in the process of building a chicken plucker out of a plastic 55 gallon barrel. I read many articles online about building one this way and several versions of it, so I decided to build one leaving the bottom on the barrel and putting a feather shute on it so the feathers and water did not fall right down on the motor and gear box. It seems like a very good idea. I have installed the feather plate and ready to drill the holes in the barrel for the plucker fingers. My problem is once I install the fingers in the side of the barrel, will I be able to pull the feather plate up and out of the barrel without having to try to pull all or at least some of the barrel fingers out. I'm not sure that I'll be able to get the fingers in the side of the barrel to bend enough to let the plate pass. I'm also not sure if I can get those fingers out without ruining them.
I'm wondering if anyone has built a chicken plucker like this and figured out an answer for this problem. I hope that I'm overlooking something very simple.

Well, I finally figured something out on the problem of getting the featherplate out of my plucker. I cut the barrel off just a little below the featherplate. I then cut a 3" wide ring out of another barrel and bolted it inside the bottom of the barrel I cut off, and it set right down in the original bottom of the pluucker. Now I can dissemble it whenever I need to.