My Plucker - Version 1 - Video of birds being plucked

[jvls1942]

My good plucker has a 12 inch diameter drum with fihgers about every 2-1/2 inch I think there are about 130 fingers on it.. it has about a 10 inch pulley driven by a 2 inch pulley with a 1725 rpm motor.. plenty fast enough..

I want to build another plucker after I finish the whizbang one.

the next one will be a drum type. I would like to find a 10 inch dia pvc pipe for the drum.
is there such a size of pvc pipe?? 12 inch would be even better..

for shafts and bearings check out your local scrap metal salvage and wrecking yards..
we have a great one near here and the people who run it and work there are very helpful..

.....jiminwisc.......

 

[lostsoulhelpmejebus]

http://whizbangbooks.blogspot.com/2007/12/whizbang-4.html

1 sample finger: $5.00 (shipped first class)
25 fingers: $30 (Cost Per Finger is $1.20)
50 fingers: $45 (CPF is 90-cents)
75 fingers: $62 (CPF is 85-cents)
100 fingers: $82 (CPF is 82-cents)
125 fingers: $99 (CPF is 79-cents)
150 fingers: $115 (CPF is 76-cents)
175 fingers: $125 (CPF is 71-cents)
200 fingers: $140 (CPF is 70-cents)
250 fingers: $170 (CPF is 69-cents)
300 fingers: $200 (CPF is 67-cents)
400 fingers: $260 (CPF is 65-cents)
500 fingers: $320 (CPF is 64-cents)

price is with shipping included.

Bookmarked it when I was researching building a Whizbang Chicken Plucker.

 

[eggonomist]

I had to get in on this. I did my weekly clearing up of the garage and found a few odds and sods that I thought, hmmm, plucker here we come. It's an Ikea 'as-is' special. I had a couple of stainless shelf supports. they take a 12 inch deep, 1 inch thick board and screw into the wall. They were $2. Then I had some 3 spare bungee's that were left over from holding the chains on the tractor last year, they didn't work but I had a couple left over. Some old stainless cap-head bolts and an old laminate shelf. I brought some 4 inch caps as I was going to make a 4 inch feeders, so I had the pipes and caps. I also had an old industrial grade drill (220v) that has seen better days but still works well. On one side I have left the bolt intentionally long to fit into the drill chuck, I need to make a support for the drill but I only had a few spare hours this afternoon, this is how far I got.

And yes that is a Porsche Race car I'm using as a work bench, how the mighty have fallen.

 

[PurpleChicken]

I was wondering about the car as I looked at those pics.

I like the metal brackets you are using to hold the wheel.

Keep us posted on how it works. It looks great so far.

 

[eggonomist]

Well I threw together a quick support to hold the drill and here is it spinning at 1000rpm,

Now I'm wondering what would be the best speed, I was going to keep it at 1000rpm but I can run anywhere from 23 to 1700. I ran it for an hour to see if the very thin bronze bushes I turned up would hot get to hot as they were very thin but they worked perfect. Looking forward to this experience as the hand plucking is just not for me.
I will eventually build a whizbang type plucker as I have a hydraulic motor for $25 and I know where I can get a plastic barrel and a plastic table top to act as a disc, but a small unit that will do the 6-10 birds I for myself was something I didn't think possible, I'm just about stopping myself going out and getting the bungee's to finish it and start processing birds, the plucking is the part I HATE.

 

[PurpleChicken]

1000 rpm with a 3" pipe is a but fast but will work. I spun my 4" pipe at 900 rpm and
it worked ok. Now I run it a little slower at 700 or so. Next step is to try it.

 

[belibutn]

not trying to hijack a thread, but do any of you have advice for me on my plucker over on this thread?

thanks

 

[Winsor Woods]

Quote:
I like the idea of a larger diameter drum too! I'm thinking of using a plastic 5 gallon bucket as a drum. That's pretty similar to pvc. I'll drill holes in the outside of the bucket for the bungie fingers and then put the lid on, having a rod through the lid and bottom of the bucket to serve as the drum's axis.

How does that sound to you guys?

Not sure when I'll get around to making this, just brainstorming with you all.

Dan

 

[frugal]

Thanks for starting this great thread PurpleChicken!

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
My pleasure. I'm glad to see it got revisited. Several people have made their own inexpensive home made pluckers.