Portable "Shucker" Uses Chains To Crack Walnuts

Portable "Shucker" Uses Chains To Crack Walnuts FARM HOME Food 26-6-29 "It's easy to use and works fast. It takes only one minute to fill a 5-gal. pail," says Isaac Temple, Morrison, Ill., about his home-built portable walnut shucker. It mounts on three 12-in. pneumatic tires and is powered by a 5 hp gas engine that mounts on back. Walnuts go into one end of a steel barrel and come out dehulled at the other end. He cut away the bottom half of a 24-in. dia., 56-in. long steel barrel and welded semi-circular lengths of 5/8-in. rerod on in its place to form a grate. The rerods are spaced 1/2 in. apart and are welded to lengths of angle iron that are welded onto both sides of the barrel. The rerods are offset 2 in. from one side of the barrel to the other. A 1-in. dia. shaft runs through the barrel and rides inside a 1 1/2-in. dia. pipe, which has 9-in. lengths of chain welded onto it. The shaft attaches to the pipe by a pair of set screws and is belt-driven by a 5 hp gas engine that mounts on back. Temple pours walnuts into an 18 by 40-in. opening. As the chains whip around, they remove the walnut hulls, which fall between the rerods and onto the ground. The angled placement of the rerods forces the de-hulled walnuts to the other end of the barrel, where they fall down a chute. "It works so well that a lot of my neighbors bring walnuts to me to shuck," says Temple. "I average about one ton of shucked walnuts every year and sell them to businesses that market them as squirrel feed. "I mounted the smallest pulley I could find on the engine, and a big 12-in. dia. pulley on the shaft. I use a throttle on the engine to control shaft speed and run it just fast enough to remove the hulls without cracking the walnuts. I welded the chains to the pipe instead of the shaft because the pipe is easy to remove in case I break a chain or want to put on heavier chains." Temple says the angled rerods work somewhat like a grain auger in forcing the walnuts to the end of the barrel. "The chains extend to within 1/4 inch of the rerods and their whipping action against the walnuts is enough to keep the walnuts moving along." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Isaac Temple, 12738 Covell Rd., Morrison, Ill. 61270 (ph 815 772-2453).

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