Home-Built Pea Sheller

Home-Built Pea Sheller FARM HOME Food After looking at a commercial pea sheller Ron Forster decided he could build a better one Where the commercial unit had plastic beaters and drum he used wood and steel Best of all the price of the home-built unit was a lot less “A friend’s wife needed one for purple hull peas she sells to a local co-op ” says Forster “She asked if I could build her one like the commercial shellers Mine cost less than $900 including motors and bearings ” He built the 24-in dia 39-in long drum out of 3/4 by 3-in wide wood slats set on edge The drum is covered with hardware cloth sized to allow peas through He used plywood for the ends finished side in and 2-in square hickory for the beaters He used angle iron for the framing One hopper section can be removed for loading and later removing spent hulls and chaff The beaters ride on a shaft that turns counter to the shaft that turns the hopper Each shaft is driven by a different motor A 1/10 hp motor turns the hopper at only 10 rpm’s with a 1/2 hp motor driving the beaters at up to 200 rpm’s “I have two bearings at either end of the center of the drum to mount the inner and outer shafts ” explains Forster The outer shaft with its drive pulley is mounted to the drum with a bearing resting on an angle iron cross support The inner shaft extends from a drive pulley and bearing That bearing is mounted on an outer frame member and goes through the drum to a second outer shaft and the second set of bearings The drum drive motor is mounted on top of the two frame cross members while the beater shaft drive motor is mounted underneath the drum Forster fashioned the beaters by clamping two 12-in long pieces of hickory back to back He overlapped ends by 6 in This formed a 2 by 4-in section that he center drilled for the 2-in shaft He also drilled holes for a carriage bolt to fit on either side of the shaft After taking the two pieces out of the clamps he rounded the ends off and bolted them in place on the shaft Beaters are offset by 15 to 20° to form a spiral and reduce clumping and encourage threshing Forster was careful to finish all surfaces of wood components with non-toxic salad bowl quality urethane Peas coming through the hardware cloth are deflected by plywood sideboards into a V-shaped plywood basin under the drum A flapper door on one side lets peas drop down into a sheet-metal trough when it s closed When it s open and the loading/unloading drum section has been removed pods can drop out and fall to the side of the sheller The trough rests at an angle on an off-center shaft driven by a separate small motor It extends out from the end of the drum with vibration from the shaft keeping peas moving down its length As the peas cross a screen and drop into a catch pan a blower under the screen forces chaff and residue out of the chute and into a residue pail Forster and his friends are happy with the way the sheller worked out It can handle several bushels of pea pods at a time says Forster It can shell out 2 1/2 bu in less than 10 min Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Ron Forster 3508 Union Rd Texarkana Ark 71854 ph 901 361-4751; dc9apu@yahoo com

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