Ball Racks Help Seed Cleaner Work Better

Ball Racks Help Seed Cleaner Work Better GRAIN CLEANERS Grain Cleaners (29C) 21-2-10 Dave Salenbien, Wallaceburg, Ontario, uses a small seed cleaner to clean soy-beans. Trash often plugged up the screens and he got tired of constantly having to remove them and shake the debris out. He solved the problem by replacing two of the cleaner's four screens with homemade "ball racks". "It's a simple modification that makes the cleaner work twice as efficient and also eliminates a lot of hassle," says Salenbien, who runs a small seed company and does custom work. "Big industrial size seed cleaners have ball racks as standard equipment, but they're not available on small seed cleaners." His Vac Away cleaner originally had four 3 1/2 ft. long, 2 1/2-ft. wide screens - two at the top and two at the bottom, spaced only a few inches apart. The screens fit into wooden slots mounted on the sides of the cleaner. Salenbien removed the bottom screen from each pair. To make the ball racks he kept the original frame but removed the mesh and installed more durable mesh with larger perforations. He divided the frame into several 4 by 5-in. chambers and ran a wooden rod through the middle of each chamber. He puts four or five 1-in. dia. rubber balls in each chamber. As the rack shakes back and forth the balls hit the rod and bounce up against the overhead screen to shake debris loose. The soybeans then fall through the screen and ball rack. "I think the same idea would work on any seed cleaner," says Salenbien. "I'm willing to custom build the ball racks for about $100 apiece." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dave Salenbien, Sals Seed Limited, Rt. 6, Wallaceburg, Ontario, Canada N8A 4L3 (ph 519 351-1460; fax 2516).

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