I want to rig up a vacuum to pick up hard objects, like pecans. They
obviously cannot pass through the vanes of the motor. I want them to dump
into a hopper after going past a screener to remove husks, rocks, dirt, and
leaves. I want only the nuts to come out.

Anyone have any experience making a rig like this, or have an idea how to
arrange the plumbing parts to do this?

Steve

On Feb 23, 4:16*pm, "Steve B" wrote:
I want to rig up a vacuum to pick up hard objects, like pecans. *They
obviously cannot pass through the vanes of the motor. *I want them to dump
into a hopper after going past a screener to remove husks, rocks, dirt, and
leaves. *I want only the nuts to come out.

Anyone have any experience making a rig like this, or have an idea how to
arrange the plumbing parts to do this?

Steve

Stuff like this, the container/store is under vacuum too so the nuts
don't go through the fan.
When it is full the motor is shut down and the (nuts in your case)
fall out of a trap on the bottom.

One some things, the trap opens outward and is held shut by the
vacuum. When the vacuum is cut, it opens automatically and the stuff
falls out.
Depends on how dense pecan nuts are as to whether this is possible
without a latch..

Steve B wrote:
I want to rig up a vacuum to pick up hard objects, like pecans. They
obviously cannot pass through the vanes of the motor. I want them to
dump into a hopper after going past a screener to remove husks,
rocks, dirt, and leaves. I want only the nuts to come out.

Anyone have any experience making a rig like this, or have an idea
how to arrange the plumbing parts to do this?


Have you considered rigging a large net/tarp under the tree that funnels the
nuts into a container as the fall. Or even a heavy tarp on the ground you can
just sweep them off of with a push broom.

On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 09:16:06 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

I want to rig up a vacuum to pick up hard objects, like pecans. They
obviously cannot pass through the vanes of the motor. I want them to dump
into a hopper after going past a screener to remove husks, rocks, dirt, and
leaves. I want only the nuts to come out.

Anyone have any experience making a rig like this, or have an idea how to
arrange the plumbing parts to do this?

Sounds like a shop vac. Run it without a filter and you'll blow most
of the dirt by too.

What about raking the nuts, leaves, twigs and stones into a pile with a leaf rake and shoveling them onto a shaking inclined grate (like this):



so that the pecans and stones roll down the grate into a shallow receptacle of some sort, and the dirt, twigs and leaves fall through the grate. (I'm thinking of a long grate, maybe 8 to 12 feet long.)

The receptacle the pecans and stones fall into is full of water with a spout at one end. Water is continuously circulated through the receptacle by a pump. The pecans float on top of the water and are carried by it through a wire basket where the pecans collect. The stones sink to the bottom of that shallow receptacle.

What I would do if I were you is go snoop through some books on "Manufacturing Engineering" to get other ideas, because this is what you're attempting to do. Manufacturing engineering is the field of designing machines and processes to perform a task in the most efficient and economical manner.

wrote:
On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 09:16:06 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

I want to rig up a vacuum to pick up hard objects, like pecans. They
obviously cannot pass through the vanes of the motor. I want them
to dump into a hopper after going past a screener to remove husks,
rocks, dirt, and leaves. I want only the nuts to come out.

Anyone have any experience making a rig like this, or have an idea
how to arrange the plumbing parts to do this?

Sounds like a shop vac. Run it without a filter and you'll blow most
of the dirt by too.

And likely trash the motor.

On Feb 23, 9:16*am, "Steve B" wrote:
I want to rig up a vacuum to pick up hard objects, like pecans. *They
obviously cannot pass through the vanes of the motor. *I want them to dump
into a hopper after going past a screener to remove husks, rocks, dirt, and
leaves. *I want only the nuts to come out.

Anyone have any experience making a rig like this, or have an idea how to
arrange the plumbing parts to do this?

Steve

hardware cloth screen? Or, mesh that's about 1/2 inch?

On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 09:16:06 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

I want to rig up a vacuum to pick up hard objects, like pecans. They
obviously cannot pass through the vanes of the motor. I want them to dump

Only upright vacuums have the rotor vanes before the catch bag or
barrel. Canister vacs and shop vacs have them afterwards. Check out
the individual vacumm becaue there might be exceptions to my rule.

into a hopper after going past a screener to remove husks, rocks, dirt, and
leaves. I want only the nuts to come out.

Anyone have any experience making a rig like this, or have an idea how to

I'm sure nut companies do.

arrange the plumbing parts to do this?

Steve

On 2/24/13 2:15 PM, micky wrote:
On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 09:16:06 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

I want to rig up a vacuum to pick up hard objects, like pecans. They
obviously cannot pass through the vanes of the motor. I want them to dump

Only upright vacuums have the rotor vanes before the catch bag or
barrel. Canister vacs and shop vacs have them afterwards. Check out
the individual vacumm becaue there might be exceptions to my rule.

into a hopper after going past a screener to remove husks, rocks, dirt, and
leaves. I want only the nuts to come out.

Anyone have any experience making a rig like this, or have an idea how to

I'm sure nut companies do.

I'm guessin' they buy their equipment from companies like
Cyclonaire. Grain vacs apparently operate on the same principle.
They actually can push the product a lot farther with positive pressure
than pull it with negative pressure.

arrange the plumbing parts to do this?

Steve