I am going to go out and start vacuuming pecans this coming week. I guess I
have about six 55 gallon barrels worth lined up.

I have a 2.2hp 2.5" shop vac now, but want to make something that will do
more than one thing at a time. Right now, this picks up everything, and I
have one more step to separate the hulls. I'd like to leave them on scene,
unless the homeowner wants them cleaned up, for a fee.

Mainly, I only want to transport whole nuts, and as little hulls and other
trash as possible. For this, I have figured out some screens and filters.

I want to vacuum up the nuts in their hulls, plus the hulls, and have only
the pecans make it to the bed of the truck, and into a box. How would I rig
up a vacuum so that the hard pieces do not go through the vanes of the
vacuum?

I want to keep this very simple, so that I only have a vacuum hose, and a
holding box, and the ability to keep all other trash out. Anyone know of
any diagrams or sites where this is addressed?

I got ahead of myself. I put out an ad to see if anyone wanted any pecans,
and yes, they do. A LOT of people. But I had to go to Vegas for a few days
and do some real estate stuff, and therefore .............

So, I was thinking today as I drove, and now want to cobble together some
things until I get a machine running smoothly. I kept coming up with
"stuff", then kept remembering that I really want to keep it simple, and if
I can find a way to do this through diverting simple vacuum hoses, that
would do the trick, as far as collecting goes.

Help appreciated.

Steve

On 2/22/2013 9:12 PM, Steve B wrote:
I am going to go out and start vacuuming pecans this coming week. I guess I
have about six 55 gallon barrels worth lined up.

I have a 2.2hp 2.5" shop vac now, but want to make something that will do
more than one thing at a time. Right now, this picks up everything, and I
have one more step to separate the hulls. I'd like to leave them on scene,
unless the homeowner wants them cleaned up, for a fee.

Mainly, I only want to transport whole nuts, and as little hulls and other
trash as possible. For this, I have figured out some screens and filters.

I want to vacuum up the nuts in their hulls, plus the hulls, and have only
the pecans make it to the bed of the truck, and into a box. How would I rig
up a vacuum so that the hard pieces do not go through the vanes of the
vacuum?

I want to keep this very simple, so that I only have a vacuum hose, and a
holding box, and the ability to keep all other trash out. Anyone know of
any diagrams or sites where this is addressed?

I got ahead of myself. I put out an ad to see if anyone wanted any pecans,
and yes, they do. A LOT of people. But I had to go to Vegas for a few days
and do some real estate stuff, and therefore .............

So, I was thinking today as I drove, and now want to cobble together some
things until I get a machine running smoothly. I kept coming up with
"stuff", then kept remembering that I really want to keep it simple, and if
I can find a way to do this through diverting simple vacuum hoses, that
would do the trick, as far as collecting goes.

Help appreciated.

Steve




This ought to be an interesting project.
Wish I had a clue how to get started...


Obviously a grill or screen to protect the vacuum mechanism.
But how to keep THAT from clogging?

A feed ramp? Maybe of increasing angle?

I'm kind of wondering of a second vacuum of controlled suckage
acting as a cross flow might be able to pick off the partial hulls?


Richard

On Fri, 22 Feb 2013 20:12:30 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

I am going to go out and start vacuuming pecans this coming week. I guess I
have about six 55 gallon barrels worth lined up.

I have a 2.2hp 2.5" shop vac now, but want to make something that will do
more than one thing at a time. Right now, this picks up everything, and I
have one more step to separate the hulls. I'd like to leave them on scene,
unless the homeowner wants them cleaned up, for a fee.

Mainly, I only want to transport whole nuts, and as little hulls and other
trash as possible. For this, I have figured out some screens and filters.

I want to vacuum up the nuts in their hulls, plus the hulls, and have only
the pecans make it to the bed of the truck, and into a box. How would I rig
up a vacuum so that the hard pieces do not go through the vanes of the
vacuum?

I want to keep this very simple, so that I only have a vacuum hose, and a
holding box, and the ability to keep all other trash out. Anyone know of
any diagrams or sites where this is addressed?

I got ahead of myself. I put out an ad to see if anyone wanted any pecans,
and yes, they do. A LOT of people. But I had to go to Vegas for a few days
and do some real estate stuff, and therefore .............

So, I was thinking today as I drove, and now want to cobble together some
things until I get a machine running smoothly. I kept coming up with
"stuff", then kept remembering that I really want to keep it simple, and if
I can find a way to do this through diverting simple vacuum hoses, that
would do the trick, as far as collecting goes.

Help appreciated.

Steve


don't reinvent the wheel. Use a centrifical separator. I have a 7.5
horse vacuum for a shop with this ahead of the motor/vacuum assembly.

Karl Townsend fired this volley in
:

don't reinvent the wheel. Use a centrifical separator. I have a 7.5
horse vacuum for a shop with this ahead of the motor/vacuum assembly.


Karl, don't you re-invent the wheel.

Richard, instead of cooking up hair-brained ideas about passing full-
sized tree nuts throught the blades of a high-speed centrifugal fan, why
not consider looking up how nut shelling equipment actually works.
Likely, any decent-sized college with an agricultural program should have
some books on the subject. You'll probably find a lot of stuff excerpted
on the web.

It's kind of useless diving into a project, planning to use a vacuum
cleaner to do a job, and not even understanding how a vacuum cleaner
works!

Lloyd

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote in message
. 3.70...
Karl Townsend fired this volley in
:

don't reinvent the wheel. Use a centrifical separator. I have a 7.5
horse vacuum for a shop with this ahead of the motor/vacuum assembly.


Karl, don't you re-invent the wheel.

Richard, instead of cooking up hair-brained ideas about passing full-
sized tree nuts throught the blades of a high-speed centrifugal fan, why
not consider looking up how nut shelling equipment actually works.
Likely, any decent-sized college with an agricultural program should have
some books on the subject. You'll probably find a lot of stuff excerpted
on the web.

It's kind of useless diving into a project, planning to use a vacuum
cleaner to do a job, and not even understanding how a vacuum cleaner
works!

Lloyd

There is a lot of information pecan processing machinery, but most of it
is proprietary, and I have yet to find any with diagrams of the inner
workings. Vacuuming and shelling and cleaning have nothing to do with each
other, and work on entirely different principles. They cost in the $15,000
range for nonmechanical people.

For right now, I have that 2.2hp vac that works just fine for picking them
up. I built a plate in the inside of the drum where the discharge hose
slams the pecans into the plate to knock loose any of the remaining four
part outer husks. What I would like to do is make just a vacuum hose so
that I can take them right from the ground to a hopper, and have the hulls
and dirt fall off them, and end up with clean nuts in the hopper, ready to
be taken to be washed, and cracked, and then take the nut meat out.

I DO understand how a vacuum cleaner works, and even have an idea on how to
make what I want, was just looking for more information, which is what you
suggest that I do. I understand enough about vacuums to know that you can't
run pecans through the vanes of the vacuum generator, thus, I was looking
for a different approach.

And I disagree with you. On many inventions and things that men have built,
they were not told that it couldn't be done, or that it had never been done
before, but merely given the problem, and without the burden of knowing this
was almost futile, their thinking processes were not contaminated, and they
came up with solutions to "unsolvable" problems that "couldn't" be done.

Whether you think you can or can't, you're right. - Henry Ford - who, IIRC,
came up with most of his ideas in his kitchen.

What I want to do is to leave the scene with only the nuts, leaving all the
trash there. Now, if a person wants all that falderal removed for aesthetic
reasons, I'm happy with hauling it all off for a fee, and I have a separator
screen that will take the pecans out in about half a second. I just want to
keep it light, and not handle things any more times than I have to.

My best idea so far is to mount a big shop vac motor on top of a 55 gal
barrel, exhaust up. Put an intake on the side of the barrel. On the
intake, inside the barrel, put a screen that will kick the pecan into a
hopper, while letting the waste pass through and into a refuse pile. It's
going to be a couple of simple hoses, some screening, and the right
arrangements of said components.

I have the cracker and sheller already figured out, just have to build one
and try it until I fine tune it. Pecans must be cracked by compressing the
ends, not by crushing the sides. This is how you remove two halves instead
of getting a lot of small pieces.

I'll get there, and obviously, from your post, you don't have anything to
contribute to my post in the way of ideas ..........

Steve

In article , Steve B
wrote:

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote in message
. 3.70...
Karl Townsend fired this volley in
:

don't reinvent the wheel. Use a centrifical separator. I have a 7.5
horse vacuum for a shop with this ahead of the motor/vacuum assembly.


Karl, don't you re-invent the wheel.

Richard, instead of cooking up hair-brained ideas about passing full-
sized tree nuts throught the blades of a high-speed centrifugal fan, why
not consider looking up how nut shelling equipment actually works.
Likely, any decent-sized college with an agricultural program should have
some books on the subject. You'll probably find a lot of stuff excerpted
on the web.

It's kind of useless diving into a project, planning to use a vacuum
cleaner to do a job, and not even understanding how a vacuum cleaner
works!

Lloyd

There is a lot of information pecan processing machinery, but most of it
is proprietary, and I have yet to find any with diagrams of the inner
workings. Vacuuming and shelling and cleaning have nothing to do with each
other, and work on entirely different principles. They cost in the $15,000
range for nonmechanical people.

I would take the names of the main manufacturers, and do a patent
search using the Google Patents search engine. By now, all the basic
patents have long expired, the older patents will likely be simple
enough for you to cobble together.

Joe Gwinn

On 2/23/2013 6:27 AM, Lloyd E. Sponenburgh wrote:
Karl fired this volley in
:

don't reinvent the wheel. Use a centrifical separator. I have a 7.5
horse vacuum for a shop with this ahead of the motor/vacuum assembly.


Karl, don't you re-invent the wheel.

Richard, instead of cooking up hair-brained ideas about passing full-
sized tree nuts throught the blades of a high-speed centrifugal fan, why
not consider looking up how nut shelling equipment actually works.
Likely, any decent-sized college with an agricultural program should have
some books on the subject. You'll probably find a lot of stuff excerpted
on the web.

It's kind of useless diving into a project, planning to use a vacuum
cleaner to do a job, and not even understanding how a vacuum cleaner
works!

Lloyd

Gee, Lloyd, i dunno.
Just trying to keep up with the spirit of this place?
Isn't that what we do here?

"Steve B" fired this volley in
:

There is a lot of information pecan processing machinery, but most
of it is proprietary, and I have yet to find any with diagrams of the
inner workings.

That's bull. I made one search and found the complete maintenance
diagrams, parts lists, and principles of operation of an automatic
cracker.

ONE search term, one time "pecan shelling machines".

Vibratory screening and air de-dusting/debris-ing are common,
straightforward mechanical processes common in most industries.
LLoyd

BQ340 fired this volley in news:5128f676$0$44267
:

Shop vacs don't pass the debris thru the fan.

I'm perfectly aware of that, but he thinks it does. He has no concept of a
regenerative blower.

Lloyd

Joe Gwinn wrote:

I would take the names of the main manufacturers, and do a patent
search using the Google Patents search engine. By now, all the basic
patents have long expired, the older patents will likely be simple
enough for you to cobble together.


There are several vendors at flea markets around here with the
machines. A polite request and they may give you a detailed look at how
they work, and what problems crop up. They might even buy all the
Pecans.

Aren't crushed Pecan shells used to blast rust off steel?

Let's suppose you can accomplish anything you might imagine, even without
knowing much about the principles.

It's highly unlikely that your shop vac is 2HP unless it has an IC/fuel
engine on it.

Debris doesn't pass thru the turbine stage of a vac unless the filter is
damaged or improperly installed. A dust plume coming out of the exaust port
is evidence that the user doesn't know the proper filter installation
procedure.

I watched video of a large vac system on the bed of a truck that would suck
up/collect gophers from their tunnels/burrows without injury so they could
be exported as pets.. to Japan, IIRC.

The canister is evacuated, causing the negative pressure. The small electric
motor/turbine on most shop vacs isn't capable of maintaining the same
negative pressure/exhaust volume in a canister that's 5-10x larger without
losses in effectiveness.. the (same) hose won't have the same pickup
characteristics.

You're correct in assuming that I dunno jack **** about shelling nuts. I
would be wondering if there wasn't another use for the shells, and who might
want them.

The subject of collecting nuts being presented in RCM.. perfect.

--
WB
..........


"Steve B" wrote in message
...
I am going to go out and start vacuuming pecans this coming week. I guess
I have about six 55 gallon barrels worth lined up.

I have a 2.2hp 2.5" shop vac now, but want to make something that will do
more than one thing at a time. Right now, this picks up everything, and I
have one more step to separate the hulls. I'd like to leave them on
scene, unless the homeowner wants them cleaned up, for a fee.

Mainly, I only want to transport whole nuts, and as little hulls and other
trash as possible. For this, I have figured out some screens and filters.

I want to vacuum up the nuts in their hulls, plus the hulls, and have only
the pecans make it to the bed of the truck, and into a box. How would I
rig up a vacuum so that the hard pieces do not go through the vanes of the
vacuum?

I want to keep this very simple, so that I only have a vacuum hose, and a
holding box, and the ability to keep all other trash out. Anyone know of
any diagrams or sites where this is addressed?

I got ahead of myself. I put out an ad to see if anyone wanted any
pecans, and yes, they do. A LOT of people. But I had to go to Vegas for
a few days and do some real estate stuff, and therefore .............

So, I was thinking today as I drove, and now want to cobble together some
things until I get a machine running smoothly. I kept coming up with
"stuff", then kept remembering that I really want to keep it simple, and
if I can find a way to do this through diverting simple vacuum hoses, that
would do the trick, as far as collecting goes.

Help appreciated.

Steve

On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 12:39:30 -0600, "Lloyd E. Sponenburgh"
lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote:

BQ340 fired this volley in news:5128f676$0$44267
:

Shop vacs don't pass the debris thru the fan.

I'm perfectly aware of that, but he thinks it does. He has no concept of a
regenerative blower.

Lloyd

Some "Dust Collectors" do send the incoming debris through the fan, so
they can run it into a simple cloth bag. But they are made for
sawdust only, you start slamming hard and large junk through the
impeller and it isn't going to be happy.

The more expensive Dust Collectors at least send the debris into a
proper cyclonic seperator via suction first to drop out the big crap,
and the impeller just passes the fines on to the bag house.

If you're trying to pick up big stuff like nuts off the ground, this
is what I'd be looking at. And make the shelling a seperate step.

The more important thing to check on with a Shop Vac is it's 100%
Bypass - even after the dust filter you don't want to send any of the
exhaust air through the electric motor for cooling.

The really cheap vacuum motors pull the exhaust air through the blower
motor for cooling, and between the bearings and the brushes and
inpingement on & chemical deterioration of the windings, the dirt and
vapors kills them fast.

-- Bruce --

How about just getting one of these?

http://www.thenutwizard.com/

Pete Stanaitis
---------------

"Pete S" wrote in message
.. .
How about just getting one of these?

http://www.thenutwizard.com/

Pete Stanaitis

My experience SO FAR tells me that this device would work well on a yard
that has been mowed regularly, and there aren't any big clumps of grass, nor
nuts that have migrated down into the grass from being left there for very
long. At some locations, I have seen where it looks like the nuts have
never been harvested, and that would take a cleanout, and a year or two of
picking out the rest before the first clean crop would appear.

As with most items, they show them displayed in the best of light, and in
the least demanding situations.

That Mantis cultivator looks like it is tilling dirt the consistency of
sawdust. Not like the lava rock caliche where my house is. But I did talk
to a fellow who has one, and really likes it for getting into flower beds,
and places where one wants a light touch instead of the root grabbing 5
horse tillers that will kick your ass if they get the chance.

I'm going to a house the next few days that should have about two 55 gal
barrels full of them, so I should know a little more soon. Only
modification I did was put a small piece of plate where the stream comes in
and would normally hit the filter head on. I used a piece of angle, and now
everything hits the angle, and almost all hulls are knocked loose, and most
of the pecans are cleaned pretty good with just that.

Separating pecans means dumping it over a vibrating screen that looks like a
barbecue grill, and everything but the nuts falls through. A blower blows
all the light hulls and other stuff away, and you're left with clean pecans.

Wife and I were talking it over, and we may just stick with selling the
whole pecans in shell because shelling and cleaning looks to be an expensive
process. We'll see as we go. Next year, October and November will be the
start of collecting nuts. But by then, we should have some clients who will
want to sell their pecans, or even have them removed as cleanup, and pay us.
I'll have several months to play with the gear.

Steve

Next on to shelling and getting halves instead of a zillion pieces.