I'm trying to figure out a schematic on my vacuum system.

I am going to use it to vacuum pecans from yards. Some pecans will be
totally bare, and some will have the husks on them, and they come off
easily.

I want to vacuum up everything, and have the nuts go one way, and the trash
the other. The trash is about 10% the weight of the nuts, so it would
travel through the tube in a flying motion, and the nuts would roll. I was
also thinking of using the suction side AND the blower side of the vacuum to
use either suction or blowing force to achieve my goal.

I'm using 2.5" hose, and probably 2.5" PVC or ABS connectors. Or
manufactured connectors from vacuum suppliers, whatever interfaces. Right
now, I'm looking for some used carpet cleaning hose, as it does not collapse
much, and comes in long lengths. I have also found 25' lengths of
Craftsman, Northern Tools, and other suppliers.

I have found motors, hoses, and connectors that fit on top of plastic 55
gal. barrels, which may be the way to go. I will provide different
services, either just picking up the pecans, or picking up pecans and trash,
too, which would surely help if I could separate it at point of intake
rather than transporting a lot of waste any extra distance.

Mechanical separation device is under construction and design right now.
Then on to something that might work to shell them.

Steve
Suggestions appreciated.

On 4/2/2013 1:17 PM, Steve B wrote:
I'm trying to figure out a schematic on my vacuum system.

I am going to use it to vacuum pecans from yards. Some pecans will be
totally bare, and some will have the husks on them, and they come off
easily.

I want to vacuum up everything, and have the nuts go one way, and the trash
the other. The trash is about 10% the weight of the nuts, so it would
travel through the tube in a flying motion, and the nuts would roll. I was
also thinking of using the suction side AND the blower side of the vacuum to
use either suction or blowing force to achieve my goal.

I'm using 2.5" hose, and probably 2.5" PVC or ABS connectors. Or
manufactured connectors from vacuum suppliers, whatever interfaces. Right
now, I'm looking for some used carpet cleaning hose, as it does not collapse
much, and comes in long lengths. I have also found 25' lengths of
Craftsman, Northern Tools, and other suppliers.

I have found motors, hoses, and connectors that fit on top of plastic 55
gal. barrels, which may be the way to go. I will provide different
services, either just picking up the pecans, or picking up pecans and trash,
too, which would surely help if I could separate it at point of intake
rather than transporting a lot of waste any extra distance.

Mechanical separation device is under construction and design right now.
Then on to something that might work to shell them.

Steve
Suggestions appreciated.




Oh no. I got slammed last time I played with this.
Yer on yer own, Steve!

"Richard" wrote


Oh no. I got slammed last time I played with this.
Yer on yer own, Steve!

Just went out to the shop to assess the pecans recovered yesterday.

I realized that I am overthinking this, as usual.

I'm just going to start off with the vacuum, getting a longer hose. Then
build a gravity separator to separate nuts from chaff. Then make some
soaking barrels, as suggested by online articles to sanitize them, and
introduce moisture, which helps them crack better. Then make successive
grates out of round rod that will classify them according to diameter.
Then, just sell them unshelled by the pound. The only thing that I can see
that I might need immediately is a generator so that I can access trees that
are not already close to electricity.

Then, if it does good, I can get fancy.

I do like the idea, though, of some sort of separator so that I am only
hauling nuts, and no chaff, which I will leave at the scene of the crime,
unless the people want to pay me to haul it off. And then, I will process
it, and sell it for garden mulch, which I hear makes pretty good mulch.

Steve

Steve

I've always considered plagiarism to be the sincerest form of
flattery.

Go see the commercial machines, take notes, build. In this case you'll
prbablu want ot look for the twenty year old machines. bet today's
units are sized to do a 100 acres a day.

I'd take a look at riding lawn mower baggers also. You're doing about
the same as bagging leaves. Might be a hell-of-a lot easier to sort
off site. water sorting looks to be a natural for this. Again, copy
tried and proven ideas.

There's nothing wrong with reinventing the wheel, but your first one
won't be as good as what you can copy.

Karl

On Tue, 2 Apr 2013 11:17:24 -0700, "Steve B" wrote:

I'm trying to figure out a schematic on my vacuum system.

I am going to use it to vacuum pecans from yards. Some pecans will be
totally bare, and some will have the husks on them, and they come off
easily.

I want to vacuum up everything, and have the nuts go one way, and the trash
the other. The trash is about 10% the weight of the nuts, so it would
travel through the tube in a flying motion, and the nuts would roll. I was
also thinking of using the suction side AND the blower side of the vacuum to
use either suction or blowing force to achieve my goal.

I'm using 2.5" hose, and probably 2.5" PVC or ABS connectors. Or
manufactured connectors from vacuum suppliers, whatever interfaces. Right
now, I'm looking for some used carpet cleaning hose, as it does not collapse
much, and comes in long lengths. I have also found 25' lengths of
Craftsman, Northern Tools, and other suppliers.

I have found motors, hoses, and connectors that fit on top of plastic 55
gal. barrels, which may be the way to go. I will provide different
services, either just picking up the pecans, or picking up pecans and trash,
too, which would surely help if I could separate it at point of intake
rather than transporting a lot of waste any extra distance.

Mechanical separation device is under construction and design right now.
Then on to something that might work to shell them.

Steve
Suggestions appreciated.

Go to your local central vac dealer/service place and see if they
have anyhoses that got too short for the original user due to the ends
breaking off too many times and scrounge some - or buy new central vac
hose. It's not 2.5" but that just means you will get higher velocity
for the same flow.

Richard wrote:

On 4/2/2013 1:17 PM, Steve B wrote:
I'm trying to figure out a schematic on my vacuum system.

I am going to use it to vacuum pecans from yards. Some pecans will be
totally bare, and some will have the husks on them, and they come off
easily.

It aint' gonna work. Any vacuum strong enough to pickup the pecans is
going to wreck the yard by sucking up half the dirt. Look at the spring
type pecan collecting tools and workup a way to combine a spring rake
with some sort of auger inside to bring the pecans inside the rake which
will also knock off the husks, and the auger running 3/4" or so inside
that rake moved the pecans off to one end where a vacuum system can
bring them up into a collection bin.

wrote

Go to your local central vac dealer/service place and see if they
have anyhoses that got too short for the original user due to the ends
breaking off too many times and scrounge some - or buy new central vac
hose. It's not 2.5" but that just means you will get higher velocity
for the same flow.

Anything smaller than 2.5" is too small for the pecans to go through without
clogging up a lot.

Steve

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
...
I've always considered plagiarism to be the sincerest form of
flattery.

Go see the commercial machines, take notes, build. In this case
you'll
prbablu want ot look for the twenty year old machines. bet today's
units are sized to do a 100 acres a day.

I'd take a look at riding lawn mower baggers also. You're doing
about
the same as bagging leaves. Might be a hell-of-a lot easier to sort
off site. water sorting looks to be a natural for this. Again, copy
tried and proven ideas.

There's nothing wrong with reinventing the wheel, but your first one
won't be as good as what you can copy.

Karl

http://baganut.com/pecan-harvester-tag-a-long/

On Wed, 3 Apr 2013 07:23:11 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:


"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
.. .
I've always considered plagiarism to be the sincerest form of
flattery.

Go see the commercial machines, take notes, build. In this case
you'll
prbablu want ot look for the twenty year old machines. bet today's
units are sized to do a 100 acres a day.

I'd take a look at riding lawn mower baggers also. You're doing
about
the same as bagging leaves. Might be a hell-of-a lot easier to sort
off site. water sorting looks to be a natural for this. Again, copy
tried and proven ideas.

There's nothing wrong with reinventing the wheel, but your first one
won't be as good as what you can copy.

Karl

http://baganut.com/pecan-harvester-tag-a-long/

That..is very interesting!

I wonder what the roller life is?

Gunner