@B-Hoppy and @HopStalker
For the plucker, I'm simply thinking about a set of rotating stripping fingers powered by an electric mortar. Bines would be pulled through by hand.
Anyone have a source for a few dozen striping fingers? Otherwise, I might just set up a jig and make them myself.
The simplest is a bar with a few picking fingers (yep, drill powered) to strip them off the bine.
The simplest is a bar with a few picking fingers (yep, drill powered) to strip them off the bine.
@B-Hoppy and @HopStalker
Anyone have a source for a few dozen striping fingers? Otherwise, I might just set up a jig and make them myself.
That sounds like a cool "hack", but I'm guessing that you probably need to mount it in some sort of tunnel or hopper so it doesn't spray cones and lupulin all over. Also, if you're using a cordless, I could see battery issues too. I have an old Honda lawnmower engine around that I'm thinking of using if the exhaust isn't too bad (if it is, could make a long exhaust pipe ).
When I was searching the web for picking fingers (that's where I originally came across the UVM harvester), I didn't find much. My most interesting findings were patent filings.
I could probably make something from what I found searching Alibaba, Grainger, Home Depot, etc. for double torsion springs, but they aren't ideal.
I don't have a lathe, but I'm thinking of doing something more like this:
https://youtu.be/vn9dDYzdorg
Also, I think I've watched every Bine 3060 video and a lot of other harvester videos on youtube. Here's a decent video that will give you an idea of what you're getting into. If I make something like this, I think I would reverse the shaft with the pickers, reverse the rotation direction, and run the bines through the top of the hopper so that gravity pushes the bines into the picking fingers instead of away from the picking fingers:
https://youtu.be/npVfinz6o1E
Woooo there cowboy. You looking to loose some fingers?
If slap a lawn mower motor on it, even if you can fine tune it to the correct speed, it will have so much torque it will rip something off of you.
Where I have got to so far, it seems pretty effective at stripping wheat and barley, will start work on the guards and work on slowing the motor down. I have a variable speed controller, but the wiring instructions are in Chinese and a little hard to figure out!
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