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Dec 26, 2009, 1:43pm

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Chocolate Alchemy ForumThe Art and Science of Homemade Chocolate :: Chocolate Making :: Cracking and Winnowing :: most efficient winnower design
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AuthorTopic: most efficient winnower design (Read 214 times)
itsallaroundyou
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most efficient winnower design
« Thread Started on Sept 15, 2009, 2:06pm »		[Quote]
am researching winnowers (home built) and am wondering if there is one that is more efficient than any other. right now i'm looking at the PVC pipe one here: http://www.saveseeds.org/tools/tool_winnower_electric.html

versus the wood slat type here: http://www.buzz.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/winnow.htm

i'm concerned mainly with good recovery versus speed of winnowing, but i obviously don't want to have to spend an hour to winnow a pound of beans.

thanks in advance

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Re: most efficient winnower design
« Reply #1 on Sept 15, 2009, 3:40pm »		[Quote]
http://www.blt-inc.com/winn15.htm

We built a prototype at home using a set up similar to this; minus the shakers. I had a vacuum that got damaged during the move from Germany but the motor was still good, so we used that for suctioning the husk and dust (drops it down into a large container), built a table out of scrap wood to hold the unit, PVC for the winnowing tube, then a blow dryer at the bottom of the tube to regulate the airflow. It works pretty good, usually in two passes and sucks very little of the nib into it. We still need to build a "final draft" but I will buy a 12 gallon ShopVac to use on it and make it prettier. ;) This one can do around 5 lbs in about 45 minutes with approximately 80% winnowed nib output. Trying to make the final version better than that, we'll see.

I'll try to get some pictures of it later.

Andrea
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itsallaroundyou
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Re: most efficient winnower design
« Reply #2 on Sept 15, 2009, 4:09pm »		[Quote]
that's sounds pretty good...would love to see pics (if you have trouble posting them, feel free to email me directly at oka-road-mail-@-yahoo-.com (just remove all the hyphens)

i assume you're using the crankandstein for cracking? if not what do you use?
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Re: most efficient winnower design
« Reply #3 on Sept 15, 2009, 7:44pm »		[Quote]
At the begining stage, PVC is the way to go I think.
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Re: most efficient winnower design
« Reply #4 on Sept 26, 2009, 6:56pm »		[Quote]
well, i went ahead and built the pvc model.......i works but its messy so far.....need a shop vac and some drier hose.....and of course a way to crack the beans into relatively consistent sizes.....

can any one using one of these comment on the feed rate? it seems like i have to pass stuff through in very small increments for it to work efficiently.

that winnower john is building is looking more and more valuable lately....
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Re: most efficient winnower design
« Reply #5 on Oct 8, 2009, 8:14pm »		[Quote]
i'm trying to use my PVC winnower and i can't seem to set the blower up so that its not blowing air out the feed tube/port. the obvious problem with this is that it blows stuff out of my hand before it even gets into the winnower.

is this supposed to happen/unavoidable? is my blower up way too high? i'm running a hairdryer fan at 50% power.

i'm thinking about building a feed apparatus that can be loaded, sealed, then dumped. the boards have been pretty quiet lately, but i'm hoping someone who uses one of these or has used one will chime in.


-mike
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Re: most efficient winnower design
« Reply #6 on Oct 19, 2009, 2:55pm »		[Quote]
posting for the benefit of anyone else building the same PVC winnower.

i solved the air coming out the feed port by moving my blower about 1.5 feet back (i attached a tube to the port the fan was mounted in)

now i get no air out the feed hole and am able to turn the blower up higher while still maintaining good separation of husk and nibs.

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