Post by Ben on Sept 20, 2010 9:03:20 GMT -5
Here's my current winnower. It's a twist on the PVC design that only uses a shop-vac for airflow.
It's pretty straightforward. You put the cracked beans at the end of the J tube. Everything gets sucked up into the bigger tube. The husk gets sucked out of the top, while the nibs fall out of the bottom into the bucket. The valve sticking out near the top is used to control the airflow to the main chamber.
Here's my usual process, which is pretty quick and gives good results. I close the valve to maximize airflow at the bean intake. Then, I'll feed in a bunch of cracked beans that get sucked up into the separation chamber (big tube). They'll just fly around and around in there. The husk, and usually some nib, will get sucked up and some nib will fall out of the bottom. I'll give that a minute, and then open the valve somewhat to allow the nibs to fall out.
I repeat this until I've worked my through all of the cracked beans. Since I'm starting with maximum vacuum, I am generally left with a bucket of pure nib. I set this off to the side. Then I run the stuff that got sucked into the shop-vac through the winnower again, but with the valve a little open. This could be repeated a few times if necessary, but I'm usually satisfied with the results after the two passes.
I'm working in a very small space, and can't really have any dust flying around. This is the main reason that I wanted a vac-only system, instead of one that uses a blower. Another benefit, is that there is no blow-back at the place where you feed the beans into the winnower.
Ben
It's pretty straightforward. You put the cracked beans at the end of the J tube. Everything gets sucked up into the bigger tube. The husk gets sucked out of the top, while the nibs fall out of the bottom into the bucket. The valve sticking out near the top is used to control the airflow to the main chamber.
Here's my usual process, which is pretty quick and gives good results. I close the valve to maximize airflow at the bean intake. Then, I'll feed in a bunch of cracked beans that get sucked up into the separation chamber (big tube). They'll just fly around and around in there. The husk, and usually some nib, will get sucked up and some nib will fall out of the bottom. I'll give that a minute, and then open the valve somewhat to allow the nibs to fall out.
I repeat this until I've worked my through all of the cracked beans. Since I'm starting with maximum vacuum, I am generally left with a bucket of pure nib. I set this off to the side. Then I run the stuff that got sucked into the shop-vac through the winnower again, but with the valve a little open. This could be repeated a few times if necessary, but I'm usually satisfied with the results after the two passes.
I'm working in a very small space, and can't really have any dust flying around. This is the main reason that I wanted a vac-only system, instead of one that uses a blower. Another benefit, is that there is no blow-back at the place where you feed the beans into the winnower.
Ben