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Post by chrisg on Sept 17, 2016 6:21:28 GMT -5
As I live in the UK I can't get the tube sizes used by CA so I've been looking at several designs of winnower to see if I can make my own.
I've noticed that they fall into three designs
Long drop tubes Short drop tube with baffles like the Realseeds design Short drop tube with a discriminator as seen only on the CA designs
Long tubes and baffles seem fairly straight forwards but I'm trying to understand what the CA does. Does anyone know what the discriminator does that a long tube or baffles would not do? Has anyone tried just leaving it out or replacing it with baffles?
If I make my own winnower and it works I'll post up the design.
Regards Chris
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gap
Apprentice
Posts: 390
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Post by gap on Sept 18, 2016 20:39:22 GMT -5
I have made one without baffles/discriminator for home use. Mine is just PVC tubes I drop cracked beans in the top, they fall at 45 degrees to a T-intersection. Down go the nibs, up and across and then down into a bucket goes the shell. The vacuum is sucking air out of the bucket. It is a very simple setup ($30 to make) but does an OK job. It is definitely not optimised but still has an OK recovery rate. I think something to "bounce" the cracked beans off would help as they fall to better separate the nibs/shell and I do need to clean out the vacuum filter after each use. But when all is said and done, it works well for home use.
If I was doing larger amounts (for profits) I would sieve the cracked beans first so that shell and nibs were about the same size and then dial the airflow into the specific sizes for more effective winnowing.
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Post by Ben on Sept 19, 2016 9:31:05 GMT -5
If building the CA winnower, I wouldn't worry too much about getting the exact same tube sizes. Just get whatever's closest. Since it's so adjustable, you'll be able to tune it to compensate for the different tube sizes. CA makes two versions that use different sized tubes, so it's known to work.
I've made 4 or 5 different winnowers over the years, and the CA design has been the best for me. It doesn't really have a 'drop tube' like the standard PVC long tube, or the Realseeds design. All of the winnowing is happening right at the point where the cracked beans enter the separation tube. By the time they've gone an inch or two down the tube, all of the winnowing is done. The idea is that the shell never has a chance to gain any downward momentum, instead being instantly sucked up and away.
With the long tube or realseeds design, both the nibs and shells are falling, and then the airflow stops and reverses the descent of the shell. It can work pretty well, and, as gap mentions, can be improved with pre-classifying crack beans by size.
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Post by snowghost on Oct 16, 2016 4:22:24 GMT -5
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Post by axiom on May 29, 2017 4:58:22 GMT -5
hello, I am currently developing my cacao bean winnower using a vacuum cleaner. I was just wondering if a 2600 pascals would suffice the the vacuum pressure for sucking the shells using 2" diameter pipes. Will that be okey?
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