Do-it-yourself washing machine from a washing machine

How many poultry farmers did not curse the time when they have to massively chop the bird, and then process their carcasses before selling. Worst of all, the feather removal process is plucking. Well, if you need to pluck 30-40 carcasses, get together as a family, do an unpleasant job and end the job, but what if you need to pluck 300-400 carcasses?

Such manual labor will remind hard labor. So you’ll think for free - forcibly about making a do-it-yourself machine from the parts of the washing machine, but this is not a bad idea!

How does the plucking machine work?

A home-made scavenger works just like expensive factory equipment, it just looks, maybe a little less aesthetically pleasing. The principle of its work is as follows.

• The capacious tank inside is completely studded with rubber bills - special elastic pins with thread on the end.
• The bottom of the tank rotates at high speed and beats are also stuck in it.
• Throw the scalded carcass of chicken, duck, goose or quail into the tank in advance, and then turn on the scavenger.
  
• The bottom of the tank of the machine starts to rotate quickly, and the carcass inside starts to gallop like mad.
• During these races the carcass beats intensively against rubber beats, and the feathers fly off.
• After a few minutes of such jumps, the carcass is almost completely free of feathers, only the smallest feathers remain on the wings, tail and legs, which will have to be removed manually.

Does such a pick-up machine make it easier for the farmer? Yes, not the right word. In 1 hour of operation, such a machine processes up to 30 carcasses of broilers and no grueling manual labor. So get your “golden hands” out of your pockets and we will work together to create a home-made remover, which we will make of some parts of the washing machine.

Be careful! Some people think that the bird deteriorates from beating. In fact, the presentation of the carcasses that passed the scavenger is maintained at 100%.

We prepare the details

The first obstacle to making a do-it-yourself pick-up machine is bills. Where to get such specific rubber parts or how to make them? We struggled for a long time on this issue, did not find anything suitable, and in the end we agreed that it is better to order bills. The order is not too cheap, but we can reassure you - this is the biggest waste in the manufacture of a scraper. The rest can be obtained almost for free.

True, here you need to carefully place an order, because the bills for carcasses of different sizes are also different. The biggest beats for carcasses of turkeys and geese, a little less than beats for broilers. Next come the beats for a smaller bird, and the smallest for quails.

While waiting for the rubber parts, you can do the washing machine. For the manufacture of a scraper, we take the obsolete single-tank Oka washing machine. One condition - the washing machine must be fully operational. We will remodel the washing machine with our own hands at a minimum. The only thing that needs to be done is to transfer the engine and the control electrician located under the washing tub outside the housing, we will talk more about this later. We do the following.

1. We remove the engine of the washing machine.
2. We dismantle the activator and the drive mechanism.
3. We take out all the electrics and fold them carefully, so that later we can understand where it came from.

Details of the washing machine are prepared. Now you need to find a long rubber hose and put a shower head on it. This device will come in handy later on when the scavenger starts functioning. We also need some tools:

• spanners of different sizes;
• small adjustable wrench;
• ratchet with a set of heads from 8 to 30 mm;
• drill;
• Bulgarian;
• step drill;
• pliers;
• hammer;
• measuring tool;
• multimeter;
• marker.

Well, the bills finally arrived, let's start assembling the scavenger with our own hands. We will try to describe the entire assembly process so that it is easier for you to navigate when designing your own equipment.

Machine assembly

On the Internet, various masters propose to make a removable machine from a plastic barrel, sticking it with bills and constructing a drive mechanism. In our case, everything is simpler, since the Oka washing machine already has a drive, an activator that replaces the rotating bottom, the engine and some kind of control. But there is a problem.

In the bottom and the activator of the washing machine, we will pierce a fairly large number of holes into which we insert rubber beats. Moreover, between bills we will drill holes to drain water and discard feathers and fluff. As soon as the engine and electrics are directly under the bottom of the washing tub, all the water and feathers will go directly to them - this cannot be allowed. We do the following.

1. We make a housing for the engine from a suitable plastic box. From a metal corner we make a solid base for it.
2. We connect the engine to the control electrician and test its operation. Learn more about how to connect the engine from the washing machine (motor), you can read in the article of the same name on our site.
3. We are building a stable base for the tank of the washing machine from metal corners. The bottom of the tank must be at the same height from the ground as the tip of the motor shaft.
4. We take two pulleys and a drive belt from an automatic washing machine. We put one pulley on the motor shaft, and the second on the activator shaft, and then connect them with a belt.
   

The belt must be tightened well, and the engine box and the washing machine tank are statically fixed to the ground.

5. We check how the mechanism will work. Our task is to ensure that the engine, through a belt drive, twists the activator and does not fly away from vibration. Note that the vibration of the tank in which the carcass will rotate will be noticeably stronger.
6. Now the most difficult stage of making a do-it-yourself pen-making machine is installing rubber bats.
7. Using a step drill, we make holes that are 3-4 mm in diameter smaller than the diameter of the beat.
8. Between the holes for the beat we make holes a little more to drain water and discard feathers. Then it will be possible to make a flat pallet from tin and substitute it under the tank of the pick-up machine so that the feathers and water collect in it, but there will still be a lot of dirt.
9. We lubricate the holes for the beats with machine oil, after which we begin to insert the beats into these holes. The work is extremely unpleasant, but the result is worth it.
10. Finishing touch. We attach a hose with a shower nozzle to the edge of the tank of the scraper so that the nozzle is directed inside the tank.

Irrigation system: is it necessary or not?

Well, the home-made pen-removal machine is ready. It's time to arrange a general test and pluck the first carcass automatically, and at the same time talk about whether the irrigation system of the scraper is needed or is it better to pinch it dry. Let's not argue out of the blue, but pinch two broilers of the same size, one we will water while the machine is running, and the second will be plucked dry.

We turn on the engine of the scraper, the activator begins to rotate with the beats. Throw the pre-scalded broiler carcass there and turn on the water, which rushes in thin streams into the tank of the machine, watering the beating carcass. Literally 2 minutes pass and the carcass is almost completely cleared of feathers.

In the process of cleaning the carcass, water and feathers fly in all directions, so this procedure is best done somewhere on the street.

Turn off the water, the engine, pull out the chicken carcass cleaned from feathers. We take the second scalded carcass and throw in the tank. This time we will not include water. We start the engine and wait for the result.It takes 3.5 minutes, the carcass beats on bills, many feathers flew off, but many, even large feathers, remained on the chicken. Conclusion: watering clearly helps to better clean the carcass of feathers, which means you can not do without it.

In conclusion, we note that making a do-it-yourself machine from a used washing machine is quite possible, especially if you came across such a suitable washing machine as Oka. Good luck