Chicken Plucker Man, Part 2

ANYONE can build a chicken plucker...(if you've got the blueprints and step-by-step instructions).

Here's some of the stages in my plucker-building adventure! I had seen various videos on youtube of this type of machine in action. I could follow the basic idea, but those videos never gave me enough information on precisely how to build it. So I decided to purchase the book by Herrick Kimball, "Anyone Can Build a Tub-style Mechanical Chicken Plucker." Now the project became clear, with material lists, drawings, measurements, and calculations. I now had a clear road map to follow. I made a few adaptations in an attempt to save a little money, as I'll mention below.

I'll walk you through it.

First, the frame. I used pressure treated lumber. That actually cost more, and I know some environmental purists are totally against it. I'm not one of them. The machine gets wet, so pressure treated lumber made perfect sense to me. Also, this meant I did not have to caulk the seams or paint the frame. The machine turned out to be very sturdy and quite heavy.

The tub is made from a used 55-gallon rain barrel or drum. I picked this up for free! It cuts easily with a circular saw. I discarded the top but saved the bottom. Utilizing the bottom would be a money-saving move, as you shall see. This photo also shows the rubber fingers inserted in the sides and bottom of the machine. The plucker requires almost 125 of these fingers, which I purchased on ebay for about 42 cents each. That adds up fast, and the rubber fingers are one of the more significant expenses of this project. But they're important. They do all the work!

The "feather plate" is located in the bottom of the tub, contains lots of rubber fingers, is supported by a solid 1-inch shaft, and spins between 200-250 revolutions per minute. The book recommends a stainless steel or aluminum alloy metal plate, and a solid metal shaft. In fact, on his website, Herrick Kimball sells the feather plate for $125.00 and the shaft for $55.00. Holy cow! I thought, There has to be a cheaper way.

I decided to use the bottom of the rain barrel, mounted to a round piece of plywood. I used a jigsaw to cut the plate from the rain barrel bottom. I just saved $125.00!  This photo shows the rubber fingers being inserted through the bottom of the plate, pulled upward with the help of a wooden "finger puller." For the shaft I spent just a few dollars to buy an 18-inch length of 3/4" galvanized rigid conduit. It has threaded ends, so I screwed it into a floor flange - again, just a few bucks at Home Depot - and then attached the flange to the plywood disc and feather plate with 4 nuts and bolts. I just saved $55.00!

Using the 3/4" rigid conduit required larger pillow-block bearings. The outside diameter of 3/4" rigid conduit is listed as 1.05 inches. So I bought bearings with a  1 and 1/16 inch bore. That's 1.0625 inches, which should be big enough. Even still, it was pretty darn tight and I had a tough time with them. But I managed.

This photo shows the electric motor. It is 1/2 horsepower, and spins at 1725 rpm. I bought it used on Craigslist for $30.00.

To achieve the desired rpms of the feather plate, I used a 2-inch pulley on the motor and a 14-inch pulley on the feather plate shaft. That 14-inch pulley was expensive! Cost like $50.00! Even with my attempts to save money, the costs were starting to add up. The v-belt, however, was only $3.99 at autozone. When I inquired at the counter, the saleman wanted to know the year, make, and model, of the vehicle. What was I going to tell him? "It's a 2012 Mechanical Chicken Plucker!" But I "chickened" out. I told him it was for a non-automotive personal project I was working on.  Another challenge was that the large pulley had a 1-inch bore, so in order to get it to fit on the rigid conduit, I had to take a grinder to it and shave it down a little. A bit of a pain, but it worked.

By now, the plucker was a heavy contraption, and awkward to move around. I followed the book's recommendation of putting some wheels on it. These wheels were lying around; I had bought them for next-to-nothing at a yard sale.

It was well worth the price of the book. I was able to learn from someone else who had gone to the trouble to tweak and perfect the invention. I felt confident that it would work as intended. And if you watched the video of the inaugural spin (in my last blog post), then you know it worked like a charm!

So far, we've processed 15 chickens using the plucker. So it hasn't paid for itself quite yet! But it will. Plus, I had a lot of fun building it. Kept my off the street anyway...