Making a feather removal machine with your own hands
Owners of private houses almost always maintain farmsteads and especially love to raise poultry. But from the moment when tiny yellow balls run around the yard, causing tenderness, to a huge dish with an appetizingly fried chicken, some time passes, filled with the hassle of caring for and raising and, by the way, in this interval there is a period when the bird has to be slaughtered and pluck. This process almost plunges some subtle natures into a deep faint, but, nevertheless, it cannot be avoided.
Plucking with your own hands, even for villagers accustomed to any kind of work, is not only an unpleasant task, but also quite lengthy and tedious. If you have to process two or three carcasses, then that’s all right, but if you need to slaughter a dozen or two chickens to load into the freezer or take to the market, then the work may take all night. And if we talk about farms, where hundreds of carcasses have to be processed, then we cannot talk about manual labor at all. And the industry, of course, took care of automating the plucking process and launched special feather picking machines on the market.
Such devices make it possible to speed up the removal of feathers from a slaughtered bird tens of times, while the quality of work is quite high: the carcass is completely free of feathers and fluff, is not damaged and has an excellent presentation.
We are sure that every private poultry farmer would like to have such a device for plucking birds at home, but its cost is quite high, and not everyone can afford it, and its payback, on a small farm, can take years. We suggest not to be upset about this, but once again to be smart and build such a device yourself.
Let's first take a look at what a feather removal machine actually is. This device, operating on the principle of a centrifuge, consists of a drum, the entire inner surface of which, as well as the bottom, is studded with rubber beating fingers. The bottom of the feather removal machine is not rigidly connected to the drum and is a separate moving part. There is an output tray at the bottom through which the removed pen comes out. The device operates from a single-phase one and a half kilowatt motor.
When plugged into the network, the bottom of the device begins to rotate quickly, constantly turning the carcass over, rubber fingers hook the feather and pull it out, the water pouring from above washes it out through the exit tray. In just a minute, one or two chickens will be cleanly plucked and ready for cutting.
How does the plucking machine work?
Principle of operation:
The poultry plucker can handle almost any poultry - you can use it to pluck chickens, ducks, geese, quails, and turkeys.
Punching fingers for a homemade pen removal machine
As you can see, the main working elements of the device are the striking fingers. It is impossible to make them yourself, so our feather removal machine will begin to be built by purchasing them.
The machine may require up to 120 pcs. such elements. They are also not cheap - for one dollar you are unlikely to be able to buy more than 3-4 rubber fingers, but do not be discouraged ahead of time - in fact, this will be almost the only major investment in this project, everything else can be found in own farm.
When ordering beaters, keep in mind that they come in different sizes and are selected depending on the type of bird. So, when you are planning to pluck broilers, make sure that you do not receive old fingers intended for quail.
What is attractive about the plucking attachment?
Naturally, the main advantage that all buyers of this product appreciate is the fast and high-quality completion of the task. But this is not the only thing that attracts users. The great demand for this product is also ensured by the high quality of the device. Almost all European, Russian and Ukrainian manufacturers can guarantee that the product is manufactured according to all the rules and is therefore of high quality. The same cannot be said about the Chinese manufacturer. The quality of such a part plays a decisive role, since the degree of plucking of the bird depends on it. The highest quality products are capable of removing feathers from even the largest and most mature birds. The percentage of product sales on the market suggests that Russian-made attachments are in maximum demand. This is explained by the fact that these specimens have the best price-quality ratio.
An attractive fact about this device is that it does not leave marks after plucking on the very delicate skin of some types of poultry. The convenience of this device is also excellent, since the possibility of its use is limited only by the availability of an electrical outlet and a drill.
Assembling a poultry plucking device
As a container, that is, a drum for a pen-picking machine, you can use a plastic or metal round container, the height of which should be approximately 80-90 cm and the width 70 cm. The plastic should be very durable, and the metal should be at least 1.2 mm thick . The walls should not bend or crack under the influence of carcass impacts, and the rubber fingers should be secured very firmly. Since the drum is still separated from the bottom, it can easily be built from the body of an old round washing machine.
Along the bottom of the drum, up to about half or 1/3, and along the bottom, which is a circle with a diameter similar to the container, holes for the beaters are drilled with a wide drill, at a distance of 3-4 cm from each other. The diameter of the holes should be such that the narrow part intended for installation, the fingers fit snugly in the sockets.
Installing the hammer fingers is quite a task, you will break a sweat and spew several megabytes of profanity into the air while getting everything in place. Dipping the elements into some kind of slip-promoting liquid, such as oil or detergent, can make the job somewhat easier.
How to quickly and easily pluck a poultry feather
There are three main methods of plucking poultry used today:
- preliminary, when the killed carcass is placed in hot water for 1 minute 2-3 minutes after death, after which the feathers can be manually removed without any problems;
- combined consists of immersing under water and placing in a cloth or bag for 10 - 20 minutes to create a bath effect so that the feathers can be easily removed by hand;
- mechanical using various attachments and specialized devices for quickly removing feathers from the carcass.
Choosing fingertips
Hello dear farmers! In this article we will look at how to choose the right type and calculate the number of strikers for making your own feather picker or drill attachment.
First, let's look at what beat fingers are (or simply beats, pen fingers).
A hammer pin is a rubber part shaped like a regular pin, with a seating groove from 10 to 25 mm and a length from 50 to 300 mm, depending on the purpose and installation location. The beaters remove the feather due to the frictional force generated when there is contact between the rubber and the bird carcass. They have different shapes of the working surface depending on the type of feather being removed and the type of bird.
The main characteristics of feather fingers are: shape, length, bore diameter, tensile strength, Shore rubber hardness, elasticity and color.
The shapes of the beats are:
To choose the right type of plucking fingers in shape and size, you must know what kind of bird you will be plucking: quail, broilers, chickens, ducks, geese or turkeys.
For quail you need a small finger up to 50mm long and a landing diameter of 10mm. The quail is a small bird, so it is necessary to exclude the possibility of the bird getting stuck between the fingers. If you use fingers 90-100 mm long, the carcasses will fall between the fingers, or these beaters must be installed very often with a minimum distance between them. And this significantly increases the number and, accordingly, the price of purchasing fingers.
Boilers, chickens and turkeys have mostly small feathers, for the removal of which ball-shaped fingers (or spheres) with a length of 90-100mm and a fit with a diameter of 20mm have proven themselves.
Waterfowl ducks, ducks and geese have large feathers, for which ring-shaped fingers (or a ring) with deep ribs, 90-100 mm long and a landing with a diameter of 20 mm work well for plucking. The distance between the ribs of the beel corresponds to the thickness of the pad of the lower part of the feather, which holds the feathers in the skin of the bird.
In order to pluck different birds on one machine, we recommend combining the beating fingers with spheres and ring fingers in equal proportions.
For household centrifuge-type feather removal machines, soft fingers with a value of (48-55 Shore units) are used. In this type of equipment, the bird hits the finger under its own weight; if it is hard, the likelihood of skin tearing increases significantly. For beating drums and feather pick-up attachments, it is also better to use soft fingers, because... It is very difficult to accurately calculate the hand strength with which you need to press the bird to your fingers.
For industrial conveyor lines, stiffer pins with a value of (60-70 Shore units) are used.
Making a drum for removing feathers
To create a drum for a feather removal machine, it is necessary to have beaters.
The purpose of the parts is to remove feathers from carcasses. Making beaters at home is considered impractical. The only option is to purchase from specialized stores selling agricultural goods. You can purchase the part in online stores.
For a homemade design, you need to purchase about 100 pieces of beaters. The price of one copy is from 15 to 40 rubles.
There are several sizes of kick fingers. The large size is necessary for processing goose, the small beating fingers are intended for cleaning quail.
The existing types of beaters are presented in the table:
The entire range of finger pins from our production -> here
The striking fingers are the working part of the equipment that removes the feathers from the bird. Removal of the feather is achieved by rubbing the feathered surface of the bird against the beaters. In this case, the size, shape and rigidity of the feathering finger depend on the bird that needs to be plucked.
The beating fingers consist of a special rubber, the composition and properties of which vary depending on the characteristics of the bird and the method of plucking (home or industrial).
How to choose hitting fingers?
When choosing strikers for a feather picker, you should consider the differences between them.
The main parameters characterizing the striking fingers:
1. Striker size 2. Shape 3. Tensile strength 4. Softness
For quail, small chicken and other small birds, beaters with a total length of 50 mm are used.
Working length – 45 mm. The pin mounting hole is 10 mm. Landing groove – 2 mm. If the wall thickness of the tank you are using is thinner than 2 mm, you should use washers. The finger should fit tightly. Quail feather pluckers are made of white and black rubber. White rubber plucks the bird more delicately. When working with white fingers, some inaccuracies in scalding and the time spent in the scalding can be tolerated! For example, scald the bird in hotter water or keep it in water for longer than the specified time. Black rubber has standard plucking characteristics. By adhering to technology, you will also get excellent results!
For large birds - chicken, broiler, duck, turkey and goose, feather fingers with a total length of 94-97 mm are used. Working length – 80-85 mm. Mounting hole – 20 mm. Landing groove – 2.2 mm. If the tank wall thickness is thinner than 2.2 mm, you should use washers.
There are two main forms of strikers for large birds:
- ring (finger with horizontal ribs)
- ball (surface of the finger is pimply)
For chicken and broiler - ball-shaped fingers. This shape plucks fluff better and provides a more delicate plucking.
For duck, goose and turkey - ring shape. Ring fingers are better at plucking tougher, larger feathers.
If you keep different birds, then ball and ring fingers can be combined in a 50-50 ratio, staggered.
Tensile strength . Rubber strength should not be confused with stiffness or hardness. The higher the strength, the better the rubber, the more elastic and, accordingly, the longer it will last. We offer pins with a strength of 13 MPa, 20 MPa and 25 MPa.
Softness . Centrifuge-type feather removal machines use special soft pins (48-55 Shore units). Plucking fingers used in poultry farms are not suitable for home machines because they are too hard. The fact is that poultry farms usually have rotor-type feather removal machines, where the bird, suspended by its legs, moves between rotating rotor disks, on the surface of which there are beating fingers. Feather centrifuges are based on a different principle. Here the bird is thrown into the tank and, spinning chaotically and hitting the beating fingers with all its weight, is plucked. Therefore, on such machines it is necessary to use softer striking fingers.
We offer black rubber fingers with a softness of 55 units. Shore and white rubber - 48 units.
See the entire range of finger pins here.
Now that we have decided on the choice of beating fingers, it is important to know that for high-quality plucking of the bird, it is necessary to scald it correctly. The procedure for preliminary preparation of birds for plucking is described here.
How to install beaters in a feather removal machine?
For those who make a feather removal machine with their own hands or those who change the striker fingers for the first time, you need to know that you do not need special tools to install the striker fingers. Simply insert them into the hole and pull until they are fully secured. When a finger reaches the end of its service life, simply cut it off with a knife and insert a new one.
How to make kicking fingers with your own hands?
The hammer finger is made using a certain technology, which is impossible to recreate at home.
Source: https://www.pluck.com.ua/vse-o-pticevodstve/bilnye-palcy-bily/
Drum pluckers
This is the most popular type of machine that is used in industrial facilities and small farms. They are distinguished by their low price and ease of use. This is a small drum with beaters on the outside. It must be used as follows:
- secure the bird carcass or hold it in your hand;
- present the nozzle to the bird and turn it on;
- process until completely free of fluff and feathers.
Drum plucker
It is inconvenient to use this unit for working with small birds. Most often, its use is justified for plucking geese, turkeys and chickens. Quails and other small birds are difficult to work with.
You can only work with one carcass at a time. Therefore, large poultry farms rarely use these devices in their work. Most often, farmers create an analogue of this machine on their own. It is worth considering the basic methods of creating pluckers from improvised means.
Feather removal attachment for Duckmaster drill for plucking poultry feathers
Duckmaster makes the work of farmers much easier by offering a variety of drill attachments that are made from durable materials. There are various models that differ:
- diameter;
- number of fingers;
- finger stiffness;
- material;
- compatible with drill and screwdriver;
- productivity;
- purpose.
Feather removal attachment for Duckmaster drill for plucking poultry feathers
Most types of products are used for medium-sized birds, and when breeding turkeys and quails, special models are needed, since their sizes differ markedly. You can purchase it in specialized stores or online. Most companies today provide delivery throughout the country with the help of transport companies.
How the devices work
Before you start making your own device, you need to understand the principle of its operation. A pinching machine is a container with rubber pins. These fingers have a special surface that can grab feathers and pull them out. Thus, without any effort, you can get several processed carcasses in a matter of minutes.
Such devices are available in several modifications:
- With a centrifuge. Round or vertical triangular containers with punching fingers inside. The bottom unwinds at high speed, the carcass also begins to spin and gradually becomes free of feathers. To increase efficiency, a small amount of water is poured into the device - it will protect the carcasses from damage and wash away all excess. Small birds (quails, chickens, ducks) are loaded into it. It is not profitable to use them at home, so other types are suitable for households.
- With a drum. Here the motor drives the drum. The fingers are located only on the outside. The person must hold the bird close to the rotating rotor, constantly adjusting the pressure. You can clean carcasses of different sizes, but the smallest ones are inconvenient to process.
- Special attachments for power tools. They are distinguished by their versatility (you can pluck any bird), but they are not very convenient to work with: you have to hold the carcass with one hand and carry out processing with the other. The only justification is that such attachments are inexpensive.
Of course, mechanization of the process has many advantages, but there is also a significant disadvantage - high cost. , only farmers or individual business owners who regularly sell livestock buy such devices
But even when using at home, you want to minimize costs, which is why these days a self-made pen removal machine has gained popularity. There may be several options.
Nozzle properties
In addition to what has already been said, several more useful properties can be cited.
- Stainless and non-oxidizing materials are used to manufacture the device.
- The warranty period for this device is up to 10 years.
- Standard rubber pins are designed for a fairly large number of plucking operations. But even if they are worn down, it is possible to replace them with new ones.
- Most often, when purchasing a product, the kit already contains spare parts, such as pins. But even if they are unavailable, purchasing them separately in the store will not be a problem.
- The kit also includes instructions for using the nozzle, most often with detailed descriptions and illustrations.
Feather removal machine in the form of an attachment for a screwdriver
This option is one of the simplest. Important advice: you should not try to make fingers yourself, because their cost is low.
In order to make the nozzle, you will need a blank in the shape of a tin can. But the can itself will not work, as the thin tin will bend very quickly. Use thick-walled alloy metal pipe . Attach the bottom on one side using screws, drill a hole in the center, secure the pin in it with nuts (the diameter and dimensions must match the drill chuck). Drill holes for the hammer fingers directly in the cylinder, then insert the rubber bands there - the unit is completely ready for use.
The second economical option: take a sewer pipe made of polyethylene, the diameter of which does not exceed 12 cm. Any hard material is suitable for the bottom. The pin is threaded through, the “cheeks” are tightened using nuts. The fingers are inserted according to the same pattern as described above. To increase productivity and make work easier, the drill can be attached to the table.
How does a plucking machine work?
A homemade feather plucking machine is assembled from a reservoir and rubber parts placed on its inner surface. These parts are called hammer fingers - they are the main part of the device. It is impossible to make these ribbed elements yourself - you have to buy them.
One chicken picker can contain up to 120 beating fingers. Their cost is rather high - on average 20–40 rubles per piece. However, this is the only major expense that will be incurred when creating a homemade product from an old washing machine. Everything else can be found on the farm - a feather plucker assembled with your own hands will cost you little. But the result is excellent: the fuss with plucking will be replaced by an electromechanical installation.
When purchasing pickers, consider the size of the carcasses being plucked. Quail beaters are not suitable for geese, broilers and other larger animals.
Manufacturing a unit based on a washing machine
To make it, an old washing machine with a fixed cylindrical container, a ready-made drive in the lower part that rotates the bottom, and an installed oil seal is perfect.
The main point of processing is to make maximum use of the standard design. Holes are made in the walls for attaching fingers, and a round plate of hard metal is attached above the bottom (the bottoms of old pots or pans are suitable). The base is attached to the axis. Holes are also drilled in the bottom.
The part that rotates should have dimensions smaller than the tank (about 5 cm). If the gap is too large, bird limbs may get in. It is necessary to equip a water drain at the bottom of the tank, while simultaneously ensuring the tightness of the axle so that water cannot get into the electric motor.
With the help of such a unit you can process both small and large carcasses.
What to make a feather plucker from?
Before assembling the device, draw up its drawings - they will help you take into account and calculate all the nuances of the design. What washing machines might be useful? Any automatic or semi-automatic washing machine that meets the following conditions:
- it must be working;
- with vertical loading.
Washing machines such as “Oka”, “Fairy”, “Malyutka” are suitable as “raw materials” for bird pluckers. Don’t worry - the carcass in the plucker will not be damaged and will not lose its presentation: the rubber fingers are soft enough and will not cause harm.
Barrel skimmer
- A homemade feather scraper based on a barrel will work on the same principle as devices from washing machines. You need to take a plastic or metal barrel (height - 1 meter, width - 70 centimeters). It must be strong to withstand bird impacts against the sides.
- Holes for fingers are made in the lower part and on the bottom, and the drum is placed in the frame. It can be made from wooden beams or metal corners. The first option is easier to do, but the second is more reliable.
- Before the first layer of the bottom, another one should be added - for attachment to the rotation mechanism.
- To mechanize the product, you will need a 1.5 kW motor. To ensure proper protection, it is better to place the motor on a stand and move it to the side.
This is how you can make a plucking machine with your own hands without extra costs. A significant advantage of such a device is that it can be assembled from scrap materials.
Source: https://stroyka.ahuman.ru/chem-zamenit-bilnye-palcy-dlja-perosemnoj-mashiny/
Removing feathers with your own hands is not difficult
In order to effectively remove feathers from chickens, geese, turkeys and ducks, you need to prepare gauze or bandage and an iron. You need to place a small piece of gauze or bandage on the area of the carcass. The cloth must be wetted with warm water in advance. Place a hot iron on top and hold for several tens of seconds. After the area has warmed up very well, you can slowly remove the feathers. They should be removed without problems, since the animal’s skin will be well steamed.
Using this process, you can not only speed up the performance, but also cause less damage to the bird’s skin. After all the manipulations have been carried out, you should burn the remaining fluff with a blowtorch and remove the burnt areas. The animal carcass should be washed under warm water and left to dry.
Under no circumstances should you throw away bird feathers, because they are so valuable that you can get good money for them. There are special collection points that accept feathers and down. A person tries to carry out plucking very carefully, because not only the quality of the meat, but also the quality of the fluff depends on this. Even meat from which feathers have been properly removed (even with your own hands) will cost much more. Profit directly depends on personal efforts.
DIY feather removal machine
The device discussed below is assembled quite simply; the most expensive element here is the electric motor. Everything else can be found in landfills or using unwanted parts you have in your garage. You will also need to buy “fingers” for the pen removal machine, but they are not expensive. Let's take a closer look at how to make such a miracle of technology.
Materials and tools that the author used for homemade work: List of materials:
— engine (2-3 kW); — spare parts from an old washing machine; — steel square pipes; - plastic barrel; — steel plates; — bolts with nuts; - switch; - fingers for feather removal machine; - dye.
List of tools:
- Bulgarian; - drill; — welding; - screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches; - drill for fingers; - obedient woman
