I want to rig up a vacuum to pick up hard objects, like pecans. They obviously cannot pass through the vanes of the motor. I want them to dump into a hopper after going past a screener to remove husks, rocks, dirt, and leaves. I want only the nuts to come out.
Anyone have any experience making a rig like this, or have an idea how to arrange the plumbing parts to do this?
Steve
You want a cyclone precipitator. Woodsmithshop.com has a set of plans in their web site. Look for dust collector.
Stuff like this, the container/store is under vacuum too so the nuts don't go through the fan. When it is full the motor is shut down and the (nuts in your case) fall out of a trap on the bottom.
One some things, the trap opens outward and is held shut by the vacuum. When the vacuum is cut, it opens automatically and the stuff falls out. Depends on how dense pecan nuts are as to whether this is possible without a latch..
Sounds like a shop vac. Run it without a filter and you'll blow most of the dirt by too.
hardware cloth screen? Or, mesh that's about 1/2 inch?
Only upright vacuums have the rotor vanes before the catch bag or barrel. Canister vacs and shop vacs have them afterwards. Check out the individual vacumm becaue there might be exceptions to my rule.
I'm sure nut companies do.
I'm guessin' they buy their equipment from companies like Cyclonaire. Grain vacs apparently operate on the same principle. They actually can push the product a lot farther with positive pressure than pull it with negative pressure.
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