Powered Walnut Huller

Powered Walnut Huller FARM HOME Food It takes just 3 to 4 min to hull a bushel of walnuts with the made it myself walnut huller built by Richard Rudowski Clinton Penn An electric motor belt-drives a wooden drum inside a metal cover Nuts are hulled in the space between the cover and the drum A hopper off an old leaf shredder directs the nuts onto the rotating drum which Rudowski made by cutting 7-in dia sections out of several 2 by 12 boards A 2-piece angle iron frame consisting of 2 U-shaped brackets holds the drum sections together on an axle with a pulley attached to one end A pair of bolts serve as the axle with each bolt extending through a 1-in sq piece of bar stock that s welded to the angle iron brackets explains Rudowski The angle irons extend above the wooden drum just far enough to rub against the hulls and knock them off Both the hulls and nuts fall into an old milk crate which is placed under the drum on a slightly tilted board Once the crate is full I dump everything on a work tray set on sawhorses and quickly sort them by hand The drum knocks most of the hulls off in one pass However I have to put about 25 percent of the nuts back through a second time says Rudowski After I built my nut huller I took it to Beaver County Career & Technology Center a local vo-tech school and they made drawings of the machine s various components I recently set the huller up at a local pumpkin day event and in 4 hours we were able to fill eight 1-bu drying racks with nuts Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Richard Rudowski 797 Bocktown Cork Road Clinton Penn 15026 ph 724 899-3874; rudowski@hotmail com

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.