High Capacity Pea Sheller

High Capacity Pea Sheller FARM HOME Food Henry McCullough of Pittsview Ala raises 1 1/2 acres of peas and gets them shucked in no time with a pea sheller he made about 5 years ago He pours in two 5-gal buckets of peas at a time and within 2 to 3 min hulled peas roll out into a bucket ready to freeze or give to friends McCullough 67 is a heat and air conditioning worker by trade He got the idea for his sheller after seeing another home-built unit McCullough first made a 24 by 36-in chicken wire drum with a 12 by 36-in 18 gauge stainless steel access door suspended horizontally above it They mount inside a 48 by 30 by 50-in box with an oak frame covered by 3/4-in plywood and a hinged door at the top The drum is turned by a 1/6 hp gear reduction motor that McCullough salvaged from a job The inside of the cage has five sets of three 1 by 1/4 by 9-in beater bars welded 6 in apart to a 1-in stainless steel shaft supported by two 1-in pillow block and 1-in surface bearings and turned by a 3/4 hp motor McCullough experimented with getting the right gear reduction with pulleys on both motors to get the right speed The first time I ran it I found out the rpm s were too fast and cracking peas so I slowed it down with a larger pulley on it McCullough says He used 14-in and 4-in pulleys to get the right gear reduction on the 3/4 hp motor After that it worked perfectly He fills the drum with peas turns on the motors and the beaters crack the hulls and the shelled peas fall through the chicken wire and down a 1/4-in screen into a bucket McCullough runs a fan next to the screen to blow off debris When the peas are all hulled he positions the drum so he can open the cage secured by three window latches and drop the hulls into a hull box that pulls out to empty It s best to pick your peas and air dry them for 24 hrs They shell better McCullough says adding the peas should be fully mature at the green stage before they are picked Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Henry McCullough 5258 Hwy 431 Pittsview Ala 36871 ph 334 855-9382

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