Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS => Topic started by: ArmucheeBee on July 12, 2011, 03:27:45 pm
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I had John Bixler to make me an extractor last winter and I just finished spinning out about 60-70 gallons of honey with it. Everything worked great. I ran it with a corded variable speed drill. I tried my cordless which worked fine but the clutch wanted to stop the rotation when you let off of tigger. That was not pleasant on the wrists. The hardest part was trying to find a food grade barrel in the Atlanta area but I finally got one off ebay for pickup. Because my barrel had a deep recess in the top, I inverted the top after cutting it off, and the sides of the barrel fitted very snug into the recess area. I also built a 2x4 stand the height of my 5 gal. buckets. It only takes about 2.5 minutes to spin out the honey and then with the drill you can reverse directions to make sure everything is out.
http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/4558/p1010637g.jpg (http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/4558/p1010637g.jpg)
http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/2084/theoperation.jpg (http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/2084/theoperation.jpg)
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/4792/p1010631k.jpg (http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/4792/p1010631k.jpg)
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Sweet. Very sweet. I like the set up.
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Stephen, I'm happy that it worked well for you and thanks for the kind words. You're a bit modest as all I did was supply you the parts and you did the assembly.
I like your stand too. Did it keep everything steady? I may have to rob that design. :)
Oh, and here's the original thread on the extractor: http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,29880.0.html (http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,29880.0.html)
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The stand is heavy and kept it steady, but if you do not do all you can to even out the weight it will rock like an out-of-balance washing machine.
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The stand is heavy and kept it steady, but if you do not do all you can to even out the weight it will rock like an out-of-balance washing machine.
You answered the question I was going to ask, on my homemade one I put 2 5gal cans of water on the base I built for it. that helps but it still gets with it. I am going to bolt it to the floor.
(http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk235/MrMurrell/th_100_0244.jpg) (http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk235/MrMurrell/?action=view¤t=100_0244.jpg)
It takes 5 regulars or 10 mediums, or 5 mediums and 5 regular
Bee-Bop
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Bee-Bop,
Interesting how you incorporated your honey gate into the stand. Can you show and/or describe how you tapped the extractor?
--John
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I would guess those 44 gal drums are similiar to the ones we have here in australia and they have a 2" outlet and a 3/4" outlet in them, add a threadded elbow and connect to the gate,
great idea
cheers
Mark
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Sorry I have lost the picture of the actual pipeing set up.
My drum is upside down, I cut the bottom off.
The drum sets on a 1 in. piece of plywood which is cut out for the pipe which is attached to it underneath,
the 2x4 is notched for the pipe & gate.
The plywood is hinged to the stand, so when cleaning the drum can be tilted, and a high pressure water hose used.
Works good for a home project, sure beats cranking !!
(http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk235/MrMurrell/Extractor/th_100_0210.jpg) (http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk235/MrMurrell/Extractor/?action=view¤t=100_0210.jpg)
Tread mill motor.
(http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk235/MrMurrell/th_100_0245.jpg) (http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk235/MrMurrell/?action=view¤t=100_0245.jpg)
Bee-Bop
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Stephen...I ripped off your stand design, used 100% scrap lumber and screws. So I paid $0 of incremental expense and about an hour and a half of my time (I work slow).
(http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/1257/photo8ux.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/200/photo8ux.jpg/)
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(http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/7496/photo9ck.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/821/photo9ck.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
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Is the camera showing the true color of your honey? Has a different, unusual color from ours.
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Yes, I'd say it's pretty close to the actual color. It seemed quite a bit darker than last year's batch. It has a much heavier taste than last year. I think that the difference has to do with the fact that last year we had a very wet spring and there was a lot of wild sweet clover. It was everywhere last year and never saw any of it this year.
Oh, and I kinda like the stand I made. The multicolor scrap lumber look. My wife wants to paint it, but I like it just the way it is...has character, what do you think?
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I paint everything white. I have a portable pro sprayer, so when I have boxes to spray I get everything else lined up-pallets, hives, sheds, extractor stands.
I had two hives sitting side by side this spring. One made a very dark honey the other almost clear. I thought it was due to flowers, but then I started noticing that one hive was old the other new. the old one had one to two year old comb--dark comb. The other had drawn out most of their comb this year, light comb=light honey. At least that's my theory, just too much of a color difference for flowers alone considering the hives are side by side.