My new Apple Chopper

[cranky]

So what you mean to say is it successfully passed a stress test for safety. :

I guess you could say that

[cranky]

So as usual my life is just too freaking busy, and just when I think things might settle down I wind up with another project that needs attention. So as a result the chopper has been on the back burner. I have had the past week off and planned on getting it finished over my vacation week but didn't get anything done to it until today, which is good because I go back to work tomorrow. Anyway, today while working on my anti Speedoman barrier I took a few minutes to work on the chopper in the hopes I can get it ready before the apples start dropping, which happened July 3rd last year but I think the apples are running a little late this year.

A couple weeks ago I brought the barrel and blades to work and did a full disassembly again. I re-cut the blades for a little more clearance and better balance and added a stiffener to the top and bottom in the hopes to get it to run without flexing so much the blades hits the barrel. Then I put it all back together and it's been sitting because I needed to cut some new mounting boards to get it back together.

Today I cut and attached the mounting boards and hooked everything mostly up. Then I held my breath and plugged it in and here is the result

I still need to attach the side mounts to stiffen it up a bit and the switch but I think it is almost ready for apple season
When I get everything dialed in I hope to get a full build video up and a timed run to see how many pounds can be done in an hour.

[JellybeanCorncob]

Wow. A Contraption like that is in my future.
JBC

[Bushman]

Once the apples are ready I want to see a video actually chopping the apples. Timing it will be great information, also seeing how fine it chops the pulp, etc. Like you I need to find a more efficient way to grind the apples.

[cranky]

Last year someone, I forget who, contacted me with some questions about it. I think he planned on welding SS blades to a SS shaft, which I think is a great way to make one. As a result of that I started wondering if flat blades can work as well as pitched blades. I believe the previous chopper benefits from the blades being pitched both up and down so the apples tend to bounce around more before making it out the bottom thus getting chopped up smaller. I tried to get better chopping from this one by using lots of blades with the spacing getting closer as the apple pieces drop through it so they get chopped smaller. That's also why I serrated the top blades, I figure the serrations will help make the pieces smaller. If I need to there is room for more blades but I don't want it flinging the apples back out, my wife hates it when the chopper spits at her.

I noticed while running the barrel is flexing a lot and was likely the reason I needed to shorten the blades a little bit. The trade off with the shorter blades is more end gap which may allow larger pieces to get through but we will just have to wait and see. I'm thinking I might cut some 1"x1" wood strips and tie wrap them around the barrel to stiffen it up and add one more layer in case of a catastrophic blade failure, which is always a concern to me.

I need to get around to checking on all the early apples, I checked on the Vista Bellas about 2 weeks ago and they seem to be running late. I need to go check on the Transparents that came ripe the first week of July last year but I expect those to be a little late too. That tree gave me something like 600 pounds last year, which would be perfect for giving the new chopper that timed workout.

My plan is to set up the camera, load the chute with 100 pounds of apples and see if we can feed those through in less than 6 minutes. This would give a possible speed of 1,000 #s per hour which as you know is my goal. If I can achieve this it would make it practical to buy one of those 1,000 # bins that I see sometimes for $100-150. Most apple grinding equipment I see grinds them at a much slower speed than that or you have to cut them up first so it takes people a lot of time to do one of those bins. This will be swallowing them whole as fast as my wife dares to feed them in. Of course then I will have to once again rebuild the press to handle the larger volume. Even last year the press couldn't keep up with the chopper but I think that was mainly due to me having to keep stopping to add more apples to the chute so my wife could continue chopping.

Once I get the chopper to where I think it should be I want to make a press that can handle the speed and has an air hydraulic jack so all I have to do is step on a pedal or hit a handle and it presses it nice and fast.

[nuntius01]

wow, both terrifying and totally cool. best part is the cost.

[cranky]

wow, both terrifying and totally cool.

It really can be a bit terrifying. It gets less so after a few runs but I do try to keep safety in mind. Throwing a blade is a real concern, the last one actually did that, which is why the SS barrel and why I was thinking about adding wood reinforcement. There will be an on/off switch with a breaker in case something gets bound up but I don't really expect any amount of apples will bind up a 3HP motor. If you look at last years chopper you can see I placed a board to protect the operator from the rotating shaft. I plan on doing that with this one as well.

The most terrifying moment is the first time you turn it on because that's when you get to find out if you totally screwed up. I tried to video the first time I turned it on but things went south so quickly I never got the camera on it before having to shut it down.

I'm hoping to find time in the next couple days to finish this up. I checked on the apples a couple days ago and they still have a week or two to go so I still have a little time.

best part is the cost.

I'm a cheap bastard so you'll find with pretty much everything I do I try to do it for the lowest cost possible. This is still in the experimental stage so I would recommend not doing one like this until I get it sorted out. That said, I am quite happy with last years design and think that could serve a person who is happy with 300-500lbs per hour quite well, especially with a slightly larger motor, I think 1/3HP is a little under powered. In truth I should be happy with last years chopper because I seldom actually have more than 500lbs at a time anyway. What can I say, I like doing goofy things and I want it to be easier to take apart for cleaning and storage.

[nuntius01]

lol, so am i. totally cheap. i also like to dabble. i'm making a grain mill using cement rollers. hoping to have it completed by next weekend. keep up the good work, can
t wait to see it in action

[cranky]

A couple days ago I secured the side supports on the chopper. When I turned it on it now had a bit of a side load on the bushings and they immediately failed so this morning I took the chopper back into work as a distraction from thinking about missing the post Proof get together. I managed to find a little time between the chaos to work on the chopper.

I decided I am going to go with the tried and true method I used on last years model with the wooden bushings/ bearing plates. I decided to take the side supports off the drum entirely, actually "take off" is a bit broad of a term, what I actually did was roughly hack them off with the band saw. I then took the top and bottom braces off and removed the bottom spreader/bushing holder. I made up some oak blocks, drilled some holes in them for the shaft to go through and secured them to the braces. I then found a hunk of 1/2 inch ID pipe that fit over the all thread and cut some bushings out of that. It's not ideal material, but apple season begins in about another week so I don't have a lot of time. I bored out the hole in the wood to just big enough to fit the pipe and put everything back together. I chucked it up in a drill and gave it a quick spin and it seems to work OK. So the next step is to find a couple nuts to secure the upper bushing to the all thread and put it back together. One of the problems now is I moved the blades about 3 or 4 inches lower in the barrel so I will have to move the side supports up to attach the shaft to the motor but that's not a big deal, just a couple of holes.

[cranky]

Well I think the super chopper is now about as ready as it will ever be for it's actual testing. I ran it for a couple minutes today and to be honest it is pretty terrifying I think that motor may be just a scosh of overkill. I think it is much faster than the 1/3 HP one, which is something I didn't really expect and makes me concerned about throwing a blade so I think I will still have to add some sort of extra protection in the event of a catastrophic failure. My other project is at a point I'm pretty happy with so today I took the time to work on the chopper. I put it all back together and built the apple chute. Everything might be a little too high for my wife to operate it comfortably so I may need to drop it down a few inches. Fortunately I can move it down about 3 more inches. That's work I would rather not do but the wife needs to be able to be comfortable if I am going to get my operation up to multiple thousands of pounds in a single day

Anyway, here are the pictures of what it looks like now.

[Pikey]

........... Everything might be a little too high for my wife to operate it comfortably so I may need to drop it down a few inches. Fortunately I can move it down about 3 more inches. That's work I would rather not do but the wife needs to be able to be comfortable if I am going to get my operation up to multiple thousands of pounds in a single day

Dig a hole to put it in when she's loading ?

[nuntius01]

well, if my grain mill works, im trying yours next.

[cranky]

Dig a hole to put it in when she's loading ?

I'm considering parking it along side the deck while she is operating it but that might be too low.

well, if my grain mill works, im trying yours next.

I'm beginning to think with this 3HP motor this thing may be too scary to use, mainly due to the speed. I think the 1/3HP motor I used last year is too small, especially with the 10.5" blades. I think the right size is probably 3/4 - 1HP turning around 1,500 -1,800RPM. I'm pretty sure when this thing gets up to speed it is well above 2,000 RPM. I think if it were better balanced it wouldn't be so bad. I may need to work on re-balancing it at a later time,

[Soft batch]

I've been looking for components for months, haven't had much luck so far finding what I need, but it's getting down to crunch time as the trees are loaded this year. My wife, who reluctantly handles the chopping part, has been wondering why I needed another grinder - until I showed your video! She's 100% in as this will cut her workload down significantly.

I've been search for a SS can as the core, but haven't had luck finding a round can. I looked at my bench tonight that had a corny keg on it - and it downed on my that it would be about perfect. Good and solid, and about the right length.

What are you using for the blade material in this iteration?

[cranky]

I have a sixtel keg I actually considered using for this before the trash can went on sale last Christmas but I think a keg would be better because the metal is so thick so it would offer better protection in the event of a failure.

As for blades, I am using material which isn't exactly the best. My blades are aluminum salvaged from the scrap bin at my work. Over the past year or so whenever I found anything longer than 11 inches and thicker .100 I made a blade out of it. Ideally these would be made out of stainless steel but I haven't found any for free yet. If everything turns out well with this one I am considering giving my local metals supermarket a call and seeing what it would cost to make then out of new SS or finally making a trip down to the recyclers, or maybe cutting up that old keg I was going to make a keggle out of. I think the aluminum will be fine as long as I keep it clean and dry so it will work for this year.

[Pikey]

Don't cut a keg See if you can source some old stainless shelves or a stainless table beyond repair - caterers sometimes chuck 'em out.

[raketemensch]

Well, it's good to know that you can take a year off from HD, and come back to find that Cranky's porch isn't finished. Something comforting about that.

This chopper looks great, man. Would that motor balk at a speed control?

[cranky]

Well, it's good to know that you can take a year off from HD, and come back to find that Cranky's porch isn't finished. Something comforting about that.

Yes the porch still isn't finished I've been meaning to get to work on it but then my wife decided we needed the anti Speedoman barrier and I bought 2 bad cars to make one good one out of and that's been taking up a bit more time than I planned on because it turned out I missunderestimated the damage. I almost have them back together tough, so then I can get on with the porch...and a shed...and finishing the kitchen...and bathroom...and maybe even picking some apples The transparents are ready to pick so the apples are about to happen.

By the way, welcome back

This chopper looks great, man. Would that motor balk at a speed control?

Thank you, I hope it works well, if not the 3HP motor will be going on the smaller chopper from last year, I know that won't jam It's an A/C motor from the 80s, I don't think it would like a speed control, if it were D/C I think I could get away with it. I also have a couple DC drive motors from an electric wheel that I can vary the speed on if it comes to it but I was planning on using them for the conveyor system when I go full on Rube Goldberg... ...or maybe attaching them to a 3 wheeled bicycle

[raketemensch]

Just move the 3hp motor to the conveyor belt and create a Lucy/chocolates situation.

[Oldvine Zin]

Sorry to go OT but welcome back raketemensch

OVZ

[raketemensch]

Thanks, mate. I’m still getting caught up, can’t wait to see all the shiny bits you’ve built in my absence.

[cranky]

Well here it is! The maiden run of my new super chopper

It works pretty good and doing the math after timing it it looks like it could potentially handle as many as 2,000 lbs per hour. I also did a test of the maximum rate the other one can run at and it was well above 600 lbs per hour. My wife filmed while I ran the new big chopper and then said she didn't like it and wanted to do the apples with the smaller chopper. So I set it up on the deck for her and she ran it while I filmed and reloaded it.

I will say the smaller one chops a little bit finer than the big one. I'm pretty sure that's due to the blades being pitched to bounce the fruit around which causes it to get chopped up more. It also broke another set of blades which could become a real problem but isn't really that much of one right now because it still chops just fine.

All in all I'm pretty happy and pretty confident this chopper will work just fine in spite of what appears to be a slightly bent shaft.

[raketemensch]

Many of us proudly do great work with a slightly bent shaft.

[cranky]

I've always been a bit off kilter myself so why shouldn't my chopper be In truth since it does the job so fast it doesn't have time to get too worn or out of control and it can do my entire year's worth of chopping in less than an hour total run time, so it should last a long time After I take it apart for the winter I may add another dozen blades or so just to get a finer chop.

[Shine0n]

Looks good Cranky, although with a 3hp motor I'd be scared as hell standing within strike range of a thrown blade.
An option if I may, make a 3/4" plywood box to surround your shoot JIC!!!

I have one of those 7.75 gal kegs I might designate for the added protection and piece of mind.

1000 lbs of apples in less than an hour is very impressive and would make it worth your while and the Mrs just by saving your back bones alone LOL

I an old craftsman table saw with a 3hp that might work it's way into a chopper too.

Thanks for the video, you're the man!!!

Shine0n

[Swedish Pride]

it's hypnotic to watch them apples getting chopped up, could watch an hour of just that. Class work

[Bushman]

Well done Cranky. I want a report back at the end of the season how well it held up. Your video is well done

[cranky]

Looks good Cranky, although with a 3hp motor I'd be scared as hell standing within strike range of a thrown blade.
An option if I may, make a 3/4" plywood box to surround your shoot JIC!!!

That's something I have been considering for a while. It's a bit unnerving to see that chute flex and vibrate so much while running. It makes you realize just how thin the metal is and have doubts that it would contain a blade in the event of a failure. A plywood box around it is most likely the way I will go.

I have one of those 7.75 gal kegs I might designate for the added protection and piece of mind.

It's certainly a thought, pretty much anything to act as a stop should it chuck a blade.

1000 lbs of apples in less than an hour is very impressive and would make it worth your while and the Mrs just by saving your back bones alone LOL

Yes that's the idea, now I need to make the press even bigger and maybe get one of those air hydraulic jacks so it will be much faster

it's hypnotic to watch them apples getting chopped up, could watch an hour of just that. Class work

That's why I had to include the long video of it running. It's just so neat to watch them spinning and getting smaller and smaller until they are gone and it happens so quickly. One thing I never showed was the occasional backfire, usually out the backside. If an apple goes in just right, it hits a blade, spins around and comes flying back out, sometimes with great force. One of them flew about 20 feet and went over the fence So I definitely need to make a cover plate for the back side.

Well done Cranky. I want a report back at the end of the season how well it held up. Your video is well done

Thank you. My season isn't looking so good this year The winter was so messed up the trees didn't produce very well at all. The ones I picked last week and just chopped produced around 4 times as many apples last year and I just checked on a couple old standby trees as well as one just down the road that regularly produces like crazy and none of them have produced well. I will stop by the Bella Vista and the park trees and see how they are doing, hopefully they did OK this year but I'm not holding out hope. I did look at the Bella last week and it seems OK but it only produces about a bucket and a half on a good year. My goal is another 400 Lbs but I just don't know that that will happen. I may have to do some driving around and door knocking and see what turns up. I do think it needs a few more blades, it doesn't chop quite as fine as I would like, or maybe a few screws through the top few blades to shred the apples a bit more.

The big problem is my wife doesn't like it so it will probably just be me using it when it's used. She likes the little one from last year. She also gave me an idea

She said she likes to play Skee-ball with the apples when she uses the little one. That got me to thinking This winter I could build 2 side by side Skee-ball lanes with a chopper attached to each lane and compete with her at apple skee-ball

[The Baker]

Just another way-out idea, but...

Have you ever seen a video of olives being pressed? By a stone wheel running in a circular channel, towed around by a donkey?

Don't know how to send a picture but google 'Donkey pressing olives'

I know you most likely do not have a donkey but this may be food for thought. (Truly...)

Geoff

P. S. Maybe the wheel in a fixed position and the (smallish) channel turning?
P. P. S. With maybe ridges/ whatever on the bottom of the channel so the fruit does not slip too much? Which would not have been too much of a problem with the original which was rough concrete/ stone... G.

[cranky]

Some time ago I did have a crazy idea of a rolling press made out of one or two concrete rollers made using paint cans as molds but haven't yet really done any planning. I originally got the idea after seeing an instructable where someone embedded screws in a stainless steel paint can, put in a shaft and filled it with concrete to make an apple grinder. I have a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head like runaway super balls most of the time. I tend not to really plan things, Ideas just tumble around in my mind until I begin acting on them and they evolve.
I did see where someone made something similar to what I was thinking to act as a grain mill or something like that and I do think it could be turned into an automatic apple press pretty easily but that's an idea for way down the road, maybe even after I finish the porch