DIY Extractor

[hedgerow pete]

i would think for me the hardest thing to find would be a stainless barrel of some sort, i know the 55 gallon ones are £250 each plus vat and delivery cause we had to order one a few months back for a chemical hazzard job i was involved with, lovely barrel very thick stainless plate and very heavy too, just also very costly

 

[victor meldrew]

springer i was looking at the wrong price and i was well and truely out sorry about that the 12 frame cage i was looking at is nearer £200 not £40, even the 9 frame is £175

at those prices th***** can take a running jump cause thats just stupid money, for that much money i can afford to buy new stainless bar, 5mm i reacon would do it and a small roll of stainless mig wire and a small bottle of argon and just borrow a friends mig welder for the weekend.

sorry people but i did think it was less than a ton but i rechecked the prices today in there new catalogue and price list, what a plonker i was

My extractor has been in use for 20 years or more.
Cage/bearings /spindle were about £45 !
Only maintenance has been new belts and one set of brushes for the motor

John Wilkinson

 

[REDWOOD]

Nice extractor Victor, I had a motor and all the speed controlers off a scrap electric scooter, it was a 24v motor but I tried it with a 12v battery and it was giving about 450RPM on max speed, a good idea if you extract honey where there is no electricity or if you buy an inverter you can plug it in to the mains. They sell these motors on E****y

 

[Springer]

Thanks for the info Victor, know where I'm going now.........off to see my stainless supplier and then tig mate.

Below is a picture of the vessel I cut and shut into a stainless mash tun and 90 litre boiler for brewing. I have another vessel like this one,which I plan to cut and shut into an extractor and settlement tank.

Section C was removed, section B was then moved along and welded to the conical end. I now have the remains of section C to patch the hole in section C on the new honey project and so can cut the vessel into two pieces for this project.

I did fabricate a pocket outlet for heating with gas but went electric in the end. I am wondering if I should adapt my boiler for honey and make a slightly larger boiler for beer. ??

 

[Springer]

Addition to last post, which shows outlet pocket for heating with gas, could fit a honey gate there nicely I think. This arrangement, cock up that is, really annoys me, especially at wash down time !

Two 3 kw immersion heater are fitted but these could be cut out as a square and grafted onto new boiler and the hole again patched with a piece of material from the old section C. ( which is rolled to the same radius, obviously ?)

Must go to bed to think about this one.

S

 

[Springer]

I have thought about a design and decided I don't know what I'm doing !!

An extractor is normally 3 feet high, with storage space, I guess, so would be to high to place a tank under it ?
My question is, what is the usual way to get honey transfered to the filtering storage tank, to allow bottling at a sensible height ?

 

[Hivemaker.]

My question is, what is the usual way to get honey transfered to the filtering storage tank, to allow bottling at a sensible height ?

Buckets.

 

[Springer]

Thanks for that H, I thought that was to simple a solution, I nearly know where I'm going again. !

So if I fitted a honey valve to the pocket in the bottom of section C instead of the short stub that could be the storage tank.
I could then use section A as the extractor, with a valve on the end of the flat circular part, in the center of the tank, underneath instead of on the edge, as is usual ?
Anyone see a problem with my plan. ?
Finally is there any problem with having an extra large storage capacity at the bottom of the extractor, apart from increasing the hieght, seeing as it is available. Seems a shame not to use it. Thats assuming I get any honey to process !
With Thanks
S
P.S.Apologies for hi-jacking the thread, but hopefully the info raised will help other.

 

[hedgerow pete]

i like a large space at the bottom of the extractor as it makes it more stable when it fills up with honey. you only realy need a container about 500 high and 550 wide to extract in but i like mine to be nearer 600mm wide by 750 mm high

 

[Springer]

Thanks for that info Pete.
Went to see stainless man today and came away very pleased !! with
6 meters of 20 x 5 mm strip which will hopefully roll up nicely and be easier to weld that rod.
3 meters of 6mm dia for the pegs and hoops which can be located for welding by inserting into drilled holes
200 x200 mm sheet to make a central lower support for the inner lower pegs to be drilled and welded to.
1 meter of 12 mm dia for the axle
Should have a go at it tomorrow instead of watching the wedding

S

Which I new as much about bees as fabricating.

 

[hedgerow pete]

i would love to have your skills the stuff i could make is massive but the money i would save i would spend twice that buying the tools lol

 

[lezzul]

DIY extractor

have look at these plans,20 frame ext. found on American beekeeping site, looks relatively simple to make

 

[hedgerow pete]

i saw that years ago, i dont like the ply wood box bit my self. if i was going to use wood i would proberly get a new wooden wine barrel. but what i am realy looking for is a 12 frame stainless steel electric one and since it is in my dreams i would like to pay less than a grand for it

 

[Springer]

Evening All,

Did some more work on the extractor today, but the wedding thing got in the way, so progress was not as good as expected. The kit used here Pete, was all home made, from scrap lol (apart from the tape and hacksaw.!)

Bending up the frame retaining hoops, had to leave excess length for the roller, but this can be trimmed back to use for the top pegs ?

Rolling up the main rings, not sure what diameter to go for, these are 428 mm dia at the moment, which will give 15mm clearance to the walls, is this enough, does anyone know ?

Back view, not used to working stainless, but I recon if wood is grade 1 and steel is grade 2 stainless is grade 3, bending rolling and sawing is so much harder. I gave all my thin cutting disc to a mate and have not replaced them yet, but never mind, he got me the stainless at a very good price !!

Progress so far

Hope to get things ready for tig man tomorrow, but who knows ? Need to visit the bees, which is what its all about !!

S

P.S. Just noticed my homebrew folder in a pic, so just for clarity here it is, useful for roofs.

Looking at those pics I think a grind up and a coat of paint would be worthwhile, but hey, they all work.
If I had enought time I could eat an elephant.

 

[Headnavigator]

Wow! Looks like you could extract an elephant in it too!
I picked up an elderly Taylor's extractor (plastic drum) recently and the lever on the tap is fractured. Anyone know a source of replacement extractor-type taps with plastic fittings?

 

[victor meldrew]

Wow! Looks like you could extract an elephant in it too!
I picked up an elderly Taylor's extractor (plastic drum) recently and the lever on the tap is fractured. Anyone know a source of replacement extractor-type taps with plastic fittings?

Th**nes

 

[hedgerow pete]

why do you need a tig mate for when there is an oxford welder under your bench just buy a tig torch to fit it and manual feed the wire into the weld.

and by the time i have made the folder, roller and workshop to put them in and a bender of course i recon the first stainless extractor would only cost me a few grand only twice the price i could pay for it. i have seen on on fleabay for £500 new and i can fit a motor to it later i suppose.

i did like the lyson one and the thomas ones and the bein one i saw at the show was reasonable for the money.

it still looks as the cheapest way is to buy a th****** s cage for £160 a brand new plastic barrel for £30 and build some legs and spend say £200 on cogs and a motor set up, that will give me a 12 frame extractor for a rough £400 or i spend another £50 and buy a new stainles one.

its starting to look to me that unless i start to build an extractor over the 20 frame mark and fully automate it its un ecconominal to me to do it

 

[hedgerow pete]

heres a though stainless steel tanks are hard to get hold of but why not try to find a stainless steel hot water tanks . like the copper ones we used to have in the airing cupboard but not in copper, but then again why not copper.

i still like the idea of an oak wine barrel that has been sealed with epoxy resin, how beautifull would that be

 

[REDWOOD]

Well done springer, your well on the way to making your extractor, I like your homemade bending rollers, just a little tip an easy way to make the half round lugs is to bend the steel around a bar or tube until you end up with something like a spring, remove the bar/tube and cut along the spring and you end up with links, cut the links in half and you end up with perfect "D" shaped lugs. Depending on how soft the steel you are using you might need heat before bending.

 

[Springer]

why do you need a tig mate for when there is an oxford welder under your bench just buy a tig torch to fit it and manual feed the wire into the weld.

Not up to speed on that approach Pete, but did a google and it looks interesting, I have done more oxy- actylene welding that I care, or can remember !, so manual wire feeding is not a problem, so it will be one for me to research for later. Thanks for the info. If I had enought time etc.

and by the time i have made the folder, roller and workshop to put them in and a bender of course i recon the first stainless extractor would only cost me a few grand only twice the price i could pay for it.

The gear was to hand and was used for other purposes, I would rather make it than buy it, lots of satisfaction and it keeps me out of the pub lol. !

Thanks for the tip Red, used to make cooling coils for brewing like you mentioned, never thought of cutting em up, will put in memory bank, what was that you said, ........... must write it down these days, lol.

It is nice to get feed back from posts, I do them to increase my knowledge, thanks again Pete, and hopefully get others thinking. What I do is not necessarily correct, it is what I do.

I am ever grateful to the wise bees here,for bee knowledge, hankyou for your help, making things is what I have more knowledge of ?? lol
S