Here is the latest addition to our home made tools, consisting of a birch plywood construction, this took me a full day to make and cost less than 50 pounds to make, the one inch thick birch plywood came from left over material for a previous project from two years ago, the bearings I have had laying around for a decade or more which came in mighty handy for this project, these would be the largest cost if you were going to make one today.
The whole structure is held together by wood screws and held in place via two six millimeter deep recesses that hold the hopper shute or inner boards, it is all self jigging basically.
The motor came off of an old Myford ML 8 woodturning lathe that someone gave me about fifteen years ago, I sold the lathe but kept the motor for my own homemade lathe seen in this video just in case I needed a spare in the future.
The whole unit is made from one inch thick birch plywood which is an ideal material for making such an item, the main drive wheel is also made from a 14 in diameter plywood disc and the motor pully two inches diameter.
The drive coupling is made from a solid three inch by half inch nylon boss, which is secured to the flywheel with four 5.00mm screws and then pinned to the main shaft which is a heavy walled aluminium tube which runs the entire length including the main bearings.
The main rotor or shredder is made from a section of standard four inch water pipe and has a solid glued core of the same birch plywood and held to the main shaft via a stainless steel pin through into the main axle to prevent it from slipping on the axle; The screws are pilotted and screwed through the plastic into the solid core.
The motor is mounted on two wooden 3 x 2 inch batons and itself screwed to the main body; The main body or box measures 23 by 16 inches with a cut away for the motor to sit in behind snugly.
I will line the two inner sides with a sheet of stainless steel to prevent any wear in the ara where the apples or fruit will be shredded against and paint the whole unit to prevent water damage.
Thanks for looking.
