Corn Sheller

[bjr]

I've been doing a search for a electric Corn sheller with dismal results. I live in a neighborhood were the families all raise Maize. It's use mostly for animal feed. Progressively the quantity has increase to the point that shelling the corn by hand is unacceptable. I was hoping to find a old John Deere No. 43 sheller but with the steel scrape price being high there's no used implement inventory to be had, as it's all being scraped. I've attached a pdf file to show what I think may work. The Chinese company states they only ship five units minimum. Is there any one out there that's ever seen or used a machine like this. Or does knows of a vendor here in the USA that inventories these units. Thank you bjr

 

[Wood_Butcher_Dav]

Does it have to be electric, 'FleeBay' has old hand crank versions that may work.

Dave

 

[Barry 1]

One of those small chipper shredders for yard waste will work pretty good for shelling corn.The type that is like a small hammer mill.

 

[mjarrels]

I have an old single ear hand crank corn sheller... Works fine!

mark

 

[dave1949]

You can put a pulley on the old hand crank shellers, then run it with a motor.

You might look around in Amish areas.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

You can put a pulley on the old hand crank shellers, then run it with a motor.

You might look around in Amish areas.

Don't over look safety; I would be careful of the older models if you plan on refitting them. My grandfather got one of his hands in such a device and received a fairly severe injury.

 

[OldMcDonald]

bjr, I too found it impossible to source a sheller - and other people grow maize for their animals here too. I tried to make one myself, but had no plans to go on. I asked on this forum (Build it Yourself) and several others.

I ask the question "Why does it appear that nobody in the western world makes other than a drop-in single hole sheller?" There must be a good market for a machine that will shell up to a few hundred pounds of corn a day. I do not want to go to the extent of a hammer mill and the best I have thought of so far is as suggested by Barry 1, but I would prefer to have the corn shelled.

 

[dave1949]

The Corn Sheller Network. Who knew?
Minneapolis-Moline Model D Corn Sheller - cornsheller.net

As an alternative, could you find an older 2 row 1960's-70' self-propelled combine that was used with a corn head and has the sheller parts intact? Got to be some of those sitting around that you could adapt to a stationary unit. The corn head just popped the ears off the stalks with snapping rollers.

I'm not clear what magic inside did the shelling. It had something to do with changing the screens and such. But, shelled corn came out on one end, and husks and cobs out the other.

Another angle:
http://waterloo-ia.americanlisted.c...4-mounted-corn-picker-300-jesup_19687677.html

 

[OldMcDonald]

Dave, I like that video. A bit bigger than I need, but it would be great to find something similar. No chance though. It is impossible to find ANY old working machinery here. I understand the rest of southern europe is the same. An old AC 40 or 60 combine harvester would be nice too!!

Your "not clear what magic inside did the shelling" is my stumbling block in trying to make one. I have seen a few old patents, but they needed manufacturing scale engineering to produce.

 

[dave1949]

Dave, I like that video. A bit bigger than I need, but it would be great to find something similar. No chance though. It is impossible to find ANY old working machinery here. I understand the rest of southern europe is the same. An old AC 40 or 60 combine harvester would be nice too!!

Your "not clear what magic inside did the shelling" is my stumbling block in trying to make one. I have seen a few old patents, but they needed manufacturing scale engineering to produce.

Yeah, the "magic" LOL. My recollection from 40 years ago is that something on the "cylinder" and "screens" was set-up for various grains; wheat, oats, corn, soybeans, etc. I was tasked with less technically demanding duties like cutting the wound-up grass out of the snapping rolls and driving the grain truck to the elevator. :laughing:

Probably in your location old combines are not common but they have to be sitting around in numbers in the US Mid-West, some are available on tractorhouse and machinerytrader.

Inside each of those machines is a sheller that is quite efficient, designed to shell corn by the wagon load, and likely to still have repair parts available. It's a resource that I would consider tapping if I wanted to shell corn and couldn't find easier alternatives. It shouldn't be that difficult to strip off the parts not needed from the combine and build a stationary sheller that would also handle other grains to boot. You would like to have a decent motor on the combine of course to limit the costs.

If you can find the operator's manual for something like a Deere 45 or 55 combine, you could probably get a lot of insight as to how the grain separation mechanisms work, what they look like, and how they are set-up for the various grain crops.