How to make a grain thresher with your own hands?

Thresher device

Threshing, for which machines are used, means separating the grains from the ears, grinding the ears and extracting the grain from the resulting mass. The effectiveness of threshers is determined by the harvested crop, the ears of corn left in the field, and the under-threshing or incomplete extraction of grain. High-performance devices process and preserve up to 99% of raw materials.

For the productive operation of the device, the moisture content of wheat, rye or corn is important. Optimal humidity is from 15 to 20%. Main components of the device:

Compact threshers are used to thresh grain crops on private farms. They are more convenient and practical than large combines when it comes to processing a small volume of grain. You can not only buy a thresher, but also make it yourself from scrap materials.

Thresher device

For the productive operation of the device, the moisture content of wheat, rye or corn is important. Optimal humidity is from 15 to 20%. Main components of the device:

Bunker for receiving raw materials,
Working chamber with drum and deck,
Transporter of incoming raw materials,
A device for separating grains from the resulting straw and removing them from the working chamber.

The raw materials enter the bunker and are divided into three parts: chaff, straw and grain. In the straw walker, the straw is separated, and the chaff and grain are further processed. Whole grain is cleaned of film and dirt, and blown out of the drum using air flows from a fan.

Simpler models may not have a built-in fan, and the grain must be sown manually from the resulting mass.

Trailed headers and agricultural combines for MTZ tractors

Combines are a group of agricultural units designed for mechanized harvesting of various agricultural crops - grains, fodder, vegetables, large-stemmed plants and root crops.

The main area of application of combine harvester technology is the mechanized harvesting of large areas occupied by industrially grown agricultural crops.

Classification of trailed combines

Divided into self-propelled and operating using basic units, which are most often tractors of various traction groups, including BELARUS equipment, combine harvesters, depending on the direction of application, are divided into:

Grain harvesting complexes combining the functions of a reaper, a thresher, a winnower and a loader;
Devices for preparing feed - haylage, silage and grass meal, combining a mower, chopper and loader;
Potato harvesting machines and mechanisms for harvesting root crops, removing tubers and root crops from the soil and simultaneously clearing them from the ground;
Units for collecting large-stemmed plants - sunflower and corn.

Types of trailed grain harvesters

Depending on the design of the working mechanisms, grain harvesting combine complexes are divided into:

Drum combines that thresh grain crops cut by a reaper in a drum rotating at high speed;
Threshing ears using a longitudinal rotor are high-power rotary units used for harvesting especially large areas of grain.

Grain combines are equipped with conventional and stripping headers used for collecting spikelets and panicles.

Types of trailed forage harvesting complexes

Depending on the type of chopping device, forage harvesters are divided into:

Drum type with a chopping device in the form of a drum rotating perpendicular to the movement of the crushed crops with knives mounted on it;
Disk, the grinding apparatus of which is made in the form of a disk rotating along the direction of movement of the incoming grass mass with cutting elements installed along its radius.

Depending on the characteristics of the crops being harvested, forage harvesters are equipped with continuous-cut headers or stream or drum mowers used when harvesting plants with large stems.

Types of potato harvesters

Potato harvesting combine equipment that produces single- and double-row tuber harvesting is divided according to the type of working parts used into:

Elevator-type combines that pass the tuber-soil mass through rod elevators that separate the potatoes from the soil and tops;
Screening tuber-harvesting complexes with working bodies in the form of a two-grid screen.

Design of trailed combines

The main structural elements of trailed combine harvesters of various types are:

A single-axle or multi-axle trailer, on the frame of which an aggregation mechanism with the base chassis is installed;
Power plant or, in the absence of one, a device for receiving power from the base machine;
Working bodies of various types adapted to the conditions of harvesting certain crops, driven using belt, chain, planetary and other types of drives;
Storage tanks for storing harvested crops until delivery of cargo vehicles;
Devices for loading agricultural products onto loading platforms - screw, belt, scraper conveyors and throwing mechanisms of various types.

Homemade threshing machines

You can make a thresher with your own hands in two ways. One of them involves attaching the device to a frame, the second allows you to make a device with a fan.

Thresher on frame

Work begins with the manufacture of a metal frame. It is usually made from a strong corner. Average frame dimensions:

The drum is made from a piece of metal pipe with a diameter of 18 cm and a length of about 65 cm. It is attached closer to the middle of the frame, and six rows of twenty steel teeth are mounted along the drum. The distance between the teeth is about three centimeters. Recommended sizes:

The drum shaft is supported by double bearings. And several metal rods are welded over it. It is very important that the length of the teeth is two centimeters longer than the rods. This will ensure better grip of the processed mass.

The frame of the bunker for receiving raw materials is made of wood, and the ribs are reinforced with a metal corner. A frame is placed above the drum, and under it there is a tin tray to release the already crushed raw materials.

The operation of the device is ensured by an engine with a power of about 1500 rpm.

You can increase the shaft rotation speed to three thousand revolutions by installing a pulley on the motor that is twice as large as the one installed on the shaft.

Homemade thresher with fan

Manufacturing begins with assembling the body from a sheet of steel. The front wall of the housing and the hopper for receiving raw materials are made removable. A threshing drum is placed in the front part of the working chamber. It can also be made from a piece of pipe with a diameter of about 18 cm. It is necessary to make a valve in the receiving hopper, which will enter the neck of the working chamber at its lower end. This will prevent unwanted release of raw materials during loading.

The shaft passes through the entire structure of the device and is an important connecting link. It is made of durable steel, and a through slot is cut out on the longitudinal axis using a milling cutter. Elastic wooden whips are installed in it, positioning them with a slight offset for better movement of the mass. A fan is welded on the other side of the shaft.

During operation, wooden whips hit the processed raw materials, grain and chaff fall into air currents and are carried out. The thresher is equipped with a replaceable deck in the form of a lattice. The shape can be either oblong or square. If you plan to thresh durum varieties of rye and wheat, then it is better to use a steel grid with a cell of 7 * 16 mm. For softer grains, you can use a nylon grid with a cell of 6*10 or 10*16 mm.

A special slot is made under the deck, the function of which is to separate plant fibers from the grain. This design also increases the speed of air flow.

A replaceable box made of metal or wood is mounted at the bottom of the apparatus, and a vertical sheet of plywood or tin is welded above it. To regulate the air flow, a small damper is installed at the slot. The device operates from a conventional engine, which produces about 1800 revolutions per minute of operation.

Microthresher-winnower

The design (see illustration) is somewhat similar in appearance to those that were supplied to breeders for weapons in the old days. But the development proposed for self-production has smaller dimensions and greater reliability. In addition, it is possible to avoid scarce components and parts (for example, self-aligning ball bearings, imported “scourge” drum, etc.). By changing some parameters accordingly, instead of the ultra-small one, it is possible to assemble a design that will be quite acceptable for large-scale threshing of grains, legumes, and cereal crops, with simultaneous division of the mass into grain and grain fractions. The body of the microthresher-winnower is welded, made according to a development (see figure) from sheet steel. Or cast - made of aluminum alloy. Well, its configuration is such that it allows you to almost completely eliminate varietal clogging of grain. With minimal dimensions, this leads to a reduction in manufacturing costs and a significant reduction in the weight of the entire thresher. The body is attached to the supporting wooden platform-base on the front and rear metal racks. In its front part there is a threshing drum. The shaped front wall and the loading hopper are removable. This greatly simplifies the process of installing the central (main) shaft assembly, and significantly reduces the labor costs associated with the need to replace the deck (for each type of crop being processed - grains, legumes, etc. - its own deck).

A special valve is installed in the loading hopper. Rigidly connected to a spring-loaded handle, its lower edge fits into the narrow neck of the loading hopper - to prevent the ejection of grain when feeding ears. Some experienced DIYers even recommend slightly increasing the “pressure force” at the valve. For example, by installing a spiral spring on the cottered end of the loading valve lever axis (this option is not shown in the illustrations given in the material). Now - about the shaft passing through the structure and connecting everything, as they say, into an inseparable whole. It would be better, I think, to machine such a critical part from Steel 45. But the shaft can also be made composite: from a piece of pipe into which “ends”—workplaces for bearings—are tightly seated on both sides (subsequently welded and processed accordingly on a lathe) , bushings and keys. The magazine has already drawn the attention of its readers to similar composite structures before.

It is necessary to mill a through slot along the shaft axis to install the beaters in the form of a shaped blade made of elastic material. Located in the same plane with an offset, these beaters will ensure radial and axial movement of the threshed mass along the deck with minimal impact on the grain. On the second half of the shaft, another important part is fixed using electric welding - the fan impeller. The deck of the micromachine is replaceable, lattice type, with a coverage angle of 180°. It is attached in the plane of the drum cover connector. The holes in different decks are different. There are, for example, square ones (this option is shown in the illustration). Mostly they are oblong in the direction of rotation of the drum.

For threshing wheat, rye, and barley, it is recommended, in particular, to install a steel deck with 6.5 × 16 mm cells. Well, for easily damaged varieties of legumes, millet and other crops - nylon decks with cells of 10x16 mm and 6x10 mm, respectively.

An aspiration channel is located under the deck to separate the heap into grain and non-grain parts. It is made tapering from the deck down. This is done to increase the speed of air flow in the area of the seed box, which is mounted in the guides of the lower part of the thresher body. Above the seed box, you should carefully weld a vertical wall coming from the side of the fan casing. It is this wall that turns out to be capable of changing the movement of the air flow at an angle of 45° and directing it from bottom to top. The seed box is made of sheet steel. It is made with a side - for installation and movement in the guides of the threshing body. The bottom of the box is made of mesh, with meshes 1 x 1 mm - for better suction of chaff.

DIY grain crusher from a washing machine, milking machine from a vacuum cleaner

Maintaining a personal subsidiary plot is accompanied not only by land work, but also by keeping livestock and birds. However, in order for animals to be productive and healthy, they need proper nutrition, which consists of preparing high-quality feed. You can purchase ready-made feed, but their cost is significantly higher than that of the raw materials themselves, i.e. grains, corn, barley and other types of crops. That is why farmers are increasingly resorting to purchasing special technical devices - grain crushers , with which they can process raw materials, thus preparing feed for food themselves. But there is another way to save money - assemble a grain crusher with your own hands from a washing machine . How to do this will be discussed in our article.

This is especially clear in the example of farms, where there are a large number of cattle, pigs and poultry.

Raw materials and finished product

Grain crushers, often called grain grinders, grinders, etc., are used to produce feed mass in a home or farm environment.

Grain and root crops are used as raw materials to obtain finished feed. You need to understand that the same devices can be used to process grain and root crops, but sometimes it is necessary to re-adjust the grain crusher.

When making a grain crusher with your own hands, you must remember that after processing on the grinder you can produce feed pellets of different sizes, some of which will be suitable for cattle, others for poultry. The installation parameters and dimensions of crushing devices (knives, hammers, drums) must be selected accordingly.

After receiving the crushed product, food additives, vitamins and other components necessary to obtain a complete feed are mixed into it.

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Structure of a grain crusher

Grain crushers are mainly used for farms, but ordinary summer residents and people who regularly live in villages often resort to using grain crushers. Some of them, wanting to save money on its purchase, managed to use an ordinary washing machine for this purpose with minor modifications.

A grain crusher is a technical unit with which you can make feed for feeding livestock at home. It is made by crushing and grinding various grains to a fine consistency.

Video: Homemade feed crusher

For more details about the grain crusher with your own hands, watch the video:

It is known that the processed and crushed product is much better absorbed in the animal’s body, which has a positive effect on its reproductive functions and productivity, which is expressed in milk production and egg laying.

Thus, we can say that the grain crusher is an indispensable assistant for any farmer who maintains large or medium-sized livestock and poultry.

Frequent purchases of ready-made feed can significantly hit the budget, but making feed yourself will allow you to save quite a lot of money.

This link will tell you how to make a cultivator with your own hands.

The operating principle of all grain crushers is similar to the operation of a conventional household coffee grinder, only on a more global scale. The unit is first plugged into a regular power supply, after which the engine is started. This is very important, because the engine must first warm up before you can start working.

Next, raw materials for processing are poured into a special tank (hopper), after which it enters the crushing chamber, where the grinding process itself takes place. Grinding occurs using special knives located in this chamber.

Then, the raw materials are sifted through a sieve of a certain diameter (usually there are several of them in a set). It is the diameter of this sieve that will determine the fraction, i.e. degree of grinding of grain or other crops.

By the way, depending on the characteristics of a particular grain crusher, it can process a wide variety of raw materials:

rye;
barley;
legumes;
corn;
cake;
husk, etc.

Some units are equipped with a special disc grater that allows you to grind various root vegetables, fruits and herbs.

In general, the design of a grain crusher is quite simple, so it is quite possible to make it at home.

There are quite a few detailed methods with drawings describing this process on the Internet. The method of converting from a washing machine deserves special attention , because its device is already somewhat reminiscent of the notorious coffee grinder.

You will find all the information about the AID-2 milking machine in this article.

How to thresh grain at home?

Quite a popular hobby among rural people today is baking bread at home.
For example, baking real rye bread at home is quite simple. We sow rye in early spring, it ripens quickly. You can mow it with a scythe, but you need to mow it carefully so as not to do the mowing and thresh it right away. It is best, of course, to reap the rye with a sickle and immediately knit sheaves. After reaping, the sheaves can be dried for 2-3 days, but they can be threshed immediately, it all depends on the conditions when the ears were reaped, and on the weather on which day this was done. As they say, year of year roses. In the old days, in general, the word zhito and rye were similar words. Since grain ran out quickly by spring, and rye was the first to ripen for harvest, rye was the main grain product. The word zhito comes from the word reap. So they always began to reap rye with a feather, and the main grain supply was harvested until the wheat was well developed, or as they now say rye. The field, after all the rye was mowed from it, was called rye. Going out to the rye meant going out into a field where there used to be rye, but now everything has been mown down and only stubble remains. What was the name of grain in past centuries? In the old days, the earliest grain to be sown was rye. It sang quickly and was mowed quickly. The new harvest bread was always rye. Such bread was also called zhitny or zhitniy - from the word zhito, that is, rye. Therefore, its grain was often also called zhito. Wheat ripened later, and the first grain was zhito, so the name zhito grain remained. But when they reaped the grain and then threshed it, dry ostyuki, or kostritsa, were found in the wheat. This name comes from the fact that the shell itself sometimes had fleecy hairs, or other weeds could also cause ostyuki. The very shape of the ostyuk is sometimes like a knee, sometimes like a grasshopper, but it is prickly and tenacious, difficult to distinguish, and the pricking hurts.

Nowadays, many rural yards already have hard surfaces, and this simplifies the process. We lay out a thick cloth on the ground, maybe a tarpaulin, and lay out the sheaves in one layer with spikelets in one direction.

In the age of machines, today fields with grain are harvested by combines, tractors and mowers. And what tool was used to separate grains from ears of corn in Ancient Rus'? They thrashed me with a force. And the work of a thresher was very hard. What are the ears of corn threshed with? The main problem during the harvest season is how to separate the grain from the ear? How to thresh your own grain? How to quickly clear an ear of grain. The ear itself is very easy to peel. Break off an ear of rye or wheat from the stem. And then put it on your palm and rub it between your palms. Now blow lightly on your palm. The husk will fly off, but the grain will remain. This way you can peel off several ears of corn. But clearing the fields of grain from the ears is a more difficult problem.

You can thresh rye at home with a stick that is not long and not thick; you can beat it with a stick gradually, each time in a different place, but do not apply much force, so as not to crush the grain. What was the name of the person who threshed rye, or grain in general? This is a thresher. Usually an adult with a strong physique, a rural peasant who could swing a tsip all day. Eh, the life of a thresher is not easy. On the barn one could often see women laying out rows or other bedding for threshing grain.

To make things more fun, you can thresh together, squatting, facing each other, and taking turns hitting with sticks. Why do they cut the wheat first and then thresh it? In order to keep as many grains as possible in the ears for threshing, the sheaves await threshing in the barn. And it’s better to thresh not in a field on the ground, but in the yard on a special platform. One of the most ancient methods of threshing was sometimes used in the last century. They threshed the sheaves - with a cheese hammer or raw milk. They buried a post on a barn and hit the sheaf against the post, or simply beat the sheaf against a substrate that lay on the barn. Heavier, more mature grains flew out and were suitable for sowing. This was the seed fund for next year's harvest. The remaining sheaves continued to be threshed - but that grain was already used for baking bread.

After complete threshing of all the sheaves, all the grain with the husks and chaff must be raked into a heap. Thresh and thresh are two completely different words. Threshing is the process of harvesting crops such as rye and wheat. And threshing is already the result of harvesting. 50 centners were threshed - this is a result and not a process. However, the comprehensive name for threshed grain was called harvest.

Often during threshing, the crushed wheat grain, peeled from the husk, remains crushed at the very bottom. This is ready-made wheat porridge, which is very healthy and tasty. So in the old days, Guryev porridge made from such threshing residues was in demand, especially in the spring. During threshing, unthreshed spikelets remained in the chaff. These are immature spikelets, they are empty and without grain.

All that remains is to winnow the grain. Previously, grain was winnowed by simply throwing this pile up in portions, and all the husks and debris were carried away by the wind. Today, when there is no wind in any weather, a fan will help you.

The finished winnowed rye was spread over the fabric in a thin layer no more than 5 mm thick and checked for the presence of pieces of earth, pebbles, and other foreign objects. Often, due to lack of time, housewives performed this operation immediately before preparing the flour. As we can see, threshing rye at home is quite simple.

After grain threshing, waste remains. After threshing, the ears turned into chaff or, as they also say, into chaff. Such waste after threshing was used in different ways in various household chores. These are the remains of stems, chaff, chaff, crushed straw, peeled husks from ears. All this is sometimes burned on the field, scattered over the stubble before plowing the land. But this does not need to be done, since the burnt soil will bring less harvest. Where to use waste after threshing grain in the household. After threshing, the waste can be scattered around the garden and plowed into the ground. If you have a household, it is better to use the waste as bedding for chicken coops, ducks, and cattle. These animals produce the best manure. And mixed with manure, the waste will act as additional fertilizer. Some of the chaff make briquettes and try to burn with such briquettes. If the coal is small and not of the best quality, straw is mixed into the coal. And so everything goes down the drain.

In the old days, when threshing and also when grinding flour, there were many different signs of prejudices and prohibitions. And many are quite strict. For example, it was impossible to simply trample on grain, or step on a pile of grain with your feet. At the mill they treated flour with great care. For example, at the mill it was forbidden for the miller to shake off the flour on the ground or, even worse, on the floor and trample it with his feet.

How to make it yourself from a washing machine

The advantage of this method is that when you independently convert a washing machine into a grain crusher, you do not need to resort to welding and turning.

Necessary materials

In order to make a homemade unit, we will need the following tools and materials:

actually, the washing machine itself (any top-loading machine will do, for example, SMR-1.5);
additional electric motor;
drill and drill bits (from 3 to 16 mm);
chisel and hammer;
various keys;
bolts and nuts (M4, M6 and M8).

We will also need a pair of steel plates (32x5x0.15 cm and 42x5x0.15 cm), which can be cut from a two-handed saw or other piece of metal.

In addition, we will need additional consumables:

metal corner (3×3 cm);
M8 swivel bolts with wing nuts - three pieces;
3-liter tin paint cans - three pieces;
“frog” type locks – three pieces.

The washing machine comes with numerous bolts and nuts , which will also be useful to us later.

You can find prices for household grain crushers and feed grinders here.

Drawing and design conditions of the DCU

It is hardly advisable to give specific dimensions of certain working units of a homemade grain crusher. The fact is that a particular person may have a completely different model of washing machine, which has its own individual parameters and structure.

In this case, the most important thing is the understanding of the conditional design , as well as the operating principle of the entire device.

A do-it-yourself grain crusher from a washing machine and its drawings are quite conventional, based on the example of a specific model. However, by looking at them, you can understand the approximate progress of further work and the structure of the main components:

Let's look at the example of the Oka washing machine, which we will convert into a grain crusher. We don't have to disassemble it; we just need to unscrew the plastic part of the activator from the device. We will need the rest of the structure later.

Find out what the Doyushka milking machine is here.

In place of the unscrewed activator there will be an additional engine, as well as cutting elements - knives, which must be made double-edged.

Procedure

So, let's get started using the following procedure:

We install the knives made in advance on a pulley whose thickness is 60 mm. For these purposes, we need a flange that would secure the knives when placed on a pulley.
Then you need to equip a special funnel through which the processed raw materials would exit. In the design of these washing machines, the drain is located, which is very useful in our case. It is the drain that we will convert for these purposes.
Using a chisel, we need to expand the diameter of the drain so that it is approximately 150 mm.
We insert the pipe into the resulting hole, and then take it out to the side. That's it, the grain outlet is ready.
Then we need to install the grille at the required angle. This is a rather difficult stage of work, so you need to strictly follow the instructions.
We determine the radius of rotation of the cutting elements, after which we make a notch at the maximum point.
We make a small indent from the serif, and then draw a line. This is where our grid will be located.
We cut the grate so that it fits from one wall of the bunker to the other. We fix it in the structure.
We remind you that we do not use the welding method in our work. Therefore, if there are any gaps in the structure, we cover them with automotive sealant.

In principle, the work process has come to an end. Now comes an equally important stage - the first launch of the device and testing it for normal operation. On the washing machine panel, select the fastest activator rotation mode, and then start the device.

The technology for creating a sprayer with your own hands is described in this material.

Let it run for five minutes, watching for any extraneous noise or vibration. You also need to check the degree of heating of the electric motor installed in place of the activator.

Motor protection

It is worth noting that the electric motor located at the top of the structure will operate in a fairly aggressive environment (dust from grain, small particles, etc.). In order to avoid this, we cut out a protective casing from a tin can, which we screw in with bolts in the immediate vicinity of the engine.

By the way, in the place where the drain used to be located, i.e. in the grain outlet area, you need to place a sufficiently capacious container. Processed raw materials will go there.

If you are involved in livestock farming and have cows, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the prices of milking machines for cows.