Homemade Honey Extractor

http://www.flickr.com/photos/81663205@N04/

When I was first starting out in beekeeping, I did not have the money to invest in a honey extractor. I did not want to do crush and strain so I spent less then $50.00 dollars and built one out of a new, never used before plastic can, also called a garbage can. I got some bearings from the local Ace Hardware and built a spool out of wood and aluminum. The wood was sealed with multiple coats of poly. The garbage can has hand holes at the bottom and at the top that support the bearings mounted in oak cross pieces. This is important to keep them up out of the honey. I used a battery operated reversible drill to spin out the frames. It would hold four frames. The frames sat in a recessed cutout in the bottom and the top of the frame was secured using a very small c-clamp. I used a router to cut the bottom piece in a circle and to rout out the recesses for the frames. I bent a piece of alum bar around the circle for the top section.

I used it for 3 years and never broke a frame and it worked very well. Later on I was able to buy a stainless steel extractor. The link is to pictures of the extractor. Let me know if you have any questions.

Nice job. Maybe someone will benefit from your work.

If it works that is all that matters. Pride in your work definately shows.

cchoganjr

I think the extractor looks great . I am looking to building my own extractor, I do have a question. How did you attach the bottom wood holder, the piece that was routed out, to the spindle? I see the 2 pieces that are under the routed out piece but it looks like the spindle would just spin and the wood piece could slip and just stay still. Also what kind of bearings are they/ Thanks for any help.

If the plastic can you are using is not food grade, you could have been leaching toxic chemicals into your honey!

Nice job, Salesi. I'm not sure about the plastic leaching anything into the honey...the honey isn't going to be in contact with it for very long. I noticed the drain on the garbage can was simply a hole...could a piece of pipe be fitted to it to extend it a bit? Do you have any issues with the frames being unstable at the top where there is no "slot" for the bottom bar to nestle down into?

I guess after three years you're not really looking to rig a permanent motor/pulley assembly to it?

Looks good!
Ed

If anyone would like to build their own motorized, radial extractor, I've got some great plans. The plans are for a 4 frame medium that you could easily make into a 6 framer either... deep or medium.

The FREE plans do call for some welding, so unless you can weld, know someone who can weld, are willing to pay someone to weld, have a nearby technical school that you can talk their welding class into welding for you.....these plans won't work for you.

PM with your email address and I'll send you the plans.

Larry

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jamneff

I think the extractor looks great . I am looking to building my own extractor, I do have a question. How did you attach the bottom wood holder, the piece that was routed out, to the spindle? I see the 2 pieces that are under the routed out piece but it looks like the spindle would just spin and the wood piece could slip and just stay still.

Also what kind of bearings are they/ Thanks for any help.

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I borrowed a detail from page 8 of the 20 frame extractor in the Build it yourself section of this website. I drilled a hole for a tension pin in the 1/2 vertical shaft. I then sawed a kerf in a square oak block to accept the pin and screwed the block to the round section that supports the frames. It is fairly easy to do and works great.



The bearings are for a 1/2 inch shaft and can be found in the hardware section of Ace Hardware or any hardware store should carry standard bearings. I routed a recess in an oak board to hold the bearings.

I sterlized the new, never used before garbage can with bleach and water. The honey was not in the can very long as it drained out into a strainer/bucket. Originally I was going to put a PVC valve on it but it worked without.

I stablized the frames at the top using a very small C-clamp to hold the frame to the bar. I think a clip rivited to the bar would work better.

The 1/2 drill worked well as I put it in low rpm and spun out the honey from the frames. I spun the frames in both directions to make sure I got all the honey.

What about this... For each frame holder take two small (maybe 1" for each leg) "L" shaped pieces of flat metal and tack weld them to the inside of the upper ring. Position them so that the bottom of the L's are tacked to the ring and the two uprights of the L's are facing each other. Space the L's far enough apart so that the top bar of the frames will nestle between the uprights. This should stabilize the top of the frames, shouldn't it. The space between the L's would take the place of the notches in some designs of commercially built extractor's top ring. This modification should, of course, be positioned immediately above the bottom frame holders.

Did any of that make sense?

Ed

ETA: You might want to make the upright legs only about 1/2" long so they will clear the comb but still be deep enough for the top bar to nestle in.