The Plucker is Under Way!

My mother's day gift was my husband relenting on helping me with the Chicken Plucker.  Or rather I should say letting me help him.  I know nothing about carpentry and he taught me a few things last night.  We built the frame and got it most of the way painted.  I still have to flip it and paint the bottom tonight.  He also cut the barrell for me, and came up with a great idea for my feather chute.  So, here's what I have learned so far.

When you are screwing in the screws, pay attention to where you place them.  It will be important when you go to drill the holes for the carriage bolts.  We hit a couple of screws last night when we started the carriage bolt holes.  We built the side rails before we attached the legs.  When you put the second set of side rails on, if you will screw a couple of temporary screws on the back side at the line where the rail should sit (we were working on it upside down), when you slide it on, they will keep the rail at the right height and make life a whole lot easier. 

A saws-all works great for cutting blue barrells.  Make the short sides of your frame the same length as the outer diameter of your barrel.  2x4's are not 2"x4".  There is actually a 1/4" difference.  So when you calculate your long side, add 3 1/2" to your short side measurement.  Also, an impact drill makes a HUGE difference when putting in screws (we used deck screws), and if you have the wrench attachment, to screwing down the carriage bolts and the lag screws. 

When you put it together you need to pay alot of attention to where the short side and long side are in relation to the board you are attaching.  You don't need locking washers for your lag screws.  A flat washer will work just fine.  We left the bottom of our barrel intact because Roger came up with a great idea for the feather cute.  For the feather chute we are going to attach a large drain with the screen removed.  He showed me one.  It's like what we put in the floor of our garage before they poured the concrete.    It will sit almost flush with the bottom and I can put PVC and a flex tube on the bottom to shoot the water and feathers away from the motor and wheels underneath. 

And finally, give your spouse lots of love for putting up with your annoying questions and puzzled looks when you don't "get" what your doing.  And for having the patience to explain it to you without yelling.  I have a very patient husband.  I guess that's why we've been married for 21 years this June. LOL.

A view from the left.  The closest end is the top of the frame.  The far end has the motor mounting boards.  We still have the cross boards to mount, but I have to get a hole saw today so we can get that cut out first.

A view from the right.  You can see that this is the "open" side of the frame.  This will be where our feather chute comes out.

And straight down the center.  The excess bolt length on the interior won't interfere since the barrell is round and doesn't go into the corners.

And finally here is the featherplate and barrell, undrilled.  The featherplate is made out of the side of an old stove.  I took it to a local place called Captial Machine and they slapped it on their plasma cutter.  Cost me $20.00 and I have a perfect circle.  I was tickeled not to have to cut it out.  You local high school ag shop can help too.  They often can do it there for free.  The one at our high school got broken last year, unfortunately, and has not been repaired yet.

Let me know if I can answer anything else.