Winter is a time for us to rest a little, to catch up on paperwork, to plan, and to fix/improve things. But this winter our to-do list of projects is two pages long. The projects on those two pages may be six months' worth of work, and I'm sure we haven't thought of everything.
The Farmer's current project is a gravity table we bought as a pile of parts. We already use a fanning mill to remove sticks and weed seeds and other unwanted debris from the beans. The gravity table will help us to remove more of the not-quite-perfect beans, and cut down on our hand sorting.
The gravity table (above right) needs a large industrial fan to operate. The fan was not included in the pile of parts. For months we stalked Craigslist, until we found a fan large enough to do the job and inexpensive enough for us to afford. It involved a road trip to a factory district in Chicago, and we are grateful for our friend Glenn's help with getting the fan (above left) home.
The fan was closer to operational than the pile-of-parts gravity table, but it needed its motor rebuilt, and some shiny new ductwork.
The gravity table rebuild is a process, and will need some fine-tuning once it's actually running. But we are hopeful that we can soon check this item off the to-do list, and move on.
Good post.
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