I’ve saved a lot of seed this year (with more still to harvest) but cleaning it has been a challenge so I came up with this contraption to help out.
The seed/chaff mix is poured into a hole at the top left where it tumbles to the bottom of that column. The hole is plugged and the shop vac connected at top centre-right is turned on. Air is pulled through two small holes near the bottom of the right hand column which agitates the seed/chaff mix and causes it to be carried through the labyrinth. The pressure and velocity of the air is related to width of the labyrinth and as it changes it’s ability to carry particles changes too, so the seed/chaff is sorted by weight – the heavier viable seed stays in the chamber at the bottom left, the questionable seed ends up in the bottom middle and the chaff on the bottom right. There are three vents in the final chamber that can be adjusted to account for different weight of seed. There’s also some filter cloth installed over the vacuum inlet to insure against mishaps.
I’m very pleased with how it turned out, I’d tried traditional wind willowing but found it to be messy and time consuming, this is much more efficient and works for all size of seeds. This design is based on a design I saw at realseeds.co.uk. I liked that design and it works well, but I wanted a solution that wouldn’t require multiple passes through the system.
There’s a video in the comments, but turn your volume down – my shop vac is on the way out and it’s quite loud.
by dhgrainger
12 Comments
Here’s the video, [vacuum powered seed sorting contraption](https://imgur.com/a/qZgbxov)
The picture with the sharpie shows the starting seed/chaff mix and the cleaned seed after running it through once.
SICK. Nice work.
:O
This is amazing! Thank you for sharing
so cool!!
Genuinely so impressed, this is on another level, OP. Hell yeah
Well, kudos! Very nice work. What is the white material, just a heavy card stock or something like a laminate? And how did you determine the openings and dimensions? I demand you post your plans! 😉
Solid research, development, and creation of a prototype. Great work!
This is incredible!
There’s a few of these online and even free plans. A saw a couple of 3D printer plans for one. I also saw there’s a bird seed cleaner that you can buy from TEMU or eBay.
I found that given the number of seeds I collect, bowls and sieves work OK. Yes it’s time consuming depending on the species, but it’s not a volume operation for me.
If I had a lot of interest in people wanting seed I would definitely consider this sort of contraption. Unfortunately I have not found a lot of folk interested in native seeds.
Does Psyche know about you?
You should really consider patenting this if you haven’t already.