Automatic mechanical walnut cracker?
The do
it yourself mechanical smasher worked out well at saving some
time and effort building the hanger portion of our Avian Aqua Misers, but the process was a bit
cumbersome and dangerous.
I decided to simplify the hanger design so that a pair of normal pliers
could be used to squeeze the hanger into place without as much effort
as before.
My latest idea is to use this
type of mechanism to automatically crack walnuts. Of course there would
need to be some system that fed each nut one at a time, which is the
part that has me stumped at the moment, but it's one of those low
priority problems that will have to wait a few years due to more
pressing projects.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Emily --- thanks for your kind words! Mark is a real innovator, and I'll bet your husband will rise to the occasion.
Bethany --- That's an intriguing idea! It's always good to use gadgets that already exist rather than totally reinventing the wheel.
Wouldn't a long lever be a much easier method to crack walnuts? Place the walnut under the lever near the pivot point, and push on the free end. How long the lever should be is a matter of experimentation. A machanism to feed the walnuts et cetera isn' t that hard either. I'll make a sketch and send it when I' m back home.
Roland (not logged in; currently travelling on the other side of the world)
Not in the U.S.?!
From this map --- http://www.antipodemap.com/ --- it looks like the other side of the world for you would be in the ocean midway between Australia, South America, and Antarctica.
Shanghai is a very busy city (20-odd million people). Yesterday was sunday, so we did some sightseeing. Old Shanghai (what is left of it) is pretty picturesque. The Huxingting tea house in the Bazaar and the Shanghai Museum are definitely worth a visit! It's a big country, though, Last week we spent 4 hours in a jam-packed 250 km/hour train to get somewhere! Also tall west-europeans literally stick out in the crowd. People who aren' t at least a head shorter than me are in short supply.
If my travels take me to the US (fortunately I don't have to travel that often, because it can be quite tiring) I'll definitely keep you posted.
Wow! Sounds like quite an experience! Mark and I were just talking about you at supper last night, hoping you tell us a bit about your journey. Of course, in our dream world, you went to visit mushroom farms instead of tea houses.
I know what you mean about travel being tiring....