Larger Corn Cleaner, Now with added Video

[Spicy Chicken]

Hello everyone, newbie here but not to the pellet/corn burning world. This forum has helped me several times in the past with issues and I thank you all for that!

We have 3 stoves 2-pellet and 1-biomass we heat 7000 square feet exclusively. Pellets went up for us this year from $180 a ton to $220 with corn at only $160,

Cleaning corn has always been kind of a hassle with those small DIY type cleaners, so this year I built a little larger cleaner and have to say what a really nice unit to work with. Nothing real fancy but gets the job done well in a very short period of time.

There are 4 family members that burn corn so this unit gets used quite a bit. Normally this unit is in the shed but unfortunately I thought taking a short cut would be faster, the mud sucked me in so we had to move the cleaner to the stuck truck. lol

Anywho, Here are some pics of the cleaner, I hope this may help someone out someday.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Thanks for stopping by and hope everyone has a great week!

Cheers - Jeff

 

[kappel15]

That is quit the cleaner! Thanks for sharing. I would post a pic of mine, but don't know how to upload pictures. kap

 

[Jags]

Nicely documented and looks to be quite the machine. Well done.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Kap, that is nice isn't it?

My only question is... Where are the static electricity bleed off wires? It's always been my experience that when cleaning corn travelling in plastic pipe, static electricity builds up, sometimes to pretty high levels and corn dust is explosive and can be ignited by a static spark.....

I quit cleaning mine years ago. Just as easy to order it delivered to the tank as 'cleaned for feed use'. That gets all the hardware out and 85% of the bees wings and cob pieces.

BTW, I have a Shur-Clean for sale along with an LDJ complete.

 

[Spicy Chicken]

Kap, that is nice isn't it?

My only question is... Where are the static electricity bleed off wires? It's always been my experience that when cleaning corn travelling in plastic pipe, static electricity builds up, sometimes to pretty high levels and corn dust is explosive and can be ignited by a static spark.....

I quit cleaning mine years ago. Just as easy to order it delivered to the tank as 'cleaned for feed use'. That gets all the hardware out and 85% of the bees wings and cob pieces.

BTW, I have a Shur-Clean for sale along with an LDJ complete.

Good point!
You are not wrong there. I have been the conductor a few times. lol It was a concern at first, I have a cabinet shop and copper wires are run through all of our dust collection system but this blower is 1200 CFPM and there is only 21 CF in the hopper when empty so air exchange is once per second plus this unit is made of wood and plastic with no metal conductors of any kind, gamble I know, but conditions have to be just right.

We have only run about 20 tons through it and hope we never find out. wouldn't take much to run a wire thought.

This year the corn here isn't of the highest quality, maybe the price reflects that, but way more dusty then most years.

 

[SidecarFlip]

PVC and corn don't mix (far as static electricity is concerned). The lower the RM of the corn is, the more 'juice' it produces travelling along in the pipes. For your longevity, I'd install grounding wires inside the pipes. Not hard to so and so much safer. It's a nice cleaner with some nice spaces inside where dust can accumulate... and go boom.

Dust and sparks don't mix. A couple years ago, Andersons on the Maumee River lost the whole top of a mega-bin to a spark and it was a stinky mess between the fire department hosing down the corn and the stuff smoldering.

 

[kappel15]

You can also run the wire on the outside and use two washers and self tapping screws. I did on mine and works great. I have a metal wand at the end of my cleaner where I suck the corn up. I can pull it apart just enough from the plastic wand with the copper wire, and the end of the wire looks like a spark plug ,with the motor running. kap

 

[SidecarFlip]

and the end of the wire looks like a spark plug ,with the motor running. kap

Just think how that would make your arm muscles feel...................

Back when I was a kid, I knew this guy who would test his ignition power by hanging on to the spark plug wire and gage how his arm muscle jumped. Big jump, good spark... He's probably dead by now, probably electrocuted.

 

[johninwi]

That is quite the setup. After the 20 ton thru it have you noticed any errosion of the OSB?

And welcome to the site

 

[Spicy Chicken]

That is quite the setup. After the 20 ton thru it have you noticed any errosion of the OSB?

And welcome to the site

Thank you for the welcome!

The thought never crossed may mind, all of the pips and fitting are semi-permanent so never really looked at them, the corn intake 45 degree is the only one that is handled and frankly I didn't notice any. Makes sense thought that any turns in the pipe will ware.

I will be checking this next time and get replacements if necessary, none of the pipes are glued so should be a snap to change.

 

[Spicy Chicken]

That is quite the setup. After the 20 ton thru it have you noticed any errosion of the OSB?

And welcome to the site

Ok Scratch that........OSB not PVC lol Daaaah

No there is no noticeable erosion, I do expect the top OSB on the screen will fail at some point, it takes quite a beating.

The outside is extremely vulnerable to natural elements as anybody knows so this summer in will give the whole cleaner a stain job. I have a 5 gallon pail of Sikens exterior stain left over from a log cabin job.

 

[Utilitrack]

The ingenuity of some people never ceases to amaze me, but holy hell I don't have the time nor the room to run my heating fuel through these types of cleaners, I guess it just would not be worth it to me. Good for you for making it work!

 

[Spicy Chicken]

The ingenuity of some people never ceases to amaze me, but holy hell I don't have the time nor the room to run my heating fuel through these types of cleaners, I guess it just would not be worth it to me. Good for you for making it work!

Good for you...congratulations!

 

[johninwi]

I guess since you've done 20 ton and nothing's worn thru yet it must be ok.
So where about's in Wi? And what stove's are you and the family running?

 

[Spicy Chicken]

I guess since you've done 20 ton and nothing's worn thru yet it must be ok.
So where about's in Wi? And what stove's are you and the family running?

Hi John, We live 50 miles north of Packer Stadium. I see you are not to far away. Went to the SDA church academy in Columbus back in the mid 70's and would jog over to Madison for some mall shopping now and then.

Can't say for sure what the sisters and brothers are running but:

We have one of these:

The Europa 75 seems like a decent stove for the most part, always something you may not quite like about one, and this one is a little noisy...fans and rattling sheet metal. Over all though I like it so far. 4 years old without any operational issues.

We Have 2 of these:

The ones we have look just like this except they have and ash tray.
Also about 4 years old and Inexpensive at the time...1100 and change each, meant to burn strictly pellets but we burn about 25% corn with them but never on the highest setting.
Manual dump pot..... hate that part but very reliable with no fancy feature to go bad.
Igniters lasted about a month and burned out, to light them we just fill the pod 1/2 plus and use a propane torch for about a minute and good to go.
Overall happy with these as well but would like to upgrade some day.

Thank you all for stopping by! Cheers - Jeff