# The NutCrusher Mk1



## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 6, 2020)

Christmas present for the wife, as all we have right now is a hammer. I'll have to buy her a bag of nuts to go with it

Original inspiration



Original CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) model based on the picture - didn't work



4th version 





collection of possible materials



bunch of stuff cut to size, some axles (one fewer than needed I realised today, doh!) and the top and bottom parts bandsawed to size



bushings made from that valve like thing with o-rings in the picture above



more to come, clock is ticking!


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## Winegrower (Dec 6, 2020)

What’s the mechanical leverage factor with your design?


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## eugene13 (Dec 6, 2020)

I like your CAD, have  used it myself.


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## benmychree (Dec 6, 2020)

Nice design and build!  I'd think about a wood handle --- and maybe a return spring.


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 6, 2020)

winegrower - absolutely no idea. Should be enough for walnuts, will have to see about Brazil nuts, though that's a good excuse to go buy some 

eugene13 - thanks! It's a quick and easy way to figure out where you've screwed up before you spend anytime making it 

benmychree - thanks also! I'm hoping to put a 3-4" wooden handle on the end of the stainless shaft, to make it easier on the hands. I have some random hardwood (mesquite maybe) from a neighbours tree that I've been burning in the firepit so I'll give that a shot. Got to be better than pine. Interesting idea on the return spring. I'll have to see how it works in practice first, but it's worth keeping in mind. A neat accident of design is that the lever stops just over center, so no need for a hard stop.


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## Janderso (Dec 6, 2020)

I love it.
That’s the way I design things!
CAD/Fusion 360 has left me in the dust.


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 6, 2020)

oh man, it would take me longer to learn Fusion 360 than it would to make this


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## Braeden P (Dec 6, 2020)

If you have a arbor press you can put it on the table to crack open the nuts to!


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## homebrewed (Dec 7, 2020)

Ghetto nutcracker:  we use a locking jaw pair of pliers like this.  Adjust the jaws so they close down just enough to crack the shell but not mash the contents.  Not near as much fun as what you're making though!


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 7, 2020)

my arbor press is bolted to my garage wall and I nearly popped a disk getting it up onto it's stand 

I used to use a pliers type nutcracker growing up and remember getting sore hands after going through a bag of assorted nuts. Who wouldn't want better for their children?


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## Boswell (Dec 7, 2020)

Smarter Every Day just released a YouTube about pecans and in it he shows and describes an industrial pecan nut cracker. very interesting technique to apply pressure to squeeze the nut from the ends then apply a sharp force on the end to crack.


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## Braeden P (Dec 7, 2020)

another name for it could be nut buster mk 1


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 7, 2020)

brings tears to my eyes Braedon! Thanks Boswell, I'll have to check that out.

Made some more progress. Got the lever side plate cut on the 2nd try. Didn't scribe a center line the second time 



drilling the upper plates. I drilled and reamed each one to just over 5/16 separately, then used one of the axles/ pivots to fixture the two of them together to drill and ream the 1/2" holes for the bushings


that way the two holes on each plate should be the exact same distance apart

Did the same for the lever plates but could figure out a way to drill the pilot for the square hole, so called it a night. I'll ponder on it while I sleep 



just looking at that makes me realise that the lower pivot pin needs to be waaaaay longer than I originally calculated. I think I missed a couple of 1/4" plates in the first run. Good job I only made 3 out of the 4 pins I needed, right??


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## hman (Dec 8, 2020)

Boswell said:


> Smarter Every Day just released a YouTube about pecans and in it he shows and describes an industrial pecan nut cracker. very interesting technique to apply pressure to squeeze the nut from the ends then apply a sharp force on the end to crack.


That sounds like the "Texas inertial nut cracker."  I bought one from Pecans.com, but they no longer seem to sell it.  Here are a couple links of interest:





						InertiaNutCracker.com — Texas Native Inertia Pecan Nutcracker
					

Inertia Nutcracker HD is the time proven nut cracker for pecans, English walnuts, Brazil nuts, acorns,filbert/hazelnuts  and many others.



					inertianutcracker.com
				











						Inertia Nutcracker
					

This cracker utilizes rubber bands that can be adjusted to give you precision cracking of your pecans and English walnuts. This nut cracker will crack any type of Pecans, Brazil nuts, Filberts/Hazelnuts, Almonds, Macadamia, and English Walnuts.



					baganut.com


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## ArmyDoc (Dec 10, 2020)

Will be interesting to see how this comes out.  We have one for pecans thats similar.


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## Braeden P (Dec 11, 2020)

ArmyDoc said:


> Will be interesting to see how this comes out.  We have one for pecans thats similar.


thats is pretty and i like the wood base


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 12, 2020)

not made a huge amount of progress, due to these arriving for a while







but I did get the upper plates finished



and the lever plates fixtured for drill the square hole



just have to figure out the math and drill size for the corners first

Also made some progress on the screws, but didn't get time to finish yesterday.


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 13, 2020)

made the 8-32 bolts out of 1/2" brass hex



made the squareish holes in the lever plates. In theory my approach was great - drill 4 #54 holes at the corners and a 1/4" hole in the middle for a 0.256" square hole. Well, it kinda sucked. Drilling 4 0.05" holes in 304 stainless was not fun and for one of the holes the drill wandered off a surface imperfection, then the 1/4" hole ended up off center. I tried using a 0.05" carbide endmill but that broke almost immediately, but the 2.5mm 4 flute I tried next did the job just fine.



bit of judicious filing to make everything fit and square and..





and with the 4th pivot axle that I forgot in the original plans


need to finish up the lever plates, but that won't take long

plus a picture of a puppy having a dream


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## BROCKWOOD (Dec 15, 2020)

I've used ArmyDoc's version growing up - very effective on Pecans. Your version is intriguing! Where's the popcorn, as I'm gonna watch this!!!


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 16, 2020)

well, we'll see how it pans out - the theory is sound, the practice is still an open question! Might even be able to use it as a small arbor press/ cable crimper by the time I'm done, it's pretty beefy 

finished the handle and linkage. What a palaver - screwed up the handle TWICE yesterday. I was so p!$$ed with myself. First I messed up the math and drilled/ tapped the 2 holes too far apart and I’m still not 100% certain why. I decided to extend the cut out to drill a 3rd hole and cut off the first one. Well, the 2 holes still didn’t line up properly. Choice words were uttered. In the end, I changed the design so that the very end bolted through to the axle/ pivot and drilled/ tapped the middle hole for M5x0.8 through the side plate. Bit of milling, filing and sanding and it now looks like it was meant to be like that!


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 17, 2020)

made the top plate, though I didn't cut the grooves yet as a) I screwed up the non-linkage pivot location (worked off dims for the legs for the hole, not the plate) and b) that allows me to try the top plate in 2 different orientations to see which I like the most.


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 25, 2020)

alright, finally have some time to finish up the thread  I'll let the pictures do the talking:

top die for bending the 1/4" stainless legs



some test pieces, one leg and a broken bolt from the lower bending jig 



setting up a jig to drill the pivot holes in the legs



yeah, that didn't work, so used a piece of 1/2" alu plate instead



drilling and reaming the linkage pivots





did the same for the end legs



yeah, that isn't going to work either



milling the bottom groove



turning the blank for the handle. Mystery hardwood from a neighbour's tree - I have a bunch that I'm burning in the fire pit.



ridiculously long drill and why I need my SB up and running as soon as possible!



taper turned, grooves added and then turned around to use my ball turner on the end. Wood cuts easy but boy does it make a mess.



and finished! Base is a piece of curly cherry that a friend gave me

















works a treat and the wife is super happy with it. She really likes the "look" too, so it's ornamental as well as functional! Needs a bit of modding - the bottom groove is a bit slippery, so I'll be adding cross grooves to that, and I need to add a few extra cross grooves to the top. I'll do that tomorrow


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## Boswell (Dec 25, 2020)

that came out very nice !


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 25, 2020)

thanks! I'm really happy that it's done (well, almost)  Now I need to clean up all the mess over my lathe, might be easier just to take it to pieces and give it a thorough going over!


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## ericc (Dec 26, 2020)

Wow! Beautiful.  That's putting the machines to use.  What went wrong in the above pictures?  Came loose?


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 27, 2020)

thanks! I make her a present at least once a year (one year I made a stainless mortar and pestle) - she loves them and I get to justify having my machines 

The wood jig didn't work as it flexed too much and I needed to hold the work rigidly so that the holes came out straight and the stainless didn't work harden. The angle vise didn't work in the upright position as the handle end hit the head of the mill before the cutter hit the work  Just part of figuring out what works and what doesn't.


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 27, 2020)

fixed up a couple of niggles and now it crushes walnuts like they're not even there. Blowing my own trumpet I know, but this is the best nut cracker I've ever used


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## hman (Dec 27, 2020)

You might oughta add something to the stamped legend - call it Mk 1.1, eh wot?


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## pinkpanda3310 (Jan 2, 2021)

Nice nut chomper


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## mattthemuppet2 (Jan 2, 2021)

hman said:


> You might oughta add something to the stamped legend - call it Mk 1.1, eh wot?



I thought about that, but was too lazy to disassemble it enough to stamp another number on it 



pinkpanda3310 said:


> Nice nut chomper



thanks! Keeping my eyes open for some pecans to give those a shot, maybe treat myself to some Brazil nuts at some point. I know what, my wife's birthday is coming up soon, I can buy some for her birthday!


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## PabloMack (Dec 23, 2021)

This year was a boom for pecans here in SE Texas and I put my new arbor press to good use. A different technique I use is to crack the ends off using the arbor press then the rest is easily removed using a standard nut cracker. They are like little barrels with the ends popped off.


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## BROCKWOOD (Dec 23, 2021)

PabloMack I'm not far away. Would you sell me a couple pounds shipped to 71107?


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 24, 2021)

neato. Didn't see any whole nuts in stores the few times I went shopping recently and didn't think to order any online. I better get some for New Years


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## PabloMack (Dec 24, 2021)

BROCKWOOD said:


> PabloMack I'm not far away. Would you sell me a couple pounds shipped to 71107?



I'd hate to sell unshelled nuts because so many of them are bad. The guys who built our house planted one of each type of many varieties so we don't have two trees that are alike. The most prolific tree makes scads of tiny nuts that are a lot of work to make just one cup of nuts. Our favorite tree produced many beautiful large nuts over the years and very easy to shell. We have had many thieves come steal our pecans. One of them parked a very nice expensive pickup truck in our driveway and put a ladder in the bed (so its not like they are poor people in need for basic sustenance). Two men beat and broke that tree up so badly that it is a sick shadow of its former self and doesn't produce much any more. But we do have some beautiful whole nuts from years past that have been in the freezer. Since they are not fresh they don't have the flavor that the new ones have. But they are the best looking. The other trees produce a variety of nuts in different shapes and sizes and they are more work to shell. Most have hard shells that require a lot of force to crack and the result is that most are broken in different ways. I have been popping the ends off them like I described before but my wife has been finishing them. She has been trying to get enough to give as gifts to our extended family for Christmas. When I told her that I had a buyer from the hobby machinist forum she balked and gave me the sob story of how sore her hands have gotten in trying to shell enough to give as presents. She complains that it would not even be enough to make minimum wage.

In any case, I just wanted to tell you about our situation and ask you what you are after. Some people want good looking ones to go on cookies so appearance is most important. Appearance is also most important for candied ones since they are often flavored with cinnamon and baked so intrinsic flavor would mostly be masked anyway. Others intend to chop them up and put them into sticky buns or some other pastry where flavor is highest priority. Tell me what you are interested in and I'll see if we can accommodate. The frozen ones could ship now but if you want best flavor then I am afraid we will not be able to supply ideal looking pecans as they are mostly all damaged in some way. The many varieties means that they are in many difference shapes and sizes. They will also take us a while to prepare since it is still a lot of work to get at the pecans that we have from this year and we are still working on the gifts for our relatives. My wife says that current grocery store prices are about $15 a pound. There are suppliers on Amazon and their going price seems to start at about $16 per pound. I've seen 2 pounds for $32 and free shipping.

Best wishes for you and your family during this holiday season.


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## BROCKWOOD (Dec 24, 2021)

Sad about poachers. I like to ask them where they live in case I get in the mood to do donuts in someone's front yard. 

Your wife has a heart of gold, giving her part for loved ones. I wouldn't want to intrude. Merry Christmas!


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## PabloMack (Dec 24, 2021)

BROCKWOOD said:


> Sad about poachers. I like to ask them where they live in case I get in the mood to do donuts in someone's front yard.


Ha Ha Ha....Wouldn't that be fun.


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## brino (Dec 24, 2021)

BROCKWOOD said:


> Sad about poachers. I like to ask them where they live in case I get in the mood to do donuts in someone's front yard.



Back when I was in school, some 200 years ago, I remember walking home and noticing some plump, ripe apples in a tree in a yard and overhanging the fence and sidewalk. I reached up, grabbed an apple, picked it and started away with by ill-gotten booty when I realized too late that my favourite shirt had got caught on the picket fence. My shirt was torn beyond usefulness. That apple did not taste very good.

I learned a lesson about karma that day. 

Brian


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