The NutCrusher Mk1

[Boswell]

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.

 

[Braeden P]

another name for it could be nut buster mk 1

 

[mattthemuppet2]

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??

 

[hman]

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

 

[ArmyDoc]

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

 

[Braeden P]

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

 

[mattthemuppet2]

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.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

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

 

[BROCKWOOD]

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!!!

 

[mattthemuppet2]

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!