This summer somebody gave me an old duck plucker they had lying around. I tried using this evil sonovabitch on last weekends honkers and it was a total failure. I put a garbage bag over what I assumed was the exhaust end and in only a few seconds I was standing in a cloud of down. Next step I have the kid aim the air compressor nozzle into the plucker hoping a draft will push the feathers into the bag - negative. Im even more covered. So we figure this pos needs suction to work so I clean out my shop vac and hook it up. Start in on a bird and its going great - no more feathers flying. I manage to strip about a 4 X 6 inch area on the first goose when the vacuum has a total loss of suction, take it apart and it completely plugged.
So does anyone have any experience with one of these things where it actually works?
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 9:11 pm
by Flightstopper
Maybe try something bigger or with mesh at the back for air to escape. I could see the air from the feathers being pushed in blowing all the feathers right back at you. Thoughts?
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 9:11 pm
by jarbo03
I have been looking hard into getting a plucker, curious to what others have to say.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 9:15 pm
by Flightstopper
jarbo03 wrote:I have been looking hard into getting a plucker, curious to what others have to say.
I have this one, works great. I'm going to mount it on my cleaning table different here soon. Really don't want two big ass barrels sitting in my back yard even if they work.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 9:26 pm
by 3legged_lab
Flightstopper wrote:Maybe try something bigger or with mesh at the back for air to escape. I could see the air from the feathers being pushed in blowing all the feathers right back at you. Thoughts?
What do you mean bigger? If you mean the shop vac its a pretty good size one. When I tried it with zero suction the feathers would go in, go around the drum, and shoot straight back out at me.
Maybe when this thing was new there was some accessory for feather pick up.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 9:27 pm
by 3legged_lab
jarbo03 wrote:I have been looking hard into getting a plucker, curious to what others have to say.
The way things are going now, you can have this one. Haha!
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 9:29 pm
by assateague
Maybe try lightly misting with a hose while you're plucking. And cut the hole for the "exhaust" much bigger. Really, seems like it isn't even necessary- just cut the whole thing out, leaving a rectangle hole under the plucker. Then mist it with the hose. I would expect the feathers and water to just run out into a bucket underneath or something like that.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 9:30 pm
by The Duck Hammer
What if you rigged up something with a piece of PVC and your air compressor to form a wind tunnel in the pipe that would draw the feathers out. I don't know how you would catch the feathers but it might keep them off of you.
Sent from my Vox Mortem
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 9:32 pm
by jarbo03
3legged_lab wrote:
jarbo03 wrote:I have been looking hard into getting a plucker, curious to what others have to say.
The way things are going now, you can have this one. Haha!
Sweet! I'll put an outside vent from my garage with my big work fan. The feathers will be flying. I'd like to cover the grass of my yard nazi cunt nugget neighbor!
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 9:32 pm
by Flightstopper
3legged_lab wrote:
Flightstopper wrote:Maybe try something bigger or with mesh at the back for air to escape. I could see the air from the feathers being pushed in blowing all the feathers right back at you. Thoughts?
What do you mean bigger? If you mean the shop vac its a pretty good size one. When I tried it with zero suction the feathers would go in, go around the drum, and shoot straight back out at me.
Maybe when this thing was new there was some accessory for feather pick up.
A bigger catch drum with somewherr for air to escape. Right now you are pushing feathers into a closed container, trash bag, and you have nowhere to displace the air going in. In return pushing the feathers right back out at you. Granted I am nowhere near an engineer but sounds good in my head!
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 9:38 pm
by AKPirate
Something like this...
air dancers.jpg
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 9:44 pm
by Tiler_J
We have a different style plucker down at our club, I am going there this weekend, I will try to remember to take a pic of it. Ours is a little bigger, with bigger "fingers" on the plucker. It is mounted to a counter on a kind of cabinet with a space cut out for the plucker. Under the counter the whole face of the cabinet is mesh screen. Most feathers go down into the cabinet but not all. Also geese don't work great in the plucker, we get feathers everywhere. For ducks it works great. Don't know if this helps or not, but it sounds like if it sucks the feathers without the aid of a shop-vac, I would try some type of vented containment for the feathers.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 10:04 pm
by 3legged_lab
Flightstopper wrote:
3legged_lab wrote:
Flightstopper wrote:Maybe try something bigger or with mesh at the back for air to escape. I could see the air from the feathers being pushed in blowing all the feathers right back at you. Thoughts?
What do you mean bigger? If you mean the shop vac its a pretty good size one. When I tried it with zero suction the feathers would go in, go around the drum, and shoot straight back out at me.
Maybe when this thing was new there was some accessory for feather pick up.
A bigger catch drum with somewherr for air to escape. Right now you are pushing feathers into a closed container, trash bag, and you have nowhere to displace the air going in. In return pushing the feathers right back out at you. Granted I am nowhere near an engineer but sounds good in my head!
I forgot to mention that I also tried ripping a hole in the garbage bag to give the air a way to escape with crap results. I also tried hanging a 5 gallon bucket on the back and that didn't work either.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 10:12 pm
by 3legged_lab
assateague wrote:Maybe try lightly misting with a hose while you're plucking. And cut the hole for the "exhaust" much bigger. Really, seems like it isn't even necessary- just cut the whole thing out, leaving a rectangle hole under the plucker. Then mist it with the hose. I would expect the feathers and water to just run out into a bucket underneath or something like that.
I did notice that the dry goose plucked much better than the one that was wet. The biggest reason I want to leave the shroud alone is this thing must've worked the way they sold it. Unless functionality is the reason I don't see them for sale anywhere currently.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 10:14 pm
by assateague
Maybe it worked as is because it had a 338 horsepower motor sucking air through it in its previous life
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 10:15 pm
by 3legged_lab
Tiler_J wrote:We have a different style plucker down at our club, I am going there this weekend, I will try to remember to take a pic of it. Ours is a little bigger, with bigger "fingers" on the plucker. It is mounted to a counter on a kind of cabinet with a space cut out for the plucker. Under the counter the whole face of the cabinet is mesh screen. Most feathers go down into the cabinet but not all. Also geese don't work great in the plucker, we get feathers everywhere. For ducks it works great. Don't know if this helps or not, but it sounds like if it sucks the feathers without the aid of a shop-vac, I would try some type of vented containment for the feathers.
And maybe this thing will work better on ducks. What you described sound sort of like a negative air table. I've seen plans online for them to be used with wood lathes to control the dust.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:00 pm
by sws002
The Duck Hammer wrote:What if you rigged up something with a piece of PVC and your air compressor to form a wind tunnel in the pipe that would draw the feathers out. I don't know how you would catch the feathers but it might keep them off of you.
Sent from my Vox Mortem
I think this is the best option. Does your ShopVac have a blower option? If somehow you can rig the ShopVac to be blowing air down a PVC pipe attached to the back of the contraption, I would imagine it would create some suction to pull the feathers but not clog your vac. Interested in how this turns out, have been thinking about getting a plucker for a long time myself.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:06 pm
by Tiler_J
Oh, also, wet birds don't pluck as easy as dry birds.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:07 pm
by 3legged_lab
sws002 wrote:
The Duck Hammer wrote:What if you rigged up something with a piece of PVC and your air compressor to form a wind tunnel in the pipe that would draw the feathers out. I don't know how you would catch the feathers but it might keep them off of you.
Sent from my Vox Mortem
I think this is the best option. Does your ShopVac have a blower option? If somehow you can rig the ShopVac to be blowing air down a PVC pipe attached to the back of the contraption, I would imagine it would create some suction to pull the feathers but not clog your vac. Interested in how this turns out, have been thinking about getting a plucker for a long time myself.
Ya, maybe use a Y cleanout for the blower to attach and have it dump into a burlap sack so the air can come out easy but the feathers stay in?
Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:11 pm
by The Duck Hammer
3legged_lab wrote:
sws002 wrote:
The Duck Hammer wrote:What if you rigged up something with a piece of PVC and your air compressor to form a wind tunnel in the pipe that would draw the feathers out. I don't know how you would catch the feathers but it might keep them off of you.
Sent from my Vox Mortem
I think this is the best option. Does your ShopVac have a blower option? If somehow you can rig the ShopVac to be blowing air down a PVC pipe attached to the back of the contraption, I would imagine it would create some suction to pull the feathers but not clog your vac. Interested in how this turns out, have been thinking about getting a plucker for a long time myself.
Ya, maybe use a Y cleanout for the blower to attach and have it dump into a burlap sack so the air can come out easy but the feathers stay in?
You could do that or build a cylinder out of 1/4 chicken wire that it dumps into. A Y might work but you'll have to work on setting the correct angle or maybe find a way to reduce your hole size to get the fastest airflow and whatnot.
Sent from my Vox Mortem
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:11 pm
by rebelp74
Get technical with it and make some sort of duct or something of teh such, put a small fan in it that will create a suction. I made something of the sort for the chop saw in the engine room on the boat to keep from getting dust everywhere or having the buring pieces of metal being cut off fall into the bilges.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 8:12 am
by assateague
Tiler_J wrote:Oh, also, wet birds don't pluck as easy as dry birds.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 8:13 am
by assateague
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:34 am
by AKPirate
Those were awesome.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 10:25 am
by goodkarmarising
jarbo03 wrote:I have been looking hard into getting a plucker, curious to what others have to say.
You need the bird hitch.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 10:28 am
by AKPirate
goodkarmarising wrote:
jarbo03 wrote:I have been looking hard into getting a plucker, curious to what others have to say.
You need the bird hitch.
WFM did not give that good reviews. You like it GKR?
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 10:38 am
by jarbo03
goodkarmarising wrote:
jarbo03 wrote:I have been looking hard into getting a plucker, curious to what others have to say.
You need the bird hitch.
I'm lookin to keep the skin on some ducks for the smoker and makin duck stock.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 11:26 am
by RonE
3legged_lab wrote:This summer somebody gave me an old duck plucker they had lying around. I tried using this evil sonovabitch on last weekends honkers and it was a total failure. I put a garbage bag over what I assumed was the exhaust end and in only a few seconds I was standing in a cloud of down. Next step I have the kid aim the air compressor nozzle into the plucker hoping a draft will push the feathers into the bag - negative. Im even more covered. So we figure this pos needs suction to work so I clean out my shop vac and hook it up. Start in on a bird and its going great - no more feathers flying. I manage to strip about a 4 X 6 inch area on the first goose when the vacuum has a total loss of suction, take it apart and it completely plugged.
So does anyone have any experience with one of these things where it actually works?
Believe it or not, I have experience. We bought a "Duck-a-minit" and it worked great for about 10 ducks and then needed new fingers or whatever they are called. Turned out it was cheaper to just drop the birds off at a place that picked them and drink beer until they were plucked, wrapped and chilled.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:36 pm
by Flightstopper
assateague wrote:
The oils in dick make them water resistant and the oils turn into a slippery mess. The the rubber fingers can't grab the feathers as well. Your videos are all chickens that pluck easier.
Re: Need help with a bird plucker
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:42 pm
by AKPirate
Flightstopper wrote:
assateague wrote:
The oils in dick make them water resistant and the oils turn into a slippery mess. The the rubber fingers can't grab the feathers as well. Your videos are all chickens that pluck easier.
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 9:08 pm