A while back I threw out the idea of trying to make a Honey Extractor on the forum and received a lot of great input and advice. I decided to give it a shot and see where it ended up. I have to give a shout out to Sundog who was both nice enough to share his plans as well as field some of my questions via email.
What I made is basically his design...However, instead of taking 4 medium frames radially, or 4 deeps tangentially, I made mine to hold 8 medium frames radially. I did this by doing 4 sets of 2 frames, side by side. I'm not really sure how successful this will be...I'm a little concerned their close proximity to each other might be an issue. Well see!
I also quickly realized I was outside of my skill-set and was lucky to have a friend willing to lend his time, talent, and equipment to the fabrication of the stainless steel.
I still need to install a honey gate and decide whether or not I'm going to coat the wood or leave it natural.
Extractor in action! The two top boards are independent to help with the ease of loading frames.
The Shaft sits in a Teflon Sleeve with a ball bearing in the bottom supported by a stainless steel bracket placed in the bottom of the barrel.
Barrel with lid