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  • Extractor Modification.

  • Bee Hive building & a place to share howto's on equipment
Bee Hive building & a place to share howto's on equipment
 #6400  by Steve 1972
 13 Apr 2020, 18:18
Not sure if this will work but here goes..
I purchased a four frame manual extractor around 5yrs ago for £120 ..for the first two season I got along fine with it as my honey yield was not a lot..
I was then given a F2 buckfast Queen which opened my eyes yield wise so I converted my extractor to take 8 super frames or four brood frames (standard nationals)..but it was still manually..
After last years yield of extracting roughly 600lb of honey manually enough was enough..
Modification No2..
I had to go motorized on budget..I acquired an old 24v mobility scooter from a relative and removed the motor..a friend of mine milled me a little piece of metal shaft to go from the cage to fit the motor..he also milled a mount to attach the motor to the extractor..
We attached a 12v battery and bingo away it went at full speed..(problems)..
After a bit of reading and some trial and error I sourced a speed controller and a forward and reverse switch..once wired up it worked a treat all for the price of £15..it runs from a 12 leisure battery which I have two of..I now can not wait for this season's honey extracting and I have more good bought in Queens for this year so I think I needed to go motorized..
Here is a little vid of it in action..not the best but you will get the general idea.

https://youtu.be/N71muCx8siw
 #6401  by Chrisbarlow
 13 Apr 2020, 18:33
Excellent! Electric all the way
 #6448  by AdamD
 15 Apr 2020, 08:35
Good Job!
After a couple of years borrowing a manual tangential extractor; Like you, I quickly decided that electric was the way to go although some of the electric extractors from the 'big' suppliers are hugely expensive. My Giordan one takes an electric drill as the power source which works well. Although I can reverse the motor, I don't find I need to with radially mounted super frames, unless I use the stainless frames I can pop in the extractor to take brood frames tangentially.
 #6461  by nealh
 15 Apr 2020, 10:05
Maybe I should think about going electric ?
Still using an old manual 9 frame radial, paid £20 quid for about 14 years ago. Although in very good nick a food grade nylon jobbie it is of E.H.Taylor vintage from Hert's.
 #6465  by Steve 1972
 15 Apr 2020, 12:53
nealh wrote:
15 Apr 2020, 10:05
Maybe I should think about going electric ?
Still using an old manual 9 frame radial, paid £20 quid for about 14 years ago. Although in very good nick a food grade nylon jobbie it is of E.H.Taylor vintage from Hert's.
When manually extracting it takes longer..last year I was extracting four to five supers every weekend and I was at it for hours..soul destroying is a understatement..now I have converted my extractor to electric I can set it away spinning while uncapping frames and placing them in the uncapping tray I have made..it will be twice as quick if not quicker..I also found it gets every last drop of honey out of the frames..the reason I found this out was I did a test run with eight supers that I manually extracted last year..spinning electric for five minutes got more out..I know it will have gathered moisture but it was still in the frames.