The Pulper Works! Sort of.
6 October 2008
In the mood for some delicious 100% Kona
coffee? No problem, ordering from our website is easy, we ship it
right away and the coffee usually arrives within two or three days. We
ship coffee all the time and very rarely have any problems.
Other companies, such as the John Deere parts department, have much slower
shipping times. It takes two to three weeks for them to ship even tiny
parts that fit in an envelope. Why can we ship in two days yet it takes
them two weeks? I just don't get it.
Last week I was hopeful that I'd get the mower
fixed and get the new pulper working. The mower is still waiting for
parts but at least the new pulper is working... sort of.
I specifically asked for only two pickers the first day so I'd only have to
pulp six bags instead of 30. That was a good decision because those six
bags made an absolutely gigantic mess.
The first major problem was that I forgot to turn on the water to the
demucilager. That means that it filled with beans, got clogged, then shut
down the motor. The overload protection worked perfectly which means I
got the wiring correct. That's good because if I had it wrong I would
have destroyed my brand new pulper on the very first run. That would have
been bad.
Cleaning out the clogged demucilager was a messy job. There are sharp
edges and tight little corners. I don't have all the drains installed yet
so I was trying not to run the hose excessively. It didn't matter though,
I still ended up with a major flood.
The next big problem was the overflow out the end of the criba. It's
supposed to be just the bad beans but we were getting lots of good beans
too. Lots and lots of good beans. I tried to save as many as
possible but in the end, I'd guess a good $40 to $50 worth of good coffee was
thrown out.
The problem was the spacer plates inside the pulper. These plates are
used to adjust the flow rate through the pulper. When the pulper first
arrived I had noticed that the plates needed adjusting. Not only did they
need adjusting, they had actually been installed backwards. Unfortunately
I forgot to go back and fix them. Another coffee farmer pointed out the
problem to me so it should be all better now.
The third big issue is drainage. As I mentioned, I don't have all the
drains installed yet. I had hoped that the discharge auger would pump out
all the water along with everything else. It doesn't. The pulped
skins get augered out but the water pools inside the pulper, squirting out
every crack and making a huge mess all over the place.
I need to change the auger so it points down instead of up. Unfortunately
that means I have to fabricate some new stainless steel parts, drill new
mounting holes, move the pulleys, adjust the chains and basically rebuild the
bottom half of the machine. It's a big job so in the mean time I'm going
to install some temporary pipes to try to move all the dirty water away.
As frustrating as it is, I know it's normal to have to fiddle with machinery
like this before it works. I imagine that the Wright Brothers and Henry
Ford had a few setbacks with their machines too. My machine isn't quite
as complex and I know several other Kona coffee farmers that have been through
this process before. I repeatedly check out their machines and ask for
their advice.
It will take me awhile to get everything perfect but I'm confident I'll get it
all working good enough soon. Some of the major problems need to be
solved immediately because the entire picking crew is coming tomorrow.
This time I'll need to be ready for 30-40 bags instead of just six.
|
