MY LATEST DIY PROJECT

I've been following along with this whole conversation. I'm really looking forward to seeing if this works for you. I love seeing a project through from original problem to eventual solution! I'm glad you shared your conversation with us. (It's almost like being on an old fashioned telephone party line!)

milkmansdaughter said:

I've been following along with this whole conversation. I'm really looking forward to seeing if this works for you. I love seeing a project through from original problem to eventual solution! I'm glad you shared your conversation with us. (It's almost like being on an old fashioned telephone party line!)

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I'm glad you are liking it! It helps to bounce ideas off other people...it's just Mom and I back here and she just sits on the fringe of all my crazy DIY projects and watches, doesn't give much feedback other than supporting me in all that I do, which is plenty and enough.

I ordered the winch today after reading the reviews and watching reviews on YT..this winch is second in the line up of best winches of 2016 and all for a total of $17.77, free shipping. Not bad.

After reading what people are doing with this simple little 600 lb capacity hand crank winch, I think it will do the job and nicely. Can't wait to set this up and try it out on a chicken. Right now it's like a glass blower's furnace out there, not good weather for man or beast, so butchering will not be happening until things cool down a good bit.

The good thing about this winch is I plan to incorporate it into other jobs on the homestead....like hoisting deer into the skinning tree and winching heavy carts of firewood up the ramp onto the porch this winter.

Got my winch in the mail this weekend and am impressed with how heavy duty this thing is! For $17 bucks and change I guess I was expecting something a little more cheaply made, but his thing is one impressive piece of work....heavy and smoothly geared.

Can't wait to start designing my chicken shucker!

Got some of the components of the chicken shucker mounted and situated and skinned my first bird~one of the PR birds that keeps getting out of their enclosure, even after I clipped her wing today. She was the Chosen One for a run through on the chicken shucker.

I got to see the flaws in my system right away but it does pull the skin like I desired...just needs to be more of an even pulling, as chicken skin is not as tough as deer hide. It tore in one spot and then another, so we are working out the kinks in how to prevent that.

It did yield a carcass that was virtually feather free and I didn't have to use my hands to pull on anything, so the goal was achieved, but needs refining. And, man, was that a slick ticket! Crank a few times and that chicken ain't wearin' any clothes!!

I also tried a new gutting technique I saw on YT wherein you just cut across the spine right above the hips and pull the carcass open, much like one method of skinning a rabbit or squirrel. Easy to reach the lungs and easy to remove the guts without any way of poop squeezing out of the bowels as you remove them. I liked it, but again, I need to refine it so that I get a good rhythm with this all....but still a VERY fast butcher, even with fiddling with the shucker and the new method of gutting.

I think I'm getting there......

Pictures??

Not yet....but I'm going to go to a flea market tomorrow to see about getting some materials for maybe making a better system. Possibly devising my own winch that's not so heavy duty as this one...it's an overkill, really.

And, my son wants to make a wooden vise clamp instead of the huge metal vise I'm currently using.

It's a work in progress. I also need to devise a way that all the pulling of the hide isn't concentrated on one point but across the breadth of the hide or at least on two points equidistant to one another for a more even pulling so that the hide doesn't tear.

Found something to incorporate into the chicken shucker...one of my apple peelers. Today Eli and I worked on the design and are really close to finishing it. Can't wait!

I want to see this thing

Alas, Sumi, the chicken shucker design was a bust. Tried it yesterday and the components I wanted to use were not successful in creating enough torque to peel a chicken. The actual winch I ordered would do so, but I was hoping to scale down to something more lightweight than that, so was hoping to create a winch and pulley system with a large bait casting reel instead...not strong enough.

Then the apparatus I was using to hold the hide while pulling was also too fiddly, making it difficult for my arthritic hands to apply it quickly and smoothly.

The one successful portion was the mini vise we comprised from a C clamp for holding the neck while force was applied to the hide. I will keep that design as I go forward but my focus has changed from a winch system to an easier way to apply force for peeling the hide.

The winch I bought will be used for lifting and skinning deer this season and also will be using it to bring firewood up the ramp and onto the porch this year.

Back to the drawing board!

The neck clamp portion of the apparatus was mounted up on a tree today so I could use my own body weight to apply torsion to the hide for skinning. That worked VERY well and really revolutionized my processing, so I consider this a success. MUCH quicker, much cleaner carcass, and much easier on my hands and arms.

Eureka!!!