I have finally gotten my husband to sit down with me and describe the steps to making a homemade plucker.  I first talked about it in the article, “Homemade Plucker.”  It made our life so easy while harvesting our Cornish Rock chickens.  For relatively little money, my husband made a machine that effectively and efficiently removed feathers.

Side view of the plucker.

Supply List

1-    4″ PVC pipe cap
one stick of 3/8″ all-thread
10-   10″ rubber tie down straps
4-    3/8″ washers and nuts
1/2″ electric drill
metal serpentine belt pulley with a bearing in the center
metal saw horse

Remove the metal hooks from the rubber tie downs.  Then cut the straps in half.  Find the center of your pipe cap and drill a 3/8″ hole.  Plan where to drill the holes for the rubber tie downs evenly spaced around the perimeter of the circle on the pipe cap.  After you mark the places with a permanent marker, begin by drilling two 3/8″ holes side by side.  Using a Dremel tool or die grinder, finish making your rectangular-shaped holes for the tie straps.  There will be twenty holes in all.  Slide the straps into place with the fat end on the inside of the cap.

Place a nut and washer on the all-thread about an inch from the end.  Slide the all-thread through the PVC pipe cap with the rounded end at the top.  Thread another washer and nut onto the all-thread and secure the cap in place.  On the other end of the all-thread, thread an additional nut and washer about six inches from the PVC cap.  Slide the pulley onto the all-thread.  Now secure it with a washer and nut.  The pulley is not necessary, but my husband used it to support the 3/8″ all-thread from rubbing the saw horse.

Anchor your drill to the metal saw horse with straps or weld a bolt into place.  Lane did the latter and threaded the drill into place.  Tighten the drill onto the all-thread.  Lane chose to keep the all-thread 2 feet long in order to keep any excess water from the scalding pot from getting the motor of the drill wet.  Plug it in.  Lock the trigger on your drill in the on position.

Remember to scald the birds first.  The hot water begins to loosen the feathers from the skin, which makes them easier to remove.  Hold the bird up to the plucker while it is moving.  Let the rubber straps do their job.  Try to keep your fingers out of the way.  Even if the plucker strikes your hand or fingers, you only feel a mild ouch.  The rubber fingers of the plucker work quickly and feathers will be flying.  They do not tear the skin or bruise the meat in any way, if the birds are properly scalded.

I hope these instructions are understandable.  My husband dictated them to me.  I personally don’t know the difference between a Dremel or die grinder much less how to use them.  If you have any questions contact me or leave a comment, and I will forward them to my husband.

Tags: chicken plucking, feathers, homemade plucker, how-to, inexpensive plucker, instructions

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 27th, 2011 at 10:07 pm and is filed under Homesteading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.