I built the Real Seeds seed aspirator a few weeks ago to sort a pile of lettuce seed I had.
Been meaning to post about it, so here goes.
I made the front and back from an offcut of 7mm ply.All the edges of the frame and the internal baffles are from off cuts of decking I had left over from another project - greenhouse tables, but that's another story.
The clear front panel is coreflute style polycarbonate, from the greenhouse louvres that never got installed.
I cut the back piece of ply to size, then laid out the position and size of all the baffles on to this in pencil, as accurately as I could.
Used a mitre box to cut the baffles to length, so I would get good square ends.
Used a tube of 'Nomoreskills'
[TM pending] (builders acrylic gap sealer) and laid a bead along each of the baffle and edge locations, then placed all the baffles and edges, checking they were at right angles to the back.
Then glued in the zigzag inserts. Carefully cut these to be the same length, since gaps between the ends of these and the front or back panels make places for the little seeds to lodge. not good for pure seed if you change from batch to batch.
Screwed the plastic panels on.
Instead of a wooden piece to fill the feed in spout area at the top of the zigzag, I used a piece of closed cell foam, which made a good seal, and allowed me to play with the feedin hole position and size without having to constantly replace the wood.
Ditto the chaff remover hatch at lower right - just stuffed a bit of trimmed foam in.
Changed the suction regulator a bit, just a panel of ply held onto the front with a screw through a slightly oversize screwhole, drilled. Used a hole saw to cut regulator holes in the front panel.
I also added some screwed on legs so it's freestanding, and I can slip bowls under the seed chute, and the chaff chute when i open it for cleaning.
I also used a piece of closed cell foam for the vacum tube connector hole, so it seals a bit better than a tube in the hole of the wood - and I didn't have a hole saw the right size.
I've used it on very light seed so far, lettuce and parsnip.
It's OK, but not spectacular. I've got limited seed, and so don't want to lose too much with the chaff, so you need a light hand on the suction controller.
It's also a bit hard to clean - I'm not keen on unscrewing it all the time to get the dust out, which I fear might harbour little beast eggs if I leave it uncleaned.
I reckon it's got a bit of an art deco appearance, I'm thinking of a colourful paint job...
Happy to provide more pics if anyone wants some.
I did have a bit of email correspondence with the guy who built it, who generously gave some advice to make it work better.
And it does need a clear front, you need to be able to see what's happening with the seed in the sorting column.
In retrospect, the time might have been better spent cleaning up the carport, and properly setting up a box fan and tarp, but it was fun to make.
Yet to try it on brassica,and carrot, my next two seed collections.
I made a few adaptions - the zigzag inserts are pieces of pre-formed moulding from the hardware store. I initially made these from small section stuff, with a sloping top, but horizontal bottoms, and it didn't work, so had to insert extra bits so there was a sloping top and bottom to the sections - it's about keeping the cross sectional area of the zigzag channel fairly constant, my initial design didn't do this. I was trying to save on materials...
