Feather attachment for a drill and how to make it yourself

Rural residents, as well as farm owners, often wonder how to simplify the process of plucking poultry. A pen-removing attachment for a drill was invented specifically for such purposes. If you need to pluck one or two carcasses, then there is no point in buying such a device, but when you have to handle more than a dozen birds, then it will be difficult to do without a special device.

Feather-removing nozzles for plucking poultry have the form of a drum made of various types of steel (less often plastic). Beating fingers are installed on the outer part of such a drum. The hammer finger is a rubber base that has a ribbed or grooved shape. The different lengths of such fingers indicate what type of birds the device is intended for.

Appearance of the pen removal attachment for the drill

This is interesting! The plucking attachment has not only different lengths of beating fingers, but also their number.

Such a device is called a nozzle because it is only a working body. This organ is driven by a drill or screwdriver. Screwdrivers are rarely used for such purposes, since they have an insufficient number of chuck rotation speeds. The speed of obtaining the final result depends on the number of revolutions.

Components of the nozzle

The length of the beating fingers indicates what species of bird they are intended for. The sizes of rubber fingers for removing feathers from poultry or wild birds are:

For small birds - 5 cm
For large carcasses - from 9 cm

The number of fingers on the drum can vary significantly and range from 12 to 24 pieces. The larger the carcass, the longer the beating fingers should be. Thanks to the feather removal attachments on the drill, the plucking procedure becomes easy and quick.

Types of plucking attachments

Drill attachments for plucking poultry are divided into two main types. These are nozzles with finger sizes up to 5 cm and from 9 cm. For plucking small poultry, nozzles with finger sizes of 5 cm are used. If you need to remove feathers from bird species such as geese or turkeys, then they will need devices with fingers no smaller than 9 cm

Types of kicking fingers

You can use not only attachments for plucking poultry, but also special machines. These machines are barrel-shaped with the punching pins located inside. The device is driven by an electric motor, and the closed walls of the product eliminate the possibility of scattering feathers throughout the workplace.

This is interesting! In the process of plucking carcasses with drill attachments, a drawback is observed such as the spread of feathers over the entire circumference. To eliminate such a negative effect, it is recommended to carry out work in a closed room.

Feather pickers or stationary poultry pluckers

The production produces pluckers, both stationary and attachments. The cost of stationary ones, called feather removal machines, is much more expensive, so it makes sense to buy them if you have to process several dozen carcasses every day.

Preparing for plucking

How easy it is to pluck a duck depends on its age. The best time for slaughter is 60-70 days. By this time the bird has fledged, but the flight feathers are not yet visible. To make it convenient to remove them, it is recommended to wait until they grow to 10-15 cm. But you shouldn’t wait more than 10 days; if you miss time, it will be more difficult to pluck the feathers - stumps will remain on the skin, worsening the appearance of the carcass, and the meat will no longer be it tastes so good.

If it was not possible to slaughter a duck in the optimal time, it is better to wait and slaughter the bird after the juvenile molt, when the young feathers have grown to a length convenient for plucking.

Preparation for plucking involves properly slaughtering a duck:

12-16 hours before slaughter, the bird is not given food - only water.
On the last night, the duck is kept isolated from the herd, with the lights on.
The bird is killed with a blow to the skull.
After hanging the bird by its legs, the throat is cut. After 10 minutes, when the blood has drained, the carcass is ready for plucking.

How to make a poultry plucking attachment with your own hands

Improving such a unique tool as a drill has no limits. Every year its capabilities only expand, thereby making life easier for people. Attachments for drills are sold in specialized tool stores, but it is almost impossible to find feather removal devices there. Such devices can be purchased in agricultural stores or online.

The easiest and cheapest way to use feather removal attachments on a drill for plucking poultry is to make them yourself. The advantage of this solution is ease of manufacture and low investment. You only need to buy one important part - the pins. Their number and length are selected depending on the type of bird. You can buy them separately in any quantity, and their price varies from 15 rubles per piece.

Accessories for making your own nozzle

Making feather attachments for drills and screwdrivers with your own hands is done as follows:

The nozzle is based on a piece of plastic sewer pipe. The diameter of the pipe does not play a big role, but the optimal value is 60 mm
You need to drill holes in the pipe, the diameter of which depends on the size of the fingers (usually 20 mm). You can drill holes in a chaotic sequence or three after two
The end parts of the pipe must be covered with wooden circles. After cutting them out according to the pipe template, you need to drill a hole in the center with a diameter of 8 mm.
The central hole is necessary in order to place the rod inside. A bolt with a length of 10 cm is used as a rod. Its length depends on the size of the pipe used as a drum
Using a bolt with nuts, the wooden bases of the nozzle are secured. First you need to install the fingers on the pipe in the drilled holes.
To prevent the plastic pipe from falling off the wooden circles while the drill is running, you need to additionally secure it with self-tapping screws
The protruding part of the bolt is the shank, which is fixed in the tool chuck. For convenience, you can remove the threads using an emery machine.

Homemade device on the instrument

The result is a homemade device that can be used to quickly pluck a chicken or duck at home.

Similarly, you can make from available materials not only an attachment for a drill, but also a stationary machine for plucking poultry. A drum from a washing machine is used as the base, and the device can be driven into rotation by an old medium-power electric motor in the arsenal.

This is interesting! When making a plucking machine with your own hands, you must definitely select the optimal number of engine revolutions, since rapid rotation of the drum will lead to damage to the carcass.

Homemade plucker from a washing machine with your own hands

Subtleties of quick plucking

Useful rules for plucking:

You should not slaughter a duck during the molting period. Pull the feathers of a live duck; if they are easily removed, the bird can be slaughtered. During molting, the rods are very difficult to remove.
After slaughter, the carcass is placed in a cool place - cellar, garage, refrigerator. The optimal temperature is +5 °C. The fat will harden in 2-3 hours, and the meat, when dried, will be more aromatic - due to the evaporation of excess liquid.
It is better to do plucking in the yard - there is too much debris from the process. Prepare containers - for large feathers, for small ones and for down. Sorting down feathers during plucking saves time. The most convenient way to pluck feathers is to sit on a chair with feather boxes between your legs.
Feathers are plucked in a certain order, first from the tail and wings, followed by the sternum and back. If the slaughter is traumatic, without bloodletting, they start from the back, then pluck the stomach, shoulders, wings, and tail.
Large feathers are pulled in the direction of growth, and small ones can be pulled in any direction - as is more convenient.
The movements must be confident; if you pull the feathers smoothly, you can tear the skin. Pull the feather in small bunches.

Advantages of plucking devices

The main advantage of the products in question is the ability to quickly and easily obtain finished carcasses without feathers. Such devices do not have a negative effect on meat, so they can be used for any type of poultry.

There is no need to specifically buy a drill or screwdriver if you need to remove feathers from poultry. Any rotating mechanism, such as an electric motor, is suitable for such purposes. The disadvantage of using an electric motor is that it cannot be moved. This disadvantage is also an advantage, since during operation the plucked carcass can be held with both hands.

Stationary type of plucker with electric motor

Making a pinching device is not difficult. If such a task is set, then you need to start implementing it by ordering a certain number of nails. It is recommended to order fingers with a reserve so that during operation of the nozzle they can be replaced if necessary.

Preservation of fluff

Down and feathers are valued as raw materials. The procedure for preparing fluff:

Rinse the fluff in warm water, adding a little washing powder.
Rinse the fluff in cold running water.
Squeeze out the water.
Place the down in a fabric bag and hang to dry. It is advisable to hang the bag in the sun.
Stir the fluff periodically to prevent it from rotting or caking.

To wash feathers, soak them in a soapy solution for 30 minutes.

Manually plucking a duck is a labor-intensive and painstaking process that requires a certain skill. The condition of its skin, the taste of the meat and even its shelf life depend on how correctly the bird is plucked.

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Ways to speed up the feather plucking process

Immediately after the appearance of such devices, people began to think about how to speed up this process. It is because of this that attachments began to be used on various household devices and appliances, such as electric drills, screwdrivers, hammer drills, and knife sharpeners.

Do-it-yourself attachments for plucking poultry are made by many manufacturers. The operating principle of this device is no different. The difference between nozzles from different manufacturers lies only in the length of the device itself, its width, as well as the length and number of rubber fingers.

Plucker DuckMaster

The first craftsmen to develop such a mechanical device, which makes it possible to quickly carry out the process of removing feathers from an animal’s body, were Krasnodar residents. The Dak Master attachment for plucking poultry is a unique development of Krasnodar engineers. The mechanical device of these scientists can quickly cope with the task of removing feathers and down from chicken, duck and other poultry. The de-feathering process will not be affected in any way by the age or size of the carcass. As with other baits, the only difference in plucking will be the time spent on an older, larger bird carcass.

How long does it take to pluck

To show the clear advantage of the bait, we can refer to the time it will take to remove feathers from various birds. Let's start with the smallest birds. For example, this device will process a small chicken in about 10 seconds. For a bird such as a quail or dove, it will take a little more, only about 30 seconds. Larger birds, such as broilers, will be left without feathers in a minute, a maximum of one and a half. The poultry plucking attachment can handle a duck in about a couple of minutes. For such results, you don’t even need to pre-steam the specimen. A larger bird, for example, a goose will be plucked in 2.5 minutes. For large turkeys this unit will take about 3 minutes. A DIY poultry plucking attachment can handle even a bird as large as an ostrich. It will, of course, require a little more time, about 7 minutes.

What are the advantages of the nozzle?

The attachment for plucking poultry does not have a very large list of advantages, but each item on the list is quite significant.

The first and most significant advantage is that there is no need to soak poultry in hot water before plucking. The attachment performs well in conditions of dry cleaning of birds from feathers and fluff.
The second and no less important point is the preservation of the presentation of the bird after plucking. During the process of removing feathers, the device does not touch or tear the skin of the animal.

It cannot be considered an advantage, but it is still worth noting that the average price of this product ranges from 2,000 to 3,000 thousand rubles. This amount is considered quite acceptable, given the degree of usefulness of the product in agriculture or hunting.

Where and for how much can I buy the nozzle?

It is best to purchase a DakMaster mechanical attachment on certain trusted sites. There are online store sites on the Internet that have been selling this type of product for a significant period of time, amounting to more than 5 years. For those who want to purchase a high quality mechanical attachment from Duckmaster, you need to be careful. The thing is that due to the great popularity of this brand, many fake sites have appeared on the Internet that sell low-quality goods. Most often, they can be identified by the name of their products. The original name of the quality product is DuckMaster. Fraud sites sell products with the name DukMaster. As you can see, the difference is only in one letter. Another significant difference between counterfeit products and high-quality ones will be their cost. It is clear that a fake will cost much less so that it will be bought faster. Therefore, it is also important to pay attention to the price tag of the product and not believe that the cost is too low.