On July 4th-5th Colin, Daniel and I headed out to Babati - a more rural town about 3 hours west of Arusha. We wanted to get some field data for the jamming problem the shellers have been showing and it was just a good way to see the machine working with more than a few cobs in the workshop. After a long bus ride, we quickly found a guest house and explored the area. Since it was already evening by the time we got there and I wasn't feeling too well (although I love Tanzania, my stomach usually doesn't!) we went to bed early and left the next day for setting up and shelling. Tanganyika Farmers Association (TFA) let us borrow their already set up bike and found a willing farm about 15 minutes outside of town to let us shell some of their maize - you can imagine it'd be a hard decision ;) . By the time we were all set up, there was a crowd ready to do our work for us! Turns out, when you don't have any "toys," bikes and a new maize shelling machine are fun and interesting. Within an hour of shelling, we had about 6 jams where cobs were lodged in good right before the exit point.
Since then, we have been brainstorming ways to fix this problem and have recently made a new plate to insert in the front piece of the sheller. The only difficulty is being able to test on a large enough sample to make any conclusive results. Since it isn't harvest season yet in Arusha, it's necessary to continue going out to other villages who have their harvest a bit earlier (why we went to Babati).
Other than jamming, the biggest issue is complaints of thread ware, since if it occurs, the machine is completely unusable. It is very hard to pinpoint the problem because it could take maybe 30 sacks of maize or 1000 for any thread ware to occur! Jamming could be causing the thread ware or it may be machining in China. Since we're not here for much longer, Colin and I are trying to summarize all the things that need to be looked at and figure out the best ways to do solid testing when more corn is available.
Since then, we have been brainstorming ways to fix this problem and have recently made a new plate to insert in the front piece of the sheller. The only difficulty is being able to test on a large enough sample to make any conclusive results. Since it isn't harvest season yet in Arusha, it's necessary to continue going out to other villages who have their harvest a bit earlier (why we went to Babati).
Other than jamming, the biggest issue is complaints of thread ware, since if it occurs, the machine is completely unusable. It is very hard to pinpoint the problem because it could take maybe 30 sacks of maize or 1000 for any thread ware to occur! Jamming could be causing the thread ware or it may be machining in China. Since we're not here for much longer, Colin and I are trying to summarize all the things that need to be looked at and figure out the best ways to do solid testing when more corn is available.
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