Bag-A-Nut’s Pecan Sorting Table: An Interview with Head Engineer, Silas Dudley

Silas Dudley has designed many of Bag-A-Nut’s products and it’s easy to see how much thought and effort goes into those designs. One of his latest projects has been the Sorting Table Pro. Let’s find out more about his latest product with an interview.

Why did you develop the sorting table?

“We made the Sorting Table Pro to save people time and money.” Silas goes on to explain how Bag-A-Nut harvesters work, specifically, the tine assembly design. They are a series of wheels with plastic tines placed tightly next to each other in order to squeeze onto the objects you’re trying to pick up. “Those tines do a really good job of picking stuff up.” Rocks, sticks, good nuts, bad nuts, leaves, and even trash are all collected by the tines and dropped into the harvester’s basket.

Many people are just picking up nuts to remove them, like acorns from under oak trees or cleaning hickory nuts off the driveway. They don’t care if they’re collecting debris along with the nuts because they’re going to dump everything out. If you’re collecting a cash crop like pecans, you’ll want to sort good nuts from the bad ones and have a way to remove the debris from the nuts so you can sell them and make some money. In a nutshell, Silas made this sorting table for those who want to make a profit from their orchard. It’s another tool in the lineup to help them keep most of the profits in their own pocket.

What are the main features?

The new Sorting Table Pro has a removable flat grate that’s used as an inspecting area, a vibrating electric motor, removable legs, and a hitch bar so you can attach it to a vehicle. It also has a chute on the back that will help collect the harvest, and a bag hoop you can attach. All these features are designed to be very simple so you can easily maintain and store the unit.

Why removable legs?

“We designed this sorting table to have removable legs for a few reasons.” This feature gives you options for setting it up to use and for storing. For example, if you want to set up the table in your garage or driveway, you can put the legs on and it’ll be right at countertop height, operating as a standalone unit. If you want to take it out to use in your orchard, you can remove the legs and attach the hitch bar so you can put it into the receiver on the back of a vehicle. That way you can move it around the orchard and work under your trees.

Why a vibrating motor?

“We found when we were testing different designs if we could add a little vibration to the grating it really helps speed up the process of removing debris from the nuts. As far as powering it, standard 110 stuff you find in your house, or your garage is going to run it just fine. If you do take the sorting table out to the field, you can get an inverter. You can find these all over the place for sale. They’re very cheap and they’ll convert your vehicle’s 12-volt system to 110 so you can run the sorting table in the field.”

Why the flat grate?

“I ended up on the flat grate design because when I first started making sorting tables I was using ramps and chutes and I realized the nuts would go by too quickly and if I tried to stop them to really look them over, they would pile up and get so thick I couldn’t actually see them.” The flat grate design is better for taking your time while sorting nuts.

Why parallel bars?

A lot of early prototypes had wire mesh, but Silas quickly realized wire or mesh tight enough to stop a pecan from falling through also stopped all the debris he was wanting to separate from the nuts. “When I started building prototypes with parallel bars, I instantly saw a decrease in the amount of time it took to get that debris away from the desired nuts.” Long open gaps you see on the table do exceptionally well at letting unwanted debris fall to the ground, especially when dealing with those long needle-like limb tips that come off pecan trees.

Is the grate removable?

“Yes, the grate is removable. The idea behind that is to make handling and storage of the table an easier process.” When you set up the table in your barn or attach it to the back of a vehicle, it’s way easier to move when the grate can be removed.

How does the chute work?

The chute is located on the rear of the grate. Once you have all the desired nuts on the grate, lift it up and dump them into the chute. When they’re in the chute, gravity forces them to one side. There’s a hand operated gate on that side. The gate and chute work with gravity allowing the nuts to fall into a container of your choice, like a five-gallon bucket, a bag, or a bin. A bag hoop is available that bolts to the lower end of the chute for the bag option.

What can I expect to sort in an hour?

“I get asked this a lot, but I always hesitate to give an answer because there are so many variables that can affect your productivity.” Things like how motivated you are, how healthy you are, how many nuts have dropped that year are all factors to look at. “If I had to pick a number, just from my experience, when I was building these tables I was putting about 75 lbs. an hour through the sorting process. That year the trees were doing mediocre. We didn’t prep all that well.” Silas continues to explain that during a better year when the prep work was done well, there would be less debris to sort through. He could easily sort 100 to 120 lbs. an hour. 75-120 lbs. is a good range to expect, depending on your situation.

Is it easy to maintain?

“Maintenance should be a breeze on this thing.” It does have a vibrating motor, so you’ll periodically want to check it for loose nuts and bolts. There are no grease points, and the motors are sealed, so at the end of the season just wipe it down and make sure to store it out of the weather. We know people don’t want to spend a lot of time maintaining and tuning up these products because a lot of our customers are just hobby farmers. If something were to break, please go on our website or give us a call to order new parts.

Who would benefit from the sorter table?

“Our customers are typically small orchard owners who see a lot of variations in their trees’ productivity from year to year and can’t justify, or don’t want to maintain commercial equipment. If that’s you, I think you could really benefit from one of our sorting tables. They’re relatively cheap when you compare them to commercial cleaners and separators and they’re way easier to maintain and store. Most importantly it gives you, the small orchard owner, a chance to keep more of that profit in your own pocket.”

Check out the Bag-A-Nut Sorting Table