M
mrdizzle
right on rabbi, I love this machine. once the buds drys it looks exactly the same as hand done crystal wise. and the little stuff looks amazing. the urban grower needs to hold a bud up for longer than .3seconds next time
BELOW FRIGID
Member
Rabbi, would you have any decent shots of the trimmed herb? My reaper shoud be here any day now.
I'm decided on a Trim Reaper but can only find two retailers via Google. TrimScene and hippyhydro. Trimscene wants me to pay CA state tax even though I'm out of state and Hippyhydro is long ways away. Does anyone know of other sellers in Oregon or NorCal?
Also been looking for the manufacturer's site with no luck. Any idea who it is?
Thanks
Also been looking for the manufacturer's site with no luck. Any idea who it is?
Thanks
M
mrdizzle
any hydro store that sells AN can get it
Rabbi
Member
yep, if they sell Advanced Nutrients they can get it.
Would like to put in a word about the Aardvaark hand trimmer. Been using it for six years on my small/medium grow. The trimmer is basically a helical blade attached to an inline DC motor. The blade is inside a removable housing with a slit in the housing for trimming. The trimmer is connected to vacuum cleaner hosing. You need to connect the hose to a fairly powerful vacuum cleaner. I bought a VC specifically for trimming and leave the whole thing connected up permanently. BTW, the motor is run from a 12VDC adaptor.
Build-wise the Aardvaark is well-built; the motor is solid as is the trimming helix. The ONLY downside to this device is the gumming up inside the blade housing. This happens about twice/hour, but the cover is easily whipped off and using a blade and a damp cloth of isopropyl alcohol one can get some great finger hash and then the blade is rubbed with the cloth to clean it. For the smaller grower its not really that much of a hassle.
So how are the trimming results ? Well, I always remove the larger fan leaves before processing, so once you get used to handling the trimmer I can easily do a pound an hour. The trim is tight and appealing, and the trimmed material in the vacuum bag is also very potent - great for cookies or making hash. Its also a great smoke for beginners.
Everybody I know hates trimming, so to make it as hassle-free as possible I have a protocol, which goes like :
1. Get the gear ready. Plug in VC and trimmer. Make sure its clean. Prepare a stool/chair thats comfortable for your trimming posture. Protect the floor. Get a paper shopping bag to collect droppings. Have a blade, cloth and iso alcohol at the ready.
2. I usually plan on doing 2-3 hours work at a time. I therefore estimate the quantity I'll harvest to fit around that.
3. Buy a box of surgical gloves. Believe me, these are great for keeping the resin off your hands and are comfortable to work in for a couple of hours before they need changing.
4. I go out and harvest a quantity to be processed. I may cut one plant down completely branch by branch. I then immediately remove the large and not-so-large leaves using a good sacateurs. NB processing while the plant is still in vigor is much easier than if everything is limp.
5. I then start trimming them - again the fresher the material the better. In one hour I'll get a great trim on a pound of bud. I then hang it up on twine lines, have a little air circulating in about 20 deg. C. and then wait about 2 weeks for snappy stem time and you're done. Picking off the buds into a jar is a snap with tight buds.
6. I can normally get my harvest picked, trimmed and hung in a week using this method. We're talking about 10 pounds of bud here.
7. NOT for big commercial growers obviously !
Build-wise the Aardvaark is well-built; the motor is solid as is the trimming helix. The ONLY downside to this device is the gumming up inside the blade housing. This happens about twice/hour, but the cover is easily whipped off and using a blade and a damp cloth of isopropyl alcohol one can get some great finger hash and then the blade is rubbed with the cloth to clean it. For the smaller grower its not really that much of a hassle.
So how are the trimming results ? Well, I always remove the larger fan leaves before processing, so once you get used to handling the trimmer I can easily do a pound an hour. The trim is tight and appealing, and the trimmed material in the vacuum bag is also very potent - great for cookies or making hash. Its also a great smoke for beginners.
Everybody I know hates trimming, so to make it as hassle-free as possible I have a protocol, which goes like :
1. Get the gear ready. Plug in VC and trimmer. Make sure its clean. Prepare a stool/chair thats comfortable for your trimming posture. Protect the floor. Get a paper shopping bag to collect droppings. Have a blade, cloth and iso alcohol at the ready.
2. I usually plan on doing 2-3 hours work at a time. I therefore estimate the quantity I'll harvest to fit around that.
3. Buy a box of surgical gloves. Believe me, these are great for keeping the resin off your hands and are comfortable to work in for a couple of hours before they need changing.
4. I go out and harvest a quantity to be processed. I may cut one plant down completely branch by branch. I then immediately remove the large and not-so-large leaves using a good sacateurs. NB processing while the plant is still in vigor is much easier than if everything is limp.
5. I then start trimming them - again the fresher the material the better. In one hour I'll get a great trim on a pound of bud. I then hang it up on twine lines, have a little air circulating in about 20 deg. C. and then wait about 2 weeks for snappy stem time and you're done. Picking off the buds into a jar is a snap with tight buds.
6. I can normally get my harvest picked, trimmed and hung in a week using this method. We're talking about 10 pounds of bud here.
7. NOT for big commercial growers obviously !
De La Luz
Member
The Bonsai heros are excellent and seem to be available again at www.greenharvest.ca
Again, I swear by mine... at least three times faster than manual with GREAT scissor hash!!
mikeross
Member
I have read its very common to have that smell when its brand new. The solution was to use it. After the first use the smell subsides a lot. Depending on how big your harvest is you could probably eliminate that smell after the first use.
so who did you end up buying it from? Was the delivery stealth or did it show up in the original packaging?
I spent sometime sniffing it all over and feel like the smell is coming from the rubber beading they used to cover the raw metal edges. There is some smell from oil they used to lube for forming and cutting. Not much to be done about the beading except replacing it. I'm going to wash the whole thing down with alcohol to get rid of the oil and aluminum dust.
Have to say the workmanship is quite poor. The welding is horrible! I did better on my first try in high school. I'm going to tighten that up as I'm not sure it'll hold together. They better work on their QC!!
I picked it up from the closest hydro shop I could find (90 miles away) who will actually still deal with Advanced. Seems Advanced is losing retailers like I'm losing my hair (handfuls at a time, lol). It came to them through FedEx in original packaging. If you are looking for a source look at the Advanced dealers list and start calling - that's what I did.
I won't start with it for a few days yet as I'm in the midst of a Gravity/Snowstorm regime. I'll post results when I get started.
BELOW FRIGID
Member
I wiped mine down with white vinegar befor I used it, which seemed to help a lot. I then spayed it with non stick cooking spray as suggested and wiped off any excess it definitely made clean up a breeze. So far I am liking the Reaper but I only tested it it with one plant. Monday I will put it through the drill. The finished product looks much better than I thought it would. I got mine from hydro hippy and it came in the factory box. I gave him a call and let him know I was not happy about it, since he advertises on his sight "PLAIN BOX SHIPPING"
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Trim Reaper report: First short day yesterday. Worked on some widow and would say I'm giddy with the machine. Will take another day to refine the process to get the most out of it. Found myself doing, maybe, a bit more hand work than necessary. As has been said - I'm not dreading the trimming season for the first time in a loooong time.
Well, much after the fact I'll give a more complete review of the Trim Reaper.
I had said in an earlier post that I was 'giddy' after the initial runs on the TR. That faded as I started to get into the meat of the harvest. Two friends bought the TR after seeing mine so I started comparing their machines and experiences with it. What I found was three machines all assembled differently and none of them doing as good as I thought they should. The single greatest problem was in the action between the spinning 'blades' and the aluminum grate. When the cutting component was set in place the 'blades', under the effect of gravity, were pulled down/away from the grate. This obviously is not going to give the scissor like action that would get the job done the fastest.
So, believing it should do better, I tried several things to improve its performance none of which did much good. Then I went back to the differences in the assembly. My machine had three washers (1 steel 2 domed aluminum) and the nut holding the blades in the shaft. One flat thick steel washer against the gear head/blades/al washer/al washer. Then the moment of inspiration came to reassemble the stack taking advantage of the two domed washers. By putting one alum washer on first/blades/alum washer/steel washer/nut, the blades were pressed upward tight against the grate by the action of the blades between the domed washers. This was the ticket!! I went from needing 2 min to finish 1/2# down to 30-40secs. Not only that but the machine was now cutting whole leaves rather than beating them to a pulp. Definitely gave that scissor action - even sounded like 20 pairs of scissors.
As a comment on quality control one of my friends machines only had one alum washer and the other was assembled wacky.
Once I made the adjustments I became excessively happy with the TR!!!! I was able to handle my whole harvest single handed. It took the same amount of time (6-7 wks@10-12hrs/day) but I didn't have to pay or play with a crew. On the early cuttings I was able to rack 6#(wet)/day and toward the end it was more like 3/day.
As for achieving a nice looking product I found it necessary to scissor out the visible stems and crow feet. Then the machine was happy to shape everything really nicely. IMO the TR does multiply the work of trimmers by 1-2 times depending what you are cutting. I think it will continue to double the efforts of those on the scissors up to 3-4 people. At that number I think the machine would be running fairly constant and would cease to increase one's labor input.
Overall, I'm very happy with the trimmer and would definitely buy it again. As Tuggo said, 'I'll never go back.'
I had said in an earlier post that I was 'giddy' after the initial runs on the TR. That faded as I started to get into the meat of the harvest. Two friends bought the TR after seeing mine so I started comparing their machines and experiences with it. What I found was three machines all assembled differently and none of them doing as good as I thought they should. The single greatest problem was in the action between the spinning 'blades' and the aluminum grate. When the cutting component was set in place the 'blades', under the effect of gravity, were pulled down/away from the grate. This obviously is not going to give the scissor like action that would get the job done the fastest.
So, believing it should do better, I tried several things to improve its performance none of which did much good. Then I went back to the differences in the assembly. My machine had three washers (1 steel 2 domed aluminum) and the nut holding the blades in the shaft. One flat thick steel washer against the gear head/blades/al washer/al washer. Then the moment of inspiration came to reassemble the stack taking advantage of the two domed washers. By putting one alum washer on first/blades/alum washer/steel washer/nut, the blades were pressed upward tight against the grate by the action of the blades between the domed washers. This was the ticket!! I went from needing 2 min to finish 1/2# down to 30-40secs. Not only that but the machine was now cutting whole leaves rather than beating them to a pulp. Definitely gave that scissor action - even sounded like 20 pairs of scissors.
As a comment on quality control one of my friends machines only had one alum washer and the other was assembled wacky.
Once I made the adjustments I became excessively happy with the TR!!!! I was able to handle my whole harvest single handed. It took the same amount of time (6-7 wks@10-12hrs/day) but I didn't have to pay or play with a crew. On the early cuttings I was able to rack 6#(wet)/day and toward the end it was more like 3/day.
As for achieving a nice looking product I found it necessary to scissor out the visible stems and crow feet. Then the machine was happy to shape everything really nicely. IMO the TR does multiply the work of trimmers by 1-2 times depending what you are cutting. I think it will continue to double the efforts of those on the scissors up to 3-4 people. At that number I think the machine would be running fairly constant and would cease to increase one's labor input.
Overall, I'm very happy with the trimmer and would definitely buy it again. As Tuggo said, 'I'll never go back.'
I have been using Big Red Shredder for many yrs.It,s good for small grows and we can do a # every hour with two guys.These trimmers are indestructible...But anyhow I see a lot of ppl. complain about build up of resin and needing to stop to clean the blades/cutters on their trimmers.My experience is to use a squirt bottle filled with water and spray the buds prior to going thru the cutters.....they are wet anyhow so the extra water from the squirt bottle ain,t gonna do any harm...believe me...you,ll be surprised.
With Big Red we would have to stop every hour and clean the gum off the cutter bit...but after spraying the buds prior to trimming ..no more stopping to clean blade...Just try it on a few buds....you,ll be happy with the advice.....I discovered this when trimming outdoor w**d one day when it was raining and stumbled upon the fact that the extra wetness worked wonders.......good luck
jarff
With Big Red we would have to stop every hour and clean the gum off the cutter bit...but after spraying the buds prior to trimming ..no more stopping to clean blade...Just try it on a few buds....you,ll be happy with the advice.....I discovered this when trimming outdoor w**d one day when it was raining and stumbled upon the fact that the extra wetness worked wonders.......good luck
jarff
H
humboldtlocal
I found the same thing with the Twister Jarff. We figured this out after harvesting in the rain too. The bud stayed fresher so it could sit around longer before being run through the machine and the Twister could go hours longer between cleanings. It did not hurt the quality of the bud at all.
