Thread: Southern Young Guns homemade fish scaler....instructions

Ok here ya go, I have had several people send me messages about building a scaler so I decided to take the time and explain how I did mine the best I could. Sorry if some of this is kind of vague. The pictures I have is of my test run scaler on wood in my garage, you need a aluminum or steel frame if you do yours. This is not my finished product, I do not have any pictures of it finished, i am on deployement in El-Salvador right now and cant get any. The only thing thats missing in these pics are the water fitting on the end of the copper pipe. I will explain where to put the water fitting in the directions below. Mine will do about 50 LARGE gills in about 15 mins. I cut in on, drink a beer and they are slick as eel poop when i open my drum. All the scales fall right down below the drum onto a screen that I can carry to the woods where I can toss the scales away

Materials needed:
1)Drum: I used a stainless beer keg from craigslist but it was a nightmare drilling all my holes and cutting. I would prefer wither aluminum or steel if I do it over.

2)Motor: I used a 3000 rpm belt sander motor but you can use whatever you can get ahold of

3) 30:1 gearbox: This is what will slow your motor down and make you get around the desired speed for turning the barrell. So basically it makes the 3000rpm motor only put out 30rpms per minute. My dad found one at work, I have no idea where to purchase these at

4) copper pipe 1ft longer than the length of your drum

5) pulleys with ball bearing center. (the inside dia of the ball bearing center must be the same as the outside dia of the copper pipe, i used 3/4". I got mine at Tractor Supply

6) The CORRECT fitting belt for your pulleys

The above listed are the things you MUST have, the other items needed can be substituted as needed. The basic principle of the scaler is to turn the fish, have them slide up the drum and then slide back down. The rubbing of the fish together is the main scaling action. If your fish are being thrown around like a laundy dryer your speed is too high and nothing will happen.

Step 1) get whatever drum you want and drill 5/8th holes all over the drum. drill enough holes so water can freely fall out of the drum and so there is enough holes that scales will not get backed up inside your drum. I drilled alot, the more the better. The holes also have a small part in scaling if you can somehow dimple them in so they create litte lips on the inside of the drum. This will speed up your scaling but just the fish rubbing against each other will do the trick as well.

Step 2) Cut out an opening to your drum, just get a grinder with a little cutoff wheel and cut out a square big enough to put your fish in, put a hinge and lock on the door and reattach it to the drum. Here is a pic of my drum and door.



Step 3) Find the center point on both ends of your drum, there are several ways to do this but make sure you are as close to dead center as possible. Drill out the center point to the same size as the copper pipe above, insert the copper pipe into the drum and center it, you should now have about 6" on each side sticking out. Slide the pulleys all the way down on both sides until they are in contact with the drum. Now, you need to attach the pulleys to the drum somehow, I just drilled holes through my pulleys and into through the drum and attached them with self locking hardware. Ok, now you should have your pulleys attached and CENTERED to your drum with your copper pipe running all the way through the drum. Remove your copper pipe and drill a line of 20 to 30 small holes, i drilled mine out to 1/8th". Reinstall the copper pipe with all the holes facing down. On one end of the copper pipe you need to install a water fitting so that a water hose can be hooked up to it, on the other end cap it off someway so water cannot come out the end. The small holes will act as miniature water hoses inside the drum and shoot high pressure water streams into the drum and onto the fish to help push out the scales

Step 4) You are pretty much done with the build, now you just have to use some redneck engineering and figure out how to build a stand to mount your drum so that you can get your motor to make your drum turn freely. The reason I used the pulleys with the bearing center is so that I could clamp the copper pipe down to the frame with U-bolts and the pulleys and drum will be the only thing rotating, also this way the water hose can be attached to the pipe and it will not twist as your drum rotates.


Motor and speed: Attach the motor and 30:1 gearbox together, and connect a pulley to the little shaft coming out of your gearbox. Now all that is left to do is attach the motor in the desired position on your frame. Now, put your belt around the pulley on the gearbox and arounf the pulley on the side of your drum. The belt must be tight for the drum to turn with a load of fish and not slip, before mounting your motor you should have already though of this and planned accordingly

NOTE: speed can be manipulated by putting either a larger or smaller pulley on your gearbox. This is where running your scaler with fish in it comes into play, it may take a few diff size pulleys on your gearbox before you find the right size to give you the best performance.



You are done! Just hook the water hose up to the water fitting on your pipe, throw your fish in, turn the water on, and turn on your electric motor, thats it. All of this can be modified to fit what YOU have available, this is just pretty much the basic concept. When you mount your motor to your frame that you build, I would recommend putting the motor above the drum so water doesnt damage it. The drum will not be rotating fast enough to sling water up to your motor, if it is your fish are probably flying around in the drum and not getting scaled properly. Here is one last pic of the whole setup.