THE BIG QUESTION
​How many pounds per hour can the machine buck?
The short answer – 200 to 300 lbs. wet or 30 to 75 lbs. per hour dry.
Now for the longer and more accurate answer.
We hate to quote pounds per hour because it is subjective. How wet are the plants, is it an indoor or outdoor crop, and how fast can you feed the stems into the machine
Wet Crops
To get 300lbs per hour you need to have wet plants with large branches and multiple stems. The T-800 will do it. Our sharp cutting dies handle the process well and our patented belt feed system is up to the task. In fact, the only time we have ever jammed a stem in the machine was while testing how large of plants we could process. You can run the machine near capacity if you are using it for extraction or visual appearance is not important. Even at high output, the T-800’s sharp stainless dies processes plants cleaner than machines utilizing flat dies that knock the buds off with brute force.
If you are going for maximum bud presentation value, break the plants down so 1-3 stems go through the machines at once. Expect 100-200 lbs. per hour for large plants and 50-100 lbs. for small plants. For the highest quality, break the plant down to individual stem. Indoor grown small “boutique” varieties may have lower numbers. Here, it comes down to how fast you can feed the plant into the machine. You can usually run the machine at full speed for wet plants. …or cranked to 11 in this case.
Dry Crops
Expect the plant to lose 50-75% of its weight in the drying process. To get 75 lbs. per hour you would be processing large plants with large buds and probably using it for extraction.
Because most growers bucking dry are looking for a refined product, plan to break down the plant more and possibly run the machine slower. The 20-30 lb. range will be more realistic. With small boutique plants, it could be under 10 lbs.
Additional Factors to Consider
1. Portability: The T-800 easily breaks down for transport in most cars. It does not require a truck or ramps to load.
2. Less down time: Because the belt feed has a large gripping area it pulls harder on the stem than any roller feed bucker. In the rare instance a stem jams, just use the foot pedal to release and pull it out. There is no need to turn off the machine and reverse the motor. Most users have never had to use the foot pedal. If you are stopping to unjammed plants, you are not bucking.
3. Preprocessing: The belt feed only needs 1.5” of bare stem to engage the belts. Roller-feed machines, need longer stems to grip the plant. The extra time needed to remove the bottom leaves by hand should be factored in.
4. Cleaning: On roller feed machines, plant residue can build up reducing the gripping power further. This occurs like how snow builds when rolling a snowball to make a snowman. You don’t want to stop the harvest to clean a machine.
The T-800 bucker maintains grip because most plant material falls off the belt as it changes shape over the pulleys. To clean it, just pop out the cassettes and soak them in warm diluted Simple Green for half an hour and scrub it with a plastic brush. In one instance, a client called because they used the machine daily for months and forgot what to clean it with. We don’t recommend this, but it was a great test.
For any questions, please give us a call, text us or contact us us at the link on the bottom of the page.
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