Hi everyone,
Since I live in Australia, I have been testing many different Acacia. This involves drying out the plant matter, chopping it up, and then blending it in batches.
Using standard kitchen blenders is failing pretty badly.
They break very easily, largely due to the plastic connections between the motor and the metal blades.

Does anyone know of any products which are durable for this type of work?
Additionally, the kitchen style blenders do not grind the plant matter to anywhere near the the powedered Mimosa or Confusa that can be purchased.
I am worried that this added surface area is causing some failed attempts to extract, but I am unsure...
What tools are used by these companies to generate the powdered products?
I`d consider investing if the price is not...well, insane.
Cheers.

coffee grinders work well.
as does the magic bullet

hmmm my coffee grinder could barely fit anything near the size that it initially starts out at (or even after a first or second pass in a kitchen blender)... *shrug* maybe some grinders are better than others, and have faaar bigger openings...
mm Magic Bullet reviews worry me a bit :/ http://www.productreview...m.au/p/magic-bullet.html

I too, live in Adelaide, and I too, would like to find a good method for powdering bark.
I tried using a few coffee grinders and putting small amounts of dried bark in at a time, all broke down. (The blades bent etc)...

I've had a bit of success using the Kambrook 600W blender but the product reviews on it aren't too good. It tends to smoke up so I'll blend it in short periods. Gets the job done.

i usually dry either in the sun or oven at 60 degrees and then chuck em in the blender.. then when its reduced in size i run it through the coffee grinder sometimes. i don't bother powdering the material a lot of the time long as its fairly fine consistency it'll be fine - i've extracted from whole fresh phyllodes before with no dramas

My blender broke too, not that it was working.
I use a pressure cooker pot, and heavy iron bar, as a large scale, mortar and pestle.

If you can't successfully powder it, you can take whatever sized chunks of bark you have, soak them, then freeze the whole thing. As the ice crystals expand and burst the cell walls of the plant, it should help you get the goodies out.

In general, I think freezing plants prior to extraction is a simple way to get more out of the plant.

Also, if you're doing a lye extraction, you can let everything soak for a couple days in the lye to break up the plant more for you. SWIM did both of these things with an Acacia confusia rootbark extraction (soaked in water, froze, then soaked in lye before doing the first pull) and it worked quite well.

Or just use phyllodes.. Wait untill dry and brake in your hands..
A magic bullet should be fine for anyone experimenting or extracting for personal use tho.

A tip tho is while you have fresh material, chop it with the sharpest scissors you have to the smallest possible pieces..before you dry it out. Then you won't jam your blender when it comes to getting it finer

Herb grinders are made for the commercial processing of Chinese herbs. Some resemble a giant coffee grinder and come in a couple of sizes. I know of sources in the US (presently Mayway is out of stock) but it seems likely that a supplier exists much closer to you?

"powdering machine", "herb grinder" and "hammer mill" are useful search terms.

Examples of commercial devices:
http://www.healinglamp.com/grinders.htm
http://www.mayway.com/po...ing-machine-dl-6-oz.html
http://www.mayway.com/po...achine-d3v-10-11-oz.html


Mark at JLF described adding a chute and modifying the carburator on a lawnmower so that it could be run upside down for grinding Desmanthus roots. He described it as being dangerous to use which does not sound surprising.

meat grinder would work well, just a thought.

I think it has worked the best going from a garden shredder - blender - coffee grinder - flour sieve - coffee grinder









From my experience slightly shredded bark will still work but not as good as powdered or as close to as possible.

Pressure cookers have higher temps and allow you to lyse the cell more which can help in the situation.

In either case I find that it is best to use a flour sieve to seperate the powder from the shredded fibre and cook the fibrous stuff in the pressure cooker.

P.S. I go from blender on 1 minute then put all of that into a coffee grinder for 30 seconds and you end up in the clear, make sure you have good blenders and grinders though because they can go out the window quick!

I have personally found that for big, whole chunks of bark that an electric planer works wonders! Any home improvement store will have one for sale. Here in the states a new one runs around $100-120.

Just be careful with this method that you don't plane a chunk of your arm or your hand off!