Corn Sheller, Help ID

This pile of parts was my Grandpa's corn sheller. It had been sitting in a corner of my uncle's shed for the past I don't know how many years. He says "you need a winter project, why don't you restore this?"

So... Anyone know what kind it is? The marking on the throat / top feed plate is C23 and the marking on the curved piece (what would ride next to the shelling wheel says C11.

Those numbers are meaningless to me....but just guessing, I'd say it is a Hocking Valley. I have one but it's flywheel has rounded edges.

I rebuilt 2 corn shellers from about that condition. One is an IH....it has an angle iron and sheetmetal body....all the sheetmetal had to be replaced.

On the old Hocking Valley I rebuilt, about 2/3's of the wood was bad....I saved the legs and little else. I bought pillow block bearings to replace the worn out cast iron bearings which were egg shaped. Source the pillow blocks on ebay, they run about $10 each. Once everything is remounted in those ball bearing PB's, the sheller will run smoother than it ever did before! Be every careful with the throat spring....if it breaks you're up schitt creek unless you can find a blacksmith to make another. Don't use plywood or pine for the sheller body. No more than it takes, spend a few dollars and get some hardwood...oak or hard maple are ideal to build the body from.

I have four old shellers...a JD, New Idea, IH and the Hocking Valley. It was a passing fancy I indulged in a few years back. Not worth the room they occupy unless you want to feed a few chickens..or of course, save something that belonged to some ancestor.

Thanks for the info. From what I can tell, it was mostly wood. Held together with long bolts / threaded rods. I have what's left of the legs and the side wood pieces, and can see where the rods/bolts would have gone through.

You may notice some of the new wood in the photos. My uncle was also nice enough to give me some new wood to do the restore with - some home sawn cherry! Figure that should be good enough...for looks anyway.

Hi Matt,
Several years ago I restored a wooden corn sheller just like yours. My box was fine except the four legs were four different lengths. I had a custom furniture shop cut the bad off the legs and put new hard rock maple in its place. All the metals parts were great. The numbers that are on the parts are the casting numbers. Mine was put together with old hand forge bolts and nuts. There was some pin striping and had a painter repaint the pin striping using the same colors. The sad note is there was no name stenciled on the side of the wooden box. I continue to research the sheller and found to be a Hocking Valley too. As for the bearings, mine were egg shaped too so I melted out the old babbit bearings and repoured new ones. Becareful though. It runs very smooth. I still have not tryed to stencil Hocking Valley on mine. If you would like a couple pictures. Let me know. When I finished the box, I put a light clear coat on the out side and where the corn would touch the inside, I put linseed oil. Becare with the spring. It will be heavy when your done.

Spring? What spring? The one on the infeed throat? I hope there aren't any other springs?

I would greatly appreciate some pictures when you have a chance. I have not yet been able to find any picture on the web that I think would look anything like I've got. Now that I have two votes for a Hocking Valley, I've got some more checking to do.

Thanks much!

The cherry will be extra fine!

I couldn"t save the bearing castings on my HV....they were broke on one side and so wallowed out on the other...I tossed them. If yours are salvageable, by all means, save them. I hate to think how many bushels of corn this sheller has done to wear out the bearings....even without oiling them!

The cranks were missing on three of the four I rebuilt and so, I motorized them. Hand feeding is still slow....but they"ll shell the corn as fast as you can feed them....and that motor never gets tired...hehe!

The bearings actually look pretty good. I'm hoping I can save them.

I've got the crank, but the handle of the crank is completely bent; I think it may have been handmade on the farm anyway, looks a lot like a bolt.

I've got a couple of small kids that will think it's neat to turn the crank.

I couldn't help but put my two cents in here. I have a small metal sheller that you can only turn by hand. I have it set up on a little buggy with a box to catch the shelled corn in that i carry to all the tractor shows i go to. I let kids shell corn with it. I've been doing this for ten years now. The kids love being able to put hands on at any thing. The neat part about my corn sheller is that it belonged to my grandfather. While my son and grandkids were here last month i got them to shell corn on it. That makes 5 generations of people who have used this sheller. I was at a show in tn and there was a gentleman there who had a 16 foot trailer with "step" like stands on it . tThere were 4 or 5 rows of steps on both sides and every square inch of it was covered in hand turned corn shellers and every one was different. He had one just like mine. He could tell me the name on every one of them except the one like mine. there isn't the first marking of any kind on it. If you'll want to have fun at a show carry a corn sheller and some corn with you and let the kids play. You'll have to limit the kids to one a piece because some mean little boy will sit there and shell your whole bucket up if you aren't careful.

Thanks for the advice. I know my kids really like when they can get into the action at tractor shows. Most stuff is so "hands off" that it's nice to see that some of the stuff can actually be used.