User’s Manual

Your Thousand per Hour™ machine and system is pretty much ready to roll out of the box. You will need to make some minor adjustments to tailor your machine to your installation, but other than that, it is plug and play.

Identifying Parts

There are five basic parts to your Thousand per Hour™ system. They are:

  • The Shake Cradle – What you see above including a vibration motor
  • The Standby Cradle – Same as a Shake Cradle only no vibration motor
  • The Blunt Plate – Holes custom cut to the paper(s) you work with
  • The Funnel – The clear plastic which secures the feedstock on the blunt plate
  • The Deadman Switch (aka momentary on foot pedal)

Both cradles have four height adjustment screws, one in each corner.

Viewed from the bottom – you do not need to turn the cradle upside down to make adjustments

Viewed from the top

Each blunt plate is custom cut for the papers you use. Every manufacturer has subtle differences in their tapers and crutch styles. There is no “standard”. The tapers are machined in the plate with six decimal place accuracy so they exactly fit the taper of the paper. We taper the holes in the plate to help minimize spillage & eliminate blow by. There are 512 holes in the large machine, 128 in the small machine.

The plastic funnel provides a backstop so you can be a little more assertive when working your feedstock towards the edges and corners. The seal helps keep spillage to a minimum.

The dead man switch allows you to bump the vibration motor while keeping both hands free to spread out your feed stock

Plugging In

Once you have established where in your facility you wish to set up your work station, set the machine in place, unwrap the cord to the vibrator and connect it to the foot pedal. Plug the foot pedal into any wall socket.

Make sure the vibration motoris turned on.

You will want to have all of these cords safely tucked out of the way so they don’t interfere with the workspace. Make sure the foot pedal switch is foot accessible.

Set the Plate Height of the Shake Cradle

The load plate is a sliding stop. The pop up plate is a hard stop. The goal of this adjustment is to have the hard stop of the steel engage the paper just before the sliding stop of the plastic does. The correct setting is so the plate is level with all papers just barely below the top surface of the plate and all tips resting on the surface of the pop up plate.

You need to lower the plate until they touch.

There are four independently operated height adjustment screws. These screws are located just inside the towers of the cradle and are accessed from the bottom.

There is a wing nut underneath acting as a lock. The head of the screw is the adjustment mechanism. No tools are necessary, you do not need to turn the cradle upside down. Once you loosen the wing nut, the height adjustment screw spins freely and easily.

Rest the blunt plate on a flat surface with at least a dozen or so holes open to the air below. Drop a single empty blunt into any open hole and let it slide to a stop. It should come sliding to a stop 1mm – 2mm below the top surface of the plate. You may need to give the top of the paper a little tap to set it. Measure the distance from the bottom of the plate to the tip of the crutch. Make note of this number. This measurement is the distance between the bottom of the blunt plate and the top surface of the pop up tray. (Note: Be sure to measure from the top of the pop up tray, not the surface of the shake cradle)

With the pop up tray resting in the cradle, loosen the wing nut underneath. Adjust the bolt head underneath so the distance from the surface of the pop up plateto the tip of the nylon nut equals the measurement you just took.

The pop up tray is the one with holes. The cradle itself is lower. Be sure to use the tray, not the cradle as your measuring spot.

Once that distance is set, tighten the wing nut on the bottom. Set the remaining three posts in the same manner.

Check your measurements. Correct if necessary.

Not quite. In this picture, the sliding stop engaged before the hard stop of the pop up tray. You need to lower the blunt plate a wee bit more so the tips of the crutch rest gently on the surface of the pop up plate.

It is advisable you check your work before starting a complete loading of the blunt tray. Do this by dropping a few blunts into the corners and a few in the middle. If all crutches touch the pop up tray in all corners and in the middle while at the same time all the tops are barely below the surface of the plate, then your adjustment is correct.

Set the Height of the Stand by Cradle

You set the height of the stand by cradle the same way you set the height of the shake cradle. The difference is you set the stand by cradle plate height a little bit lower than the shake cradle. Generally speaking, you will want the blunt plate height in the stand by cradle to be such so that more or less ¼” of paper is sticking up above the surface of the blunt plate.

How to Operate the System

  1. PREPARE YOUR FEEDSTOCK. Feedstock preparation is the most important part of this operation. If your feedstock is not adequately prepared you WILL NOT be pleased with the results. The only way this machine works is with properly prepared feedstock. Some considerations for proper preparation are:
  • Proper curing ( ~ 10% Moisture Content) - Material that is too moist tends to be quite sticky and is more likely to clump. Clumping material will not go down the hole and if it does, it tends to clog just above the crutch making for tedious final QC.
  • Proper screening - Material should be screened to a maximum of 1/8” screen. Keep leaf veins and stem pieces to an absolute minimum. Leaf veins and stem pieces will clog the blunt leaving gaps in the fill again making for a tedious final QC.
  • We have seen a lot of success with the Neo-Farms Shredder/Screener. When using this shredder/screener, don’t over whip. You are looking to cream this feedstock. That which isn’t screened can be set aside for blasting.
  1. Place the blunt plate into the cradle. It is designed to fit snugly but still lift cleanly and easily out of the cradle.
  2. Load the empty blunts into the plate.
  3. Place the plastic funnel on top of the cradled load plate.
  4. Measure out your feed stock. We would recommend about 620 grams for a gram roll, 310 grams for a half gram roll.

Measuring the feedstock in advance helps assure an even distribution of material in the cones and a higher probability of accurate weights during final QC.

  1. Work the feedstock over the entire face of the load plate while periodically bumping the dead man switch with your foot. Properly prepared feed stock will quickly drop into the holes and fill the blunts. When you get to the edges and the corners, use the funnel to help you work the material.
  2. Once you have worked the feed stock into the holes, hold the foot petal down for 15-20 seconds. This final shake will set the material down into the crutch. Operator experience is a critical part of this final step. Each strain is different and each strain will require different shake times.
  3. If you have a standby cradle, remove the entire blunt tray by lifting on the handles on each side of the pop up tray and then place the entire assembly into the standby cradle. The plate height of the standby cradle should be adjusted so that when the blunt tray is sent inside the cradle, the fill level of the cones should be flush with the plate surface. This will leave more or less 1/4” of paper sticking above the plate surface. You do not need a standby cradle to do this. It just makes it convenient. You can simulate a standby plate by sliding two 20” strips of ¼” plywood (or some similar material) between the pop up tray and the cradle.
  4. The first time you do this process, you will want to do a certain level of final QC on every blunt just to be sure. You will check the crutch, weigh it and close it off. As you gain familiarity with the operation of the machine, you should find that sweet spot where you can pack the crutch and since you weighed feedstock out in advance, you know all of your weights will come in within specifications. When that happens, we have discovered …
  5. There are two ways to close off. You can use a soft edged piece of plastic or a spatula head and wipe the surface of the plate folding the excess paper of each joint over on itself. Or, you can just poke your fingers down into the hole collapsing the excess paper in on itself. Either method works. One has a folded tip, the other more of a matchstick or close.

You’re done. It’s that simple.

Notes, Observations and Ideas from the Field

We worked pretty hard to make this simple. Our ultimate customer (the retail buyer) thinks it’s like a fast food burger but the reality is there are an awful lot of variables to making this particular Big Mac. It ain’t as easy as it looks.

You guys out in the field are the ones who designed this system. We built it based upon the things you told us you wanted. And you guys out in the field are the ones who taught us how it should be used. With that said, here are some things that you guys taught us about how to roll the perfect pre-roll which isn’t covered in the operator’s manual.

1)Preparing Your Feedstock is Critical - If there is one thing which was hammered into our heads more than anything else, this has to be it. Advanced preparation of your feedstock is critical to the smooth operation of this system. All sticks, stems and leaf veins should be screened out. If they are not cleaned out, you run the risk of clogging blunts so they do not fill completely or correctly. These little stems can also can poke holes through the sides of the papers which pretty much ruins the joint. The need for this meticulous preparation is magnified by the fact you are rolling so many at the same time. There are many ways to prepare feedstock and everyone does it differently. We like the shredder made by Neo Farms ( It quickly (as in about 10 seconds or less) will shred and screen your feedstock to a perfect consistency.

2)Every Strain Is Different –No surprise here. Different strains shred down to different consistencies and weight by volume. Some strains require a little more kief in the feed stock to make weights/volumes than other strains. We recommend you weigh out your feedstock in advance. Weights are weights and you can manipulate volume by bumping the dead man switch during the fill process and banging more during the final charge.

3)Different Strains fill the Cones to Different Levels – Because of the differing densities of different strains the actual volume in the cone comes to different levels. The good news, though, is that once that level for that strain has been identified, you can adjust your stand by cradle accordingly. This is what we meant when describing how to set the plate height in the stand by cradle. Generally speaking, you are going to want to have about ¼” of excess paper you can fold over or punch down.

4)Kief and Other Fine Material Will Clog the Crutch –If you find you have denser feedstock or more fines in your feedstock than you might ordinarily want, a clogged crutch can be the end result. One way you can compensate for that is to sprinkle in a little bit of feedstock into each joint before you do the full on dump of material onto your blunt plate. This will put a few millimeters barrier of less fine material which will act as a catch for the finer material as it is drawn through the joint while smoking.

5)Found one we haven’t covered? Write us and let us know. You have our full and undivided attention.