Crusher / destemmer

[NorCal]

Hey congrats! Looks like it has many clusters ahead of it.

 

[Charlietuna]

Starting to wire brush & scrape all the old paint off the crushers. Can I buy these new anywhere? It'd be a lot easier.

 

[Johnd]

View attachment 31587

Starting to wire brush & scrape all the old paint off the crushers. Can I buy these new anywhere? It'd be a lot easier.

A die grinder with a wire brush attachment will make it a breeze. Wear safety glasses.

 

[Charlietuna]

I started with a drill & wire brush attachment. Then went to a larger hand grinder with a 5" wire brush attachment. Still had to scrape out the deep parts with an old wood chisel.
I'm really wanting to get a sand blaster & give it a try.

 

[Charlietuna]

This think has 2 coats of paint. The last one brushed on. I'd love to get it down to the metal & then prime & paint it right.

 

[Johnd]

This think has 2 coats of paint. The last one brushed on. I'd love to get it down to the metal & then prime & paint it right.

I have a pressure washer and borrowed a sandblasting attachment from a buddy to take the paint off of an aluminum boat. It's just a ceramic nozzle attached to the wand with a clear plastic tube attached, which uses Venturi action to suck blasting sand out of a bag of blasting sand. It provided a white metal blast incredibly easily and cheaply. If you had to rent the equipment it might not be so cost effective, but it sure was thorough.

If you have a metal fabrication shop in your area, they might be convinced to give them a quick blast for a few bucks, or a few bottles of wine!

 

[Charlietuna]

Here's some before & after of progress. I sand blasted & power washed & have one primer coat on it so far.

 

[BlueStimulator]

Awesome!!!!

 

[NorCal]

Gonna be good as new. Nice job

 

[Charlietuna]

If I had time, I would have taken it completely apart. But I have limited time before I'll need to use it. Here's after the first coat of industrial enamel. Have some orange peeling going in a spot. I'll need to sand that once it dries & wipe it down. Hope to get multiple coats on today. Not sure what the final colors will be, but I know I want everything that the grapes are going to touch to be white so I can see to clean it better.

 

[Charlietuna]

Sand blasted on this for about 1.5 hrs tonight. Didn't get it all the way down to bare metal, but close. Primer coat on now. Second primer coat before bed & top coat tomorrow.
Was just offered some free grapes on top of what I purchased, So I'm going to be busy seeing how all the work on this piece of equipment holds up.

 

[Charlietuna]

Almost the finished product.

 

[GreginND]

Looks great. Can you come and do mine?

 

[Charlietuna]

How many lbs of grapes will you pay? Lol.

 

[Wisconsin]

man, I wish I had your skills! Very nice!

 

[Charlietuna]

Not much skill here, just a lot of sweat & elbow grease.

We've run about 1100 lbs thru this weekend, much more than I thought I'd be processing this year. The machine ran like a dream. A couple minor adjustments, one Allen screw on a pulley key & I needed to adjust the crushers tighter to allow for the smaller grapes today. After crushing my first couple hundred pound by hand I believe this is one of the best purchases I've made in my wine hobby.

Thanks for the support & help.
Brian