spaniel
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Since others have asked about similar devices before, I thought I'd take and post pics of mine while I had it out in use.
My father read about this when he was a kid (1950s). In his teens, he made a very rough version and used it to make cider. Decades later, he made this more refined version for me when I got into winemaking. I've had this for about 9-10 years now.
It uses an old furnace motor as the drive. The hopper is precisely located by 2 screws/pins, and then firmly held in place by a turnbuckle on each end:
The chopping is controlled by pretty tight clearance between the stainless steel screws driven into the cylinder:
A final shot of the working parts with the hopper removed:
This rips a handful of ripe apples up in several seconds. Softer stuff like peaches shred straight through. I have used it to destem small red grapes by freezing them solid then running them through still frozen; the grapes pop off and you can easily sift out the stems.
If I could change anything in a subsequent design, there would only be 2 changes:
1) Stagger the screws more. If you run tart, green apples through -- the type that make the best wine -- they are hard and can jam it up if a half-stripped core wedges between a row of screws and the aluminum plate. Rare, but happens.
2) Re-design the hopper with a baffle to keep apples in once they get halfway down. As-is one must drop a handful in then slam the cover closed until they all get through as they get thrown back up into the lid. Not a big deal, but with a ramp/baffle they would be trapped below that and could be continuous-fed.
As is I fed four milk crates of apples -- enough for ~9 gallons of wine -- through in 5-7 minutes.
My father read about this when he was a kid (1950s). In his teens, he made a very rough version and used it to make cider. Decades later, he made this more refined version for me when I got into winemaking. I've had this for about 9-10 years now.
It uses an old furnace motor as the drive. The hopper is precisely located by 2 screws/pins, and then firmly held in place by a turnbuckle on each end:
The chopping is controlled by pretty tight clearance between the stainless steel screws driven into the cylinder:
A final shot of the working parts with the hopper removed:
This rips a handful of ripe apples up in several seconds. Softer stuff like peaches shred straight through. I have used it to destem small red grapes by freezing them solid then running them through still frozen; the grapes pop off and you can easily sift out the stems.
If I could change anything in a subsequent design, there would only be 2 changes:
1) Stagger the screws more. If you run tart, green apples through -- the type that make the best wine -- they are hard and can jam it up if a half-stripped core wedges between a row of screws and the aluminum plate. Rare, but happens.
2) Re-design the hopper with a baffle to keep apples in once they get halfway down. As-is one must drop a handful in then slam the cover closed until they all get through as they get thrown back up into the lid. Not a big deal, but with a ramp/baffle they would be trapped below that and could be continuous-fed.
As is I fed four milk crates of apples -- enough for ~9 gallons of wine -- through in 5-7 minutes.
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