MostlyHarmless
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- Jan 16, 2011
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Just thought I'd share this with you all...
I and a group of friends have been making cider, using locally sourced apples. This year we had a bumper crop, and getting them mashed up ready for the press was a bit more time-consuming than we would have liked.
One day I had too much spare time and a burst of imagination, and I came up with this...
This is basically a paint stirrer, intended to be fitted to an electric drill, with a load of holes drilled into it, and self-tapping screws fixed into the holes.
We got a big bucket and a bit of plywood with a hole in the middle to act as a rudimentary lid, and set to work.
The good bit...
*It shredded apples like you wouldn't believe. Half the effort compared to a Pulpmaster for twice the yeild. Previously we'd done a fair bit of hand-chopping to get the appes to a size that the Pulpmaster could handle - this thing could take 1/4 or even 1/2 apples. We went from a fair bit of manual effort with the Pulpmaster to get a 1 gallon per press, to getting 2 gallons for less manual effort and half the pulping time.
* It was christened "Dave's Blades Of Death", which is a pretty cool name
The bad bits...
* When going full-tilt in the drill it was, without exception, the scariest thing I have ever held in my hands (and I'm including things like firearms in this comparison)
* The screws worked themselves loose over the course of the session - in hindsight, I should have used a small bolt on each one instead of trusting them to just keep gripping in place.
* The paint-stirrer wasn't the heaviest duty one, and it did kind of deteriorate.
By the end of the night, it looked like this...
It only lasted one session, but it showed that the concept was sound, and I think I'll be rebuilding it stronger and better for next season.
I and a group of friends have been making cider, using locally sourced apples. This year we had a bumper crop, and getting them mashed up ready for the press was a bit more time-consuming than we would have liked.
One day I had too much spare time and a burst of imagination, and I came up with this...
This is basically a paint stirrer, intended to be fitted to an electric drill, with a load of holes drilled into it, and self-tapping screws fixed into the holes.
We got a big bucket and a bit of plywood with a hole in the middle to act as a rudimentary lid, and set to work.
The good bit...
*It shredded apples like you wouldn't believe. Half the effort compared to a Pulpmaster for twice the yeild. Previously we'd done a fair bit of hand-chopping to get the appes to a size that the Pulpmaster could handle - this thing could take 1/4 or even 1/2 apples. We went from a fair bit of manual effort with the Pulpmaster to get a 1 gallon per press, to getting 2 gallons for less manual effort and half the pulping time.
* It was christened "Dave's Blades Of Death", which is a pretty cool name
The bad bits...
* When going full-tilt in the drill it was, without exception, the scariest thing I have ever held in my hands (and I'm including things like firearms in this comparison)
* The screws worked themselves loose over the course of the session - in hindsight, I should have used a small bolt on each one instead of trusting them to just keep gripping in place.
* The paint-stirrer wasn't the heaviest duty one, and it did kind of deteriorate.
By the end of the night, it looked like this...
It only lasted one session, but it showed that the concept was sound, and I think I'll be rebuilding it stronger and better for next season.
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