On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 11:41:16 GMT, Russ wrote:

Bruce in Bangkok wrote:
Does anyone have plans, a photograph, or any other data about the
internal parts, or any other information, regarding crushers and how
they are function?


From the same supplier, I previously linked to, here is the parts sheet
for those units:
http://www.euromachinesusa.com/pdf/R...pare_parts.pdf
Rauch_A12_A20_spare_parts.pdf



Russ

I thank you sir. It is a little more commercial then I need but it
does give me an idea of how one works.

Again, thank you.


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)

Bruce in Bangkok wrote:

It is a little more commercial then I need but it
does give me an idea of how one works.

I suspected as much.
I thought that the pictures would give you the general idea. I had the
links close at hand without looking for them.
I repair, similar, and larger, stemmer-crushers and fabricate other
vineyard equipment.
For my personal use, I usually use a small antique crusher unit that
only has capacity of a few hundred pounds an hour and cam type rollers
of a cast aluminum. It will fit over a half barrel or plastic tub, I
usually do the destemming by hand. I have the luxury of using one of
the neighbors larger units, if, I need to do more.
For some winemaking styles, the winemakers are opening the rollers up
just wide enough to lightly squeeze a berry and removing the destemmer
allowing the stems to go through the rollers with only a very light
crush to the combined must of stems and berries.

Russ

On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:34:11 GMT, Russ wrote:

Bruce in Bangkok wrote:

It is a little more commercial then I need but it
does give me an idea of how one works.

I suspected as much.
I thought that the pictures would give you the general idea. I had the
links close at hand without looking for them.
I repair, similar, and larger, stemmer-crushers and fabricate other
vineyard equipment.
For my personal use, I usually use a small antique crusher unit that
only has capacity of a few hundred pounds an hour and cam type rollers
of a cast aluminum. It will fit over a half barrel or plastic tub, I
usually do the destemming by hand. I have the luxury of using one of
the neighbors larger units, if, I need to do more.
For some winemaking styles, the winemakers are opening the rollers up
just wide enough to lightly squeeze a berry and removing the destemmer
allowing the stems to go through the rollers with only a very light
crush to the combined must of stems and berries.

Russ

That sounds more like what I would want. I usually crush around 150
Lbs. at a time (which is a lot by hand) and wanted something to sit on
a barrel and pour the grapes in and crank the handle. I'll even be
glad to pick the stems off by hand.

What I am thinking about is some sort of two roller device, perhaps
with the rolls geared to rotate together that will essentially just
break the berry. I believe that I will need some form of serration,
grooves, or whatever, to keep the grapes from just sitting on top of
the smooth rollers.

One Idea is to modify an existing set of rolls, actually used for
softening dried squid. The have brass rolls about 1-1/2 inch in
diameter, about 8 - 10 inches long, with quite deep serration but the
separation between the rollers is adjustable and I am considering
modifying one of these by adding a hopper to direct the grapes into
the rollers and a mount to hold the thing on the side of a barrel.

I could willing buy a crusher but the shipping from even Australia is
shocking. Apparently most companies use DHL and DHL is a door to door
service and by the time they pay your customs and get a fee for that
along with all their other charges the shipping often equals or costs
more then the purchase cost.

But thank you for the information as it gives me some more ideas.


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)

Bruce in Bangkok wrote:

One Idea is to modify an existing set of rolls, actually used for
softening dried squid. The have brass rolls about 1-1/2 inch in
diameter, about 8 - 10 inches long, with quite deep serration but the
separation between the rollers is adjustable and I am considering
modifying one of these by adding a hopper to direct the grapes into
the rollers and a mount to hold the thing on the side of a barrel.


That sounds like a very good starting point.
Brass is used in a lot of pumps used by small wineries and home
winemakers. The large production operations sometimes try to reduce
their exposure to it, because traces of copper can inhibit the
fermentation. Copper's activity as a fungicide is the reason to try and
reduce exposure to the metal when trying to ferment. However, brass and
bronze have been used for a long time in the wine and juice industries.
You would not be adding copper if there is no wear or contact
between the rollers or other metal parts.
The serrations are almost a necessity to keep the berries feeding
through the rollers consistently, otherwise, you will have to apply
pressure on the fruit to keep it feeding between the rollers on
occasions. It is real common for the screw augers feeding the large
crushers, to bridge, when too much unstemmed fruit enters the hopper.
No matter what the size of the unit, it works best if you can feed it
progressively and control the amount of fruit going through the rollers.
The hopper of my antique crusher was made from hardwood. A lot of the
hoppers on crusher frames sold to home winemakers and used on some
crushers throughout the industry are fabricated from mild steel and
coated with a food grade paint.


What are you using for a press? Are you pressing straight off the
crusher? Or, are you fermenting on the skins and then pressing?

Russ

On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:06:48 GMT, Russ wrote:

Bruce in Bangkok wrote:

One Idea is to modify an existing set of rolls, actually used for
softening dried squid. The have brass rolls about 1-1/2 inch in
diameter, about 8 - 10 inches long, with quite deep serration but the
separation between the rollers is adjustable and I am considering
modifying one of these by adding a hopper to direct the grapes into
the rollers and a mount to hold the thing on the side of a barrel.


That sounds like a very good starting point.
Brass is used in a lot of pumps used by small wineries and home
winemakers. The large production operations sometimes try to reduce
their exposure to it, because traces of copper can inhibit the
fermentation. Copper's activity as a fungicide is the reason to try and
reduce exposure to the metal when trying to ferment. However, brass and
bronze have been used for a long time in the wine and juice industries.
You would not be adding copper if there is no wear or contact
between the rollers or other metal parts.
The serrations are almost a necessity to keep the berries feeding
through the rollers consistently, otherwise, you will have to apply
pressure on the fruit to keep it feeding between the rollers on
occasions. It is real common for the screw augers feeding the large
crushers, to bridge, when too much unstemmed fruit enters the hopper.
No matter what the size of the unit, it works best if you can feed it
progressively and control the amount of fruit going through the rollers.
The hopper of my antique crusher was made from hardwood. A lot of the
hoppers on crusher frames sold to home winemakers and used on some
crushers throughout the industry are fabricated from mild steel and
coated with a food grade paint.


What are you using for a press? Are you pressing straight off the
crusher? Or, are you fermenting on the skins and then pressing?

Russ


To date I have been fermenting on the skins and pressing when the
really active fermentation is done, pretty much when the cap drops.

I built a press from a locally made press designed to squeeze coconut
meat to make "coconut milk" used in Thai cooking. It originally had an
aluminum sleeve with a mild steel pressure plate screw jack operated.
I rebuilt it to have a stainless sleeve and pressure plate. It isn't
really high capacity but I can get pretty much dry must in two
presses.

As far as the crusher goes I have about decided on adapting the squid
crusher. It has a cast iron frame, designed to bolt down on a table
but can just as well mount vertically on a plank to be held to a
barrel. The rollers are adjustable through a range wider then a grape
is in diameter and are brass. I don't believe that during a crushing
session enough copper would leech out to be significant. I can have a
sheet metal shop fabricate a hopper that fits the rollers and frame of
the squid crusher and it should work.

I can live with hand desteming and it doesn't I have wasted 20 dollars
or so.


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)

Can you really get wine grapes in Bangkok? What kind? Where do they come
from?

Andrew


"Bruce in Bangkok" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:06:48 GMT, Russ wrote:

Bruce in Bangkok wrote:

One Idea is to modify an existing set of rolls, actually used for
softening dried squid. The have brass rolls about 1-1/2 inch in
diameter, about 8 - 10 inches long, with quite deep serration but the
separation between the rollers is adjustable and I am considering
modifying one of these by adding a hopper to direct the grapes into
the rollers and a mount to hold the thing on the side of a barrel.


That sounds like a very good starting point.
Brass is used in a lot of pumps used by small wineries and home
winemakers. The large production operations sometimes try to reduce
their exposure to it, because traces of copper can inhibit the
fermentation. Copper's activity as a fungicide is the reason to try and
reduce exposure to the metal when trying to ferment. However, brass and
bronze have been used for a long time in the wine and juice industries.
You would not be adding copper if there is no wear or contact
between the rollers or other metal parts.
The serrations are almost a necessity to keep the berries feeding
through the rollers consistently, otherwise, you will have to apply
pressure on the fruit to keep it feeding between the rollers on
occasions. It is real common for the screw augers feeding the large
crushers, to bridge, when too much unstemmed fruit enters the hopper.
No matter what the size of the unit, it works best if you can feed it
progressively and control the amount of fruit going through the rollers.
The hopper of my antique crusher was made from hardwood. A lot of the
hoppers on crusher frames sold to home winemakers and used on some
crushers throughout the industry are fabricated from mild steel and
coated with a food grade paint.


What are you using for a press? Are you pressing straight off the
crusher? Or, are you fermenting on the skins and then pressing?

Russ


To date I have been fermenting on the skins and pressing when the
really active fermentation is done, pretty much when the cap drops.

I built a press from a locally made press designed to squeeze coconut
meat to make "coconut milk" used in Thai cooking. It originally had an
aluminum sleeve with a mild steel pressure plate screw jack operated.
I rebuilt it to have a stainless sleeve and pressure plate. It isn't
really high capacity but I can get pretty much dry must in two
presses.

As far as the crusher goes I have about decided on adapting the squid
crusher. It has a cast iron frame, designed to bolt down on a table
but can just as well mount vertically on a plank to be held to a
barrel. The rollers are adjustable through a range wider then a grape
is in diameter and are brass. I don't believe that during a crushing
session enough copper would leech out to be significant. I can have a
sheet metal shop fabricate a hopper that fits the rollers and frame of
the squid crusher and it should work.

I can live with hand desteming and it doesn't I have wasted 20 dollars
or so.


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)

On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:11:43 -0700, "Andrew Werby"
wrote:

Can you really get wine grapes in Bangkok? What kind? Where do they come
from?

Andrew

There are a number of vineyards in Thailand, mainly on the Khorat
Plateau or in the mountains around Chang Mai, in the north. One of the
Chang Mai vineyard's vines were imported from France and their wine is
expensive (very over priced by my standards).

Getting wine grapes is difficult as most vineyards make their own
wine and are reluctant to sell grapes.

I have a D-in-Law who runs a business in one of the resort areas in
the Khorat area and knows one of the vineyard managers so I can get
small lots of merlot grapes that way.


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)