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Thread: Pictures of the apple mill I made,with help.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
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    Williamsburg,Va.
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    Pictures of the apple mill I made,with help.

    I found these pictures of the apple mill,which I built to go with the cider press. It was made after the apple mill that my director also saw at Somerset,England.

    This was my second and last project into agricultural machinery,thank Heaven! The finished mill is seen in 1 picture,with the flywheel and crank handle all fitted up and ready to go. The flywheel is similar to the wheel on a great wheel lathe. It is about 6' in diameter. There is a 1/2" thick iron tire fitted to add inertia to it. The wheel was made by the Wheelwright's shop.

    All of the wood in this mill is white oak. I can't recall what wood the log used to make the rollers was.

    A lot of iron work is found on this mill,and it was made by the Anderson Blacksmith shop in the Historic area.

    A hopper sits atop the machine to hold a couple of bushels of cider apples. Beneath the hopper is a sliding panel so the apples could be loaded without them falling into the toothed rollers. It is also possible that the flow of apples could be controlled by only partially sliding open the panel.

    Underneath the mill is seen a rectangular receptacle to catch the mashed and crushed apples,which after going through the mill,would have resembled a very coarse apple sauce. This mash was shoveled into horse hair bags on the cider mill,ready to be squeezed.At least,that's the way the coopers used the press. The master cooper was a bit of a brewer also,so he took charge of the demonstration of the press to the Early American Industries Ass'n. when they visited one year.

    There are 2 rollers seen just below where the sliding panel would have covered them. They have iron teeth that looked like playing card diamonds about 1 1/4" tall. On their bottom ends were barbed,tapered square shanks which I had to mortise to fit each tooth. Once in,those barbs would not let them back out. They were 1/4" thick,and made by the blacksmith's shop.

    Beneath the toothed top rollers are 2 large rollers,about 16" in diameter. These were plain surfaced,and set about 1/4" apart,to further crush the chewed up apples after they passed through the toothed rollers.

    I just realized that though I made all the wooden parts except the large wheel,I have no recollection of how I turned these rollers,or how I bored out the holes for their axles. The only large wood lathe we had at that time was a big old pattern maker's lathe in the Millwork Shop. I must have turned them and bored them there.

    There are 6 gears that I got the machine shop to make while I was making the big screw and nut. You can see 2 large gears behind the great wheel. It geared the top rollers and the bottom rollers. The 2 top rollers have gears a little larger in diameter than they were. The large gears beside the bottom rollers were over 16" in diameter,you can make out 1 gear's edge in the 3rd picture,beside the large roller. They had spokes that were "T" shaped in cross section. At the time this project was made,I was still the musical Instrument maker,with a 10" lathe and small milling machine(a mill drill) at home. There was no way for me to make these large gears,nor did I want to be away from my shop and my staff for too extended a period.

    This mill would have been a very expensive machine in the 18th.C.,especially with those large gears. They would have been custom made from the patterns to the hand filed teeth. They could have cast those large gear teeth,but would have had to clean up the teeth and file the taper out of them. Tapered so that the patterns would come out of the sand.

    All of the wood in this mill was hand planed after being power planed. The mortises were hand cut and cross pinned. There were quite a few mortice and tenon joints in the mill. Note also,the long bolt holding the top part of the mill together in case the pressure of crushing the hard little cider apples was too much for the wooden joints. The original had these rods also.

    You can make out the flat shovel I made to scoop out the apples. The handle is sticking up out of the mash container beneath the mill.

    I really did need a dry log to make the rollers out of,and the gunsmith's shop kindly let me have one of their old,dry vise stumps,which I replaced with a new,wet log.

    Not my favorite kind of work,but it shows some of the variety of work that I had to do,from the finely polished,to the coarse.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by george wilson; 02-14-2012 at 10:01 PM.

  2. #2
    George, thanks for taking the time and effort to post this. I find the toothed rolls particular interesting, and menacing looking too!

    Chuck

  3. #3
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    You really wouldn't want to get your hand in them ! That big wheel,and the mass of the logs and gears would not stop quickly.

  4. #4
    This is so very inspiring. A friend of mine does pottery but he lacks a grinder to pulverize hardened clay, and this mill could just be the basis for something.

    I *LOVE* the big handle!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Edmonton, AB
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    Pretty crazy George. How did you manage to still make instruments with all of this other stuff going on?

  6. #6
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    I was not opposed to doing different projects that came along. A lot of the other craftsmen wanted to do nothing but their own speciality. I was always interested in exploring new things. Remember,I had been building since age 13,so I didn't mind a break from it once in a while.

  7. #7
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    Dec 2010
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    Burlington, Vermont
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    Okay, that is cool. I've been looking forward to seeing this. Thanks so much for sharing.

  8. #8
    George, thanks again for posting these things. I actually like this stuff more than the really intricate fine stuff; I guess I just find them moe approachable. Rick
    Last edited by Rick Lapp; 02-14-2012 at 11:46 PM. Reason: spelling!

  9. #9
    Great stuff, George -- one of the great side benefits of your posts is their ability to put into proper perspective the little projects many of us play around with (relatively speaking).

  10. #10
    George, thanks for taking time to post with all the construction details. That's one menacing looking apple-saucer. The arrangement of the teeth on the rollers looks surprisingly like a paper shredder.

    I had no idea how important apples and cider were to colonial American economics or stomachs. This and your posts on the large screw press were like a mini-visit to Williamsburg... makes me want to plan a full trip some day. Who (and it must be at least 6 guys) are doing your job these days?!

  11. #11
    Great!! I've seen a machine very similar to yours in the early 70th. It was owned by the grandfather of a friend who was farmer. It looked as if it had been there for a few generations but it still was in work. Where I live the farmers made their own apple wine which was a very traditional drink in former times. Your post brought back some memory to me that was completely lost.

    Your work is great as usual, George. The mill is made for eternity...

    Klaus
    Klaus Kretschmar

  12. #12
    Looks like a good place to take people who don't pay the toolmaker's bill. Push them down over the toothed rollers and start turning.

  13. #13
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    Yes,David! They could use the mill in an 18th. or 19th.C. version of "Fargo"!!

  14. #14
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    Sep 2011
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    Eureka Springs, AR
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    Quote Originally Posted by george wilson View Post
    Yes,David! They could use the mill in an 18th. or 19th.C. version of "Fargo"!!
    Heh, heh, great analogy, George.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Louisville, Ky
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    186
    That is one very cool looking machine ) The teeth remind me of the old corn sheller we played with in my aunts corn crib.

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