I'm Done... DIY apple grinder rant

I'm done.
I didn't like the abilities of a garbage disposal grinder so this past winter and summer I have been building a wheel grinder. I used the idea of a large wheel with stainless strips for teeth. I made the bearings without metal to keep costs down AND succeeded. I managed to turn a bench top grinder into a motor with wooden pulleys AND succeeded. I put it all together and it didn't work. I repaired the spectacular failure of version one and created verion two. Version two morphed quickly into verson three. Version three got built and tested this morning and I nearly broke the whole thing. I'm done. No more. I envisioned a Hollywood ending of kicking the crap out of it with strapenel flying everywhere (but avoiding any of my major organs) but settled for simply putting everything back in the garage.
On to freezing and thawing the apples and grinding them with a drill powered paint stirrer as suggested on this site. The apples I have collected so far are now in the chest freezer (along with the piggy) awaiting the purchase of a bucket and paint stirrer.
The different versions where all different configuration of the hopper, BTW...
I need a cider but I'm becoming late for work as I write this....

What did you not like about a garbage disposal as a grinder?

My garage disposal motor kept going out on me. So I bought a 6.5 HP chipper shredded and it has worked awesome. I am half way thru my 8 tons of fruit this year and it has saved me so much time. I mounted it about four feet from the ground so I can slide a fruit bin under it as well.

A lot of people use SS screws instead of metal strips. Sorry it didn't work for you, I have thought of building a drum scratter, obviously not easy.

What exactly didn't work?

Like you, I tired of jamming apples through a disposal grinder (and having to cut the big fruit) and built a scratter. Mark 1 kinda-sorta worked, but the drum isn't big enough in diameter (only 4.5"). It will self-feed small apples (crabs), but big ones just sit there, and jamming them through is a pain. So I am about to build Mark II with a larger drum - probably about 8" diameter. That should change the attack angle between the screws and the fruit so it will self-feed, and maybe throw fewer chunks out the top...

The larger drum would also give more inertia, so it doesn't jam as easily.

http://picasaweb.google.com/111554988849488925721/AppleGrinder2010?gsessionid=_f7jXNl1QX4k8zFbOVPH_A

The inspiration came VERY heavily off of this. My problem was the apples were lodging them selves between the side off the hopper and the wheel and stopping the whole opporation. It was the same issue I had initially and it came back to me on my third attempt. For 11 dollars I bought a bucket and paint stirrier. That is my next attempt. My current load of apples are in the freezer now.
As far at the garbage disposal... Garbage disposals are wonderfull things. They are also designed to run with flowing water. The water helps cool things down. They are also not designed to run for really long periods of time. The end result is that they overheat far too often. They DO work, but it takes a long time to chop the apples in smaller peices (they work better than whole) and take breaks when it overheats. I thought the drum grinder would be my salvation but it wasn't meant to be. Thankfully we have a chest freezer that is only partially filled so I can try the freeze/thaw/grind in a bucket idea.

Matthias Wandel is the king of building things out of wood. This is how he made an apple scratter.

[ame]http://youtu.be/5BVncRn0D3g[/ame]

That looks exactly like my shredder.

One thing that made our old disposal grinder work better was a rammer to push the apples through faster. I made a wooden pestle, diameter just barely fit into the throat of the grinder. Throw apples into the grinder and then ram them through - throw another batch in and ram - etc. Lot of work but the resulting pomace was just about the right texture. Without the ram, it was insanely slow.

Albionwood said:

One thing that made our old disposal grinder work better was a rammer to push the apples through faster. I made a wooden pestle, diameter just barely fit into the throat of the grinder. Throw apples into the grinder and then ram them through - throw another batch in and ram - etc. Lot of work but the resulting pomace was just about the right texture. Without the ram, it was insanely slow.

Click to expand...

I did the same with a 1 HP Waste King. I didn't bother cutting the apples up and made 10 gallons yesterday for the first time without issue. It all worked better than I had invisioned.

We are there too. Frustrating. We've given in for the year. Did you try again to make it work?