Thread: We Have Skills Too !!

Originally Posted by MikeB52

Frozen dog turds are pretty funny to find too, hehehe.
My weirdos play in the snow plume as I blow the back yard area for them. Come in looking like snow balls..

Yah, you don’t want to be downstream of the snow flow the first couple of times. We had three dogs and you never knew what was gonna fly out the chute of the snowblower the first couple of times down the driveway.

Everyone be careful unplugging your snow blower this winter.

We don't wan't any arms coming out of the chutes!

Originally Posted by MikeB52

Frozen dog turds are pretty funny to find too, hehehe.
My weirdos play in the snow plume as I blow the back yard area for them. Come in looking like snow balls..

I have to keep a healthy supply of shear bolts on hand. Let's just say Tobi is a big dog. Even though I have gravel on my driveway, I'm sure his frozen offerings are responsible for a good 3/4 of the ones I've had to replace.

Originally Posted by DZEC

Know the feeling of having snow on the ground and a blower that refuses to start. After last time, I only use premium gas (no ethanol) and make sure to put fuel stabilizer in before I put it to bed in the spring.

Yup, do the same here. Touch wood never a problem again starting come winter.

Bob

When I was grinding the meat for making the summer sausage for part of my children's Christmas presents I ran into an Aw Crap

As I was using the stomper/pusher that was provided with the grinder, the auger grabbed it and tore a small chunk off. I immediately shut the machine off, tore it apart and cleaned all up to make sure that there wasn't any plastic in the grind. (What a waste of meat)

I'd had my doubts about the stomper but figured that the engineers knew what they were doing, however the stompers we used in the meat shop had a much tighter fit in the feed tube.

I decided to make my own stomper out of wood.

I purchased a rolling pin made out of maple or such for $9 delivered (I couldn't find what I wanted locally) removed the handles and the rod that connected them along with the plastic bushings and cut it in half. I picked up a 4' length of 3/4" dowel to use as the handle.

I knew that I'd need to plug the one end that would be pushing the meat down the feed tube. Ski had given me a scrap piece of 7/8" black walnut from his stash of over 1500 board feet. So I used my hole saw to cut a plug and then carefully sanded it down to just fit.

I put the handle in with clear epoxy and used some painter's tape to hold it in place. I also used the same epoxy to secure the 'knob' at the end that I'd made using two hole saws.

I used wood glue to secure the plug in the end.

After it was all glued and dried I put coat after coat of food grade mineral oil on all surfaces.

The original plastic stomper measures just over 2" my cut down rolling pin measures just under 2 1/2" and the ID of the feed tube is just shy of 3".

Here's the seller's pic of the rolling pin:



The finished tool:







Thanks for looking

Atta boy Roy!
Good ingenuity and solid tamper..

That’s pretty sweet Roy. I never thought of of rolling pins as a good source for hardwood.

Not long ago I got an SOA (Save Our Ass) phone call from my oldest daughter. They had started to can a bunch of salmon but even with a new gasket their pressure canner wouldn't come up to pressure so I loaded up my All American 921 and headed over to rescue them.

The canning went smooth and they both were impressed with my canner (Thank you Benz for turning me onto it)

I don't know where but they found a 'Used' 921 that looks brand new, not a sign of it ever being used. All I can imagine is someone bought it and found it too heavy to handle and returned it. (An All American 921 weighs 17.75 lbs empty)

The All American canners don't use a gasket, they are precision machined to seal--anyway, with the 921 you lube the precision machined mating surface to prevent sticking. I've never had the lid stick but I've heard it can happen. While a large screwdriver could be used to separate the two I didn't want to mar the aluminum so I built a wooden wedge for mine and I just finished one for my daughter. A few coats of Tru Oil just for looks and it's ready to be delivered.

Nice look to that practical kitchen aid Roy!

Those are really good canners.