I suppose this one "Needs" a back story.
I grew up on a "hobby" subsistence farm...we always kept a Jersey cow for table milk and butter. In fact I never tasted store bought milk until I was nearly 17.
Dad would milk the cow by hand and the barn cats would line up in a row at gutter edge(southern end of Northbound cow) in anticipation of a warm meal fresh from the teet if you will...the wait was longer than cats could stand so near the end they would start to Mew...loudly!
In effort to quiet them dad would "Strafe" them with a stream of milk right from his milking stool...this is what us kids lined up to see. The sight of cats lapping at the air trying to gather as much inbound warm milk goodness as possible never failed to make tears of laughter flow from us kids...after the straffing run, more milk matted the cats fur than was gathered from air licking so the cats licked each other clean giving dad time to harvest the rest of the milk in peace.
I suppose those child memorys are what drew me to this product.
Bruce did a sweet conversation on the Ertl toy version of this (no cats)
The photo shows I have some issues to overcome as the Artsy version has a fixed milk can right where I want my drive belt to pass. I think I can overcome this. The crank and pulley do turn right out of the box but pulley has a guard that gets in the way of belt drive. I will remove guard and likely add bronze bushings to the axle.
I believe in operation the inner pot spins (real one) and the heavy cream moves to perimeter via Centrifugal force and lighter buttermilk drains from center so you would need 2 pails and your cream is separated. You can sometimes find original full scale units on eBay.
The hand painted cats on mine are iffy (luck of the draw) so if I get this converted and running well I will send it off to my Artsy sister for a better paint job.
PS: you absolutely can Not set a pail of milk down for 2 seconds in the barn or this Will happen, don't ask me how I know....
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
It will be interesting to see what you do with this Ben 😊
Sadly the art version often has asking price of 3-4x that of Ertl toy version! Art version does have nicer polish on the big pot.
I just kept a watch and making low offers....it seems persistence is a Virtue?
I just reviewed Bruce's conversion to steam power and sure glad I did! My brain was not working as the pulley on "far" side is not a pulley at all but a gear...thus the guard to keep wayward fingers out of gear mesh! I was thinking I must power the "far" side, but this is not at all how it would be done on a real Delaval one would remove the manual crank and add a pulley(on crank side) as the gear drive Must remain to run the Delaval and also the hand crank flinging around would become a safety hazzard under Steam power! Bruce has done this correctly and moving the belt drive to near side also solves my belt fouling issue with the milk can...thanks Bruce!
https://youtu.be/GxhWlLoomGI
I happened to come upon a real Delaval in use in last 5 years!
The milk comes out the straighter spout and Cream comes out the spout angled a bit or on the left pail from video view...you can hear the gear drive working ....sounds quite a tall ratio. I read somewhere a Delaval could process 640 lb. Of milk per HR but I don't think I would want to Hand crank it that long.
I believe this is the same model Bruce and I have, however there is a flange base not far below the Delaval so I believe this was a benchtop model rather than the heavy cast iron stand alone model...I have seen the heavy stand version for sale on eBay.
https://youtu.be/Br0H1HfQu98
We sold two McCormicks and a DeLaval at great-grandpa’s auction. It’s crazy how fast they spin while moving the hand crank slowly. I wanted one of the McCormicks, but was outbid by a 90+ year old man who was sending them all down to Mexico to be used.
I hear something like a bell chime as he turns the crank in video...would there be a use for this? Or is it possibly a noise added from video??
I believe the bell was for speed, think it stops when you’re going fast enough.
From the comments:
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
That's neat! thanks for sharing. I will have to go look what the mcCormick version looks like now.
That's neat! thanks for sharing. I will have to go look what the mcCormick version looks like now.
We had two of this style below. I have a DeLaval stamped cover somewhere out in the shed that I found after the auction and Grandpa still has a junker DeLaval sitting out as yard art.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
Ahh yes! The Mccormicks seem to have a sleeker gear cover.
As luck would have it I found a restored one in opperation! Not professional filmed but the children need to learn to and adds a bit to the charm.
It seems to have a clicker rather than a bell but same function.
https://youtu.be/yqWYQdA1PkA
Great-grandpa’s auction was in ‘05 and I remember that sound like it was yesterday after hearing it again! I think one of our old friends that bought one of the tractors told us about the bell and speed.
Great-grandpa’s auction was in ‘05 and I remember that sound like it was yesterday after hearing it again! I think one of our old friends that bought one of the tractors told us about the bell and speed.
Got me to thinking....it would be fun to hide a tiny bell inside the base of my model version that chimed in opperation under steam. Bruce's version would be better for this as my Art version is sealed from the bottom as they molded the "stoneware" like base to the casting to hold it secure. Have to stare at it for a while, "something" will come to me.