Hello,
Yesterday we finally got a few O rings in the mail for the cream separator. We tried looking in Minot for someone that had the right size but each place we looked at said to try a different store and we didn't find any the right size. Dad found one online at: http://www.superiorseals.com/. We had to have an order of more than five dollars so we ordered a few of each in different materials. This morning I tried fitting them where they would go on the cream separator and one of the sizes fits perfectly. We had gotten two of that type so now we have a spare. If you have a old DeLaval cream separator that needs a new seal for the cone shaped spinner, get this one: Buna-N 427 Size O-ring, product no: ob-70-427 from that website. It may not be a food-grade rubber material, but we will use it until we find a better one.
We got two different sizes and three different materials. The set on the right was the size that fit best.
I poured water through to test if it leaked. Thankfully it didn't! When we have a few more gallons of milk to skim we'll try running it through and see how it works for real.
Peter
5 comments:
Hi Peter,
Is your cream separator electric, hand powered or both? We have heard they are hard to clean but some might be better than others. Is yours hard to clean?
The cabinets look good.
~Enoch
Hey Peter!
It is so funny that you posted this yesterday, as I was going to write you and ask if you had ever found an o-ring, as I was in Bismarck recently and picked up an extra one with you in mind... :-) LOL! I guess we'll just have a spare one on hand now. ;-)
Hope your separator works for you now! You might have to adjust the thickness of the cream, as it has been sitting around for years, and your milk may be different than what was run through before..
@Enoch: Yes, they can be hard to clean, but it makes it a lot easier if you run some hot water through after you are done with the milk. That way it pretty much cleans itself, and all you have to do is rinse it all off...
Got to go,
Andrew B.
Hi Enoch,
Our cream separator is both hand crank and electric. We use the crank a little at the beginning so it is easier for the motor to start up.
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for thinking of us! We tried the separator yesterday morning but it needed some adjusting because it wasn't giving as much cream as we expected.
Maybe we did something wrong but we shut it down and tightened the screw to adjust the cream (couldn't remember which way you said to turn it!) and then we didn't get any cream at all. We loosened the screw and tried it again and still no cream. When we took the disks apart, it seemed like the cream must have plugged it because you could wipe your finger along the side and the cream was so thick it was like butter! Do you have any hints? I know that when our milk sits for a few days without skimming, the cream gets really thick and almost hard so maybe that clogged it up.
Hi Peter,
Basically what that screw does is restricts the flow of the skim milk, thereby forcing more of the milk to go in with the cream. So if you turn the screw IN, it restricts the flow MORE, so your cream becomes THINNER. An easy way to remember it is "Thin is In." A good place to start is with the screw closing off about 1/3 of the hole, and then adjust it from there. It is quite sensitive, so only turn it about 1/2 turn at a time, then try it again...
About it getting clogged after you stopped it, this is quite common. Anytime you stop the flow of milk for more than appx. 1 minute, the cream seams to clog up inside. The best thing to do if you have to stop is run some hot water through to rinse it out as if you were done, then turn it off... Another thing is to make sure it was spun up all of the way, the hand crank shaft should turn around at about 60RPM, or 1 turn per second... Also, did you have the milk valve turned on all of the way? There has to be a consistant flow of milk at the right speed or else it won't work right...
Got to get to chores,
Andrew B.
Thank you for the pointers Andrew! No we probably did not keep a steady stream of milk going in to the separator. We will have to try it again soon and get it to work this time.
Thank you!
Peter
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