What exactly is that in the third photo? Is that a cane mill?

How does it work? 

What is the history on it? 

When was it made?

How is it used?

What powers it?

Who manufactured it?

Where did you find it?

What are you going to do with it?

Again, sorry to be so dumb. They don't grow any cane around here, and I don't believe I've ever seen anything like that. 

    

 

 were people more careful or more aware of what was going to happen or no one talked about the results.

 See the Wards wagon , now that has to be old also but well cared for for lettering and paint to be that good. MW logo shows up well.  Can remember spending hours looking at those catalogs when I was young. In fact a few years back came acorss a order form I had filled out when I was around 8 or 9, had a Winchester 94 saddle rifle written down, and a saddle, and couple other things .. Believe the rifle was like $39.50 or so .. Will have to see IF I can find that again.  

It was our duty to strip the leaves, cut the stalk, and many weeks prior, to head the plant. Our ag teacher said that the leaves and head soaked up too much of the sorghum. I remember one year that we got rained out, so we cut the last half acre and sent it too the mill unstripped, and those last loads didn't produce hardly anything.

While I stripped and cut a ton of sorghum, I never got to go to the mill where the sorghum was made. 

Our FFA made a ton of cash from that project, at least in those days.

Thanks for the info. It is amazing what I learn on this site!!!!!!!  

I got it off of ebay back in April, southern Alabama, can't recall the name of the town. A Search on here might bring up when I posted about it then.

We have about half an acre of cane this year, nearly twice our normal crop just because of having this mill. Our previous attempts at sorghum using a converted horse powered mill were successful but that mill used an old type flat chain, like off of a manure spreader, it just won't take the pressure after so long. More times than I want to remember that chain broke and smacked someone ! It always broke on the feed side, most pressure. Everyone always wanted to feed it to fast and caused to much pressure. This mill should be able to take anything most anyone can throw at it ! http://www.syrupmakers.com - www.syrupmakers.com is an excelent source of info and pix. Been all through it !!

 

GBACBFan, that's a good looking #71 but those folks are being lazy. They should have stripped the leaves off before squeezing the cane. They're not getting all the juice they could.

 

Pix to come.

Here are a few pix of after the tear down. Hands were way to dirty to handle the camera after each piece came off !

The next few are the remains sitting on the wagon. Sorry about the green but there would be no moving this monster without the 3020 loader ! The end pieces, left standing on the base, are completely hollow ! Bolts run all the way through, about 20 inches long or so.

Last is the two smaller rollers that press against the main roller. Each are 9 inches in diameter and 12 inches wide. I could move them around on the table with effort but I doubt I could carry them very far !

Plug for the WV Farm Museum, their Antique engine show is next weekend ! I'll be there with a couple old Mott walk behind tractors and the IH engine. http://www.wvfarmmuseum.org/ - http://www.wvfarmmuseum.org/  Check their Calendar of Events.

I'd love to work with sorghum again someday, and I'd love to work with one of those mills!  

Thanks,

Dusty

Clovis, how far from Jackson, Ohio are you ? I could give you a call and we'd be happy to let you work in it all you want ! haha Seriously, we will need help !

Dusty, you can see our vertical mill in the video or there are plenty on syrupmakers.com.

Then a shot of whats left !

I've finished the top row of cane, was getting mighty warm so I went to work on the mill wagon. Here we are ready to slid the engine out of my Dakota. The shocks let out a sigh of relief when it finally came out.

Something just isn't quite right.

Nope, still not right.

That's looking better, still needs lined up a bit.

After a couple hours of fastening down the boards under the engine and straping the engine down, we just had to crank it over. Nothing happened ! Cleaned the carb and she fired on half a crank ! All I was doing was turning the belt to see if it was in line and it started ! See video below. I got to get to bed, 3:30 will be here long before I'm ready for it ! Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcmxu5Cwpek - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcmxu5Cwpek

Charlie, where as I would appreciate the help, willing buyers would be fine too. I'm thinking $7 a jar plus shipping. Hope this doesn't come back to bite me !! haha

I got off work early today, got 3 more rows finished today. Admittedly, one was shorter and much thinner planted. 8 more rows to finish it, then I'm thinking of heading it before cutting, need a feed sack hanger to go around my waist....

Had to have a bit of fun with the pictures, I didn't think of that, I usually forget to take in progress shots. I'm thinking of making bows, like covered wagon bows, to hold a tarp for storage of the whole contraption. Anyone able to bend, say, 3/4 inch metal conduit for a smooth bow, 5 feet wide !?

Dusty

Warren, I bent up some 1/2 emt once with a regular conduit bender. I used them on my old wagon so I could fill it with fire wood cover with a cheap plastic tarp. It took a while but wasn't too hard to do. The PVC might be the way to go. Maybe build a jig so you can get them all the same and you would have a place for them to cool. 

First pic after about 2 hours of cutting, 2 cutters.

Shot of trailer,

After another couple hours of just me cutting

Close up of trailer

About half way through, got to work tomorrow, should finish cutting tomorrow afternoon. I have 2 20x20 canvas tarps that we cover it with till it gets mashed. That should happen the first week of November, I took the whole week off ! Just got a little more to finish up on the mill wagon, I bought 5000lb jack stands to put on each corner, got to weld the plate on them so they can be bolted to the main frame and it will be ready. Oh, we got a cut off saw at auction last week, the engine will get turned around to run the saw. Gonna get slabs to fire the cook fire with ! So much work, only one me ! Good night.

Jim

Jim, it is  alot of work and fun but a lot is relief that the thing works and does what it's supposed to.

We got about a third of the cane run today. It's slow work with only 4 people. I fed the mill most of the day, it's a bit tall for everyone else to comfortably feed. By the time I got the trailer empty, the 100 gallon tank was full all while they were taking from it cooking. Took another couple hours to cook off and clean up before calling it a day. This may even carry over to next weekend because I won't likely get another day off but I've got Monday off ! I will be sure to have my camera tomorrow, walked right out without it today.

First video is the start of day 2, engine started fairly easy after warming it up a bit with a small space heater. Cane moved into place, lines thawed out.

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Second video shows the back of my head and me feeding stalks into the mill. I was barely keeping up with what the mill can handle. Right after I stopped the camera, the belt slipped and I had to shut it down and tighten the belt. Next year belt tightening will be a much simpler process but it's 6 bolts and a lever now ! He'll kill me again !!

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Third is a lull in the squeezing while getting the cooking started. We left the pan full of water the day before and they chased it out as juice flowed in.

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Hope everyone has enjoyed this, thanks for watching.

 

It sure was a lot of work getting everything set up. It looks like you plant the can in rows like corn. Do you cultivate it also? Does it have to be cut by hand? can't you cut it by machine? It great to see the whole family working together at the project. Bob

Pat, sent you a PM.  Asking $7 a quart. Priority mail medium USPS box costs $11.40 with Delivery Confirmation. I'll have to buy more bubble wrap if anyone else wants it by mail. Thanks

It was a lot of experimentaion, seeing how things do and work or don't work. Biggest thing needed is a new furnace, second being a pan. We can build the furnace given time. Would rather someone else makes the pan, personally. I would like to try one a foot narrower and the sections wider and deeper but I don't know if I can convince everyone else to go along with it.

Lanny