New crusher destemmer added to my vineyard

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wood1954

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I found a used crusher/destemmer on Craigslist and drove four hours west into Minnesota to pick it up. It hadn’t been cleaned after the previous owner used it last. They only used twice. It took about 90 minutes to clean it. It’s manual so I’m already thinking of how to make it easy to operate. I’m thinking either adding a heavy flywheel or a motor.
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Very nice. I helped a friend retrofit one just like that. The keys are to find the biggest fenner pulley you can find (and afford) for the spindle on the crusher, the smallest pulley you can fit on the motor and a motor that goes 1100 rpm or less. The rest of the work is just building a mounting bracket.

I suggest making the motor removable which makes the crusher light enough for one person to carry.
 
...my feeling was that one person should feed it while another cranks.
Yes, thats how we do it. Crusher positioned next to the tailgate of the truck. One person loads the hopper from the back of the truck, the other cranks the handle and offloads the buckets of crushed grapes into the primary fermenter (or press if you're pressing out immediately for making whites). If you can get a third person to do the offloading you can pretty much run continuously.

I think I have exactly the same model (including stand) except mine has a stainless hopper. The only problem I've found is that the chute that delivers the grapes out of the bottom is a bit shallow, and grapes can spill over the sides. Easily fixed by either using a bigger collecting bucket or taping a shield to the sides of the chute...
 
i found a treadmill for free with a DC motor. 2.5 hp, speed is controlled by a slider, there are a couple circuit boards that must track speed and distance etc. Tomorrow i need to figure out how to get rid of everything but the transformer and the slider. The speed is 0-7080 rpms , it runs real nice at a very slow speed, i'll have to put a limiter on the slider so it doesnt accidentally zoom to 700 rpms.
 
i found a treadmill for free with a DC motor. 2.5 hp, speed is controlled by a slider, there are a couple circuit boards that must track speed and distance etc. Tomorrow i need to figure out how to get rid of everything but the transformer and the slider. The speed is 0-7080 rpms , it runs real nice at a very slow speed, i'll have to put a limiter on the slider so it doesnt accidentally zoom to 700 rpms.
I’ve never tried one but that motor sounds perfect. Since it was a treadmill, it will start up slowly, have lots of torque and is designed for long duty cycles. Keep us informed!
 
i found a treadmill for free with a DC motor. 2.5 hp, speed is controlled by a slider, there are a couple circuit boards that must track speed and distance etc. Tomorrow i need to figure out how to get rid of everything but the transformer and the slider. The speed is 0-7080 rpms , it runs real nice at a very slow speed, i'll have to put a limiter on the slider so it doesnt accidentally zoom to 700 rpms.
That's exactly how my C/D was rigged up. Found a basically like new treadmill at the dump and scavenged the motor and controls off of it.

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That’s exactly what I want to do, but I can’t find a pulley that size that takes a flat belt. Where did you get the pulley?
So a retired (mechanical engineer) friend of mine rigged this up for me. This motor used a serpentine belt and he had a custom made serpentine pulley machined to fit. The electronics package slides into place and is held with a pin and cotter key. When you are done and ready to cleanup the C/D you just pull the pin out and the whole motor and control board can be removed for high pressure washing without worry of getting anything (electronics wise) wet.
 
Not to derail the motorization discussion but does anyone know where you can get rubber or nylon rollers for this model of destemmer? When I ordered mine, the store confirmed that it came with rubber rollers but I was misled, it has aluminum... Would love to upgrade if possible. My model is by Marchisio; morewinemaking.com has nylon and rubber rollers for various EnolItalia machines but I don't know if they're compatible.
 
Not to derail the motorization discussion but does anyone know where you can get rubber or nylon rollers for this model of destemmer? When I ordered mine, the store confirmed that it came with rubber rollers but I was misled, it has aluminum... Would love to upgrade if possible. My model is by Marchisio; morewinemaking.com has nylon and rubber rollers for various EnolItalia machines but I don't know if they're compatible.
Measure the shaft diameter and call morewinemaking and see if they are the same, I bet they are.
 

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