You don't have a McGyver forum so ...

[bobofthenorth]

I'm a McGyver kind of guy so it was inevitable. I read here about using vacuum and said to myself "Self -- I could do that." 5 bux sent to China bought that little white pump. A bit of plywood, a leftover wall wart for 12V power and a switch from my junk drawer later and here we are. I've read about how thoroughly transferring with vacuum degasses so I did a little test. I had 2 carboys of Costco wine ready to transfer so for the 1st one I pulled a vacuum on the carboy before doing anything. It literally boiled as the CO2 came out. Then I transferred it and tried pulling a vacuum again - nothing. For the 2nd carboy I just went ahead and transferred it and then tried pulling a vacuum. I got a little bit of activity but really nothing. Total cash cost so far is actually under 5 bucks but I had the wall wort and the switch so maybe an honest 15 bux total. I've got some vacuum gauges ordered which will more or less double my investment when they arrive but I'm a pretty happy guy tonight.

 

[my wine]

For the 2nd carboy I just went ahead and transferred it and then tried pulling a vacuum. I got a little bit of activity but really nothing.

Hi bobofthenorth. How did you transfer it? Siphon? Hand pump? Wine pump? Whatever you used seemed to get most of the CO2 out.

 

[bobofthenorth]

Hi bobofthenorth. How did you transfer it? Siphon? Hand pump? Wine pump? Whatever you used seemed to get most of the CO2 out.

Sorry - I guess I wasn't clear that I just used my McGyver suction pump to do the transfers.

As a side note, the suction pump is way cool for x-fers. No more setting carboys lower so the siphon will run and then having to lift them back up onto the bench. No more worries about the siphon drawing air and having to restart it on an almost empty carboy.

 

[BernardSmith]

Nice job, but sorry, no patent for you, bobofthenorth. Allinonepump, on this forum, has been making and using pumps for years for exactly the same purposes and he is the McGyver here - He has designed and makes devices that remove headroom from carboys without any need to fill the space with questionable glass marbles, water (which dilutes your wine) or bottles of commercial or your own produced similar wines..

 

[my wine]

Agreed, nice job! You should celebrate with a bottle of wine.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Good creativity and everything is better with pictures!, ,, most home winemaker tools started as an idea like this.

my basic 12 volt pump does 15 to 16 inches Hg
a tandem plastic pump does 19 inches
and a 120 volt AC pump does 24 to 25 inches

Any creative ideas for a small crusher that is flexible enough to do crabapple and grape and gooseberry and even regular apple?

 

[bobofthenorth]

y basic 12 volt pump does 15 to 16 inches Hg
a tandem plastic pump does 19 inches
and a 120 volt AC pump does 24 to 25 inches

I'm waiting for some cheapo gauges to arrive from the Evils Republic of China so I have no idea what pressure differential I am getting. I know when I unwrapped the pump I thought I had been scammed because it is so impossibly tiny I didn't think it could ever do anything. It turned out to work just fine and the bonus for it being so tiny is that my milli-amp rated wall wort powers it with no trouble.

Nice job, but sorry, no patent for you, bobofthenorth. Allinonepump, on this forum, has been making and using pumps for years for exactly the same purposes and he is the McGyver here

Well then there's a new sheriff in town. I've got 5 canuckbux cash cost in mine. That's like 50 American cents. True McGyverism is cheap and my picture is next to "cheap" in the dictionary.

 

[JustJoe]

So, where did you order the pump from?

 

[bobofthenorth]

So, where did you order the pump from?

The Evils Republic of China

 

[sour_grapes]

Allinonepump ... is the McGyver here

I strongly believe that there is ample room for many McGyvers on this forum!

 

[JustJoe]

The Evils Republic of China

Did you go to China? Is there a web site where I can find it or is it necessary to go there?

 

[winemaker81]

@bobofthenorth, post more details about your sources.

While not exactly a McGyver, I'm a do-it-yourself guy. Plus I'm a cheap SOB who will happily put in some sweat equity to spend less than $25 USD for a commercial solution that costs $250+. Building is fun!

 

[my wine]

Thanks for the link to the web site. Long wait time for delivery but if that's not important ...

 

[winemaker81]

Thanks for the link to the web site. Long wait time for delivery but if that's not important ...

The styling used on this site is a PITA. I didn't realize that was a link.

 

[franc1969]

Love this! I've though of getting a cheap pump and asked what Rice_Guy uses. I need to wait for Xmas to see if I get an AIO, but want to transfer and filter. Cheaper is great, and I already need to figure out switch and power for a spinner.
How did you connect wall wort and switch?

 

[bobofthenorth]

I am ashamed to confess that I buy a lot of stuff off AliExpress. A good friend introduced me to the site many years ago & I rapidly became addicted. They are great for cheap ****. I rarely spend more than $10 on a single purchase there. Shipping is a complete crap shoot. That vacuum pump for example came in about 3 weeks. I've also had stuff take over 2 months. Their tracking is an absolute joke. One positive thing I will say about AliExpress is that the organization steps in to support customers. Their vendors run the gamut but if you ever get in trouble - ie. don't receive something - its no questions asked - you get your money back right now.

I never throw any electronics out so we've got this huge box of "stuff" in the office closet. I just rummage around in it and usually eventually it coughs something up. Quick test with the multimeter to see which is + and -. Then its soldering time. The little rocker switch was likely salvaged from something - it was in my electronics parts drawer.

The biggest challenge was the ports on the pump. They are so impossibly tiny it was hard to come up with a small enough hose to make the initial connection to the pump. I've got a miscellaneous hose box that usually delivers. This time it was some leftover diesel return hose off my 300D. I had some hard nylon line that likely would have worked too - it looks like pressure sender hard line. I put a couple of layers of shrink wrap over the hose to hold it tight to the nipple and to bulk it up a bit.

 

[bobofthenorth]

Any creative ideas for a small crusher that is flexible enough to do crabapple and grape and gooseberry and even regular apple?

I just built an 80 ton shop press out of scrap iron. It wouldn't be hard to come up with a stainless vessel with some kind of piston inside it that would fit in an existing press. I've never done fresh fruit so pardon the stupid question(s). Is the goal simply to squash the fruit or are you trying to extract juice?

 

[skyfire322]

Any creative ideas for a small crusher that is flexible enough to do crabapple and grape and gooseberry and even regular apple?

You could go full on Gallagher, buy a sledgehammer and just smash the living heck out of them. Good way to get some aggression out too

Might need some tarp for the scraps though.

 

[ratflinger]

Vacuum degassing sounds great but IMHO it's just a waste of time. I tried it, gave it a serious go, and when it came down to it just letting it sit in a carboy for 3 mo accomplished the same thing with no effort on my part. Now racking with vacuum is another story, works really well. I have moved on from that too, I now have a Sure-flo pump that will pump air so I can push through my filter and completely empty it with just the pump.