Steve Slatin on sat 19 nov 05
Guys --
Simple always wins in these kinds of things. Two
suggestions.
1. Now, before the hard freeze, pug all you need
until spring, and clean the mill. Trims and so on
save in a giant tub in the garage, for spring, when
everything melts and the pugmill is ready to go again.
Total cost -- Maybe $10 for the giant tub, and an hour
to get it and bring it home. Reusable, no subsequent
cost for many years.
2. Clean the mill now, and let it freeze if it wants
to. Wait until you want to do some big-time
recycling, and hang the old electric blanket over the
mill maybe 10 a.m. -- By 2 p.m., it should be thawed
enough to work. Check the mechanism (if you've got an
adjustable belt that drives the screw, loosen it and
make sure the screw moves freely). If it's ready to
go, pug like crazy and when everything's cycled
through, clean mechanism, store electric blanket, and
wait for spring as per suggestion #1.
Total cost -- a dollar or two for heat each time it
has to be used. Time spent setting up the e-blanket,
10 mins. each time.
Building all these fancy boxes and paying to heat them
would be much bigger a job, and except for letting
Kelly have the joy of cleaning out a pugmill several
times in the dead of winter, they really don't improve
things that much.
Just my 2 groschen -- Steve S
Steve Slatin --
And I've seen it all, I've seen it all
Through the yellow windows of the evening train...
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Lili Krakowski on sat 19 nov 05
About the pug mill. The electric blanket did not appeal to me...It might be
a hazard, and anyway the problem is not getting heat in, but keeping it in.
Those heat tapes that keep pipes from freezing do no more than that...they
hardly keep anything warm.
You say pugmill is in the garage. Ok. After thinking about it all day: I
would get some plywood and enclose the pug mill. I have a Bluebird and one
stands in front and the extrusion comes out on the right end. I would build
a box, a sort of phone booth, and it would have three fixed sides. The
back (B) and the side where the motor is (A) would be solid, and the side
(C) where the snout is, what IS it called?--where the clay comes out, would
be solid. except for a hole through which some six inches of the snout
protrude. I would seal the snout into the hole with some foam rubber. I
would attach some sort of chute or trough somehow so that the clay does not
fall on the floor.
The front side, where I would be standing, ( D) would be hinged to (A) so
that it would be swung back when I am working and closed when I am not.
Because the making of a ceiling, top, roof, whatever would be a pain, I
would simply have a big piece of insulation board, or a blanket, I put over
the thing at night.
Now. How to heat? Well I expect one of the lamp things you have used for
your chicken brooder should work, or an electric heating pad, or those heat
tapes. As long as the heat is retained (you might insulate the box--from
the outside, with that outside insulation board) the pugmill should be
happy.
All I can think of for your clay buckets is to get one of those big rubber
tubs, put the claybuckets in, fill the tub with water, and use an aquarium
heater....
PS: At this time of year snowplow and snowmobile dealers have a bunch of
wonderful crates. Around here they knock them down for kindling, but you
might be able to get a couple, and build your booth out of that....
And, hey, Gull, congrats. Looking forward to reading you.
Lili Krakowski
Gordon Ward on sat 19 nov 05
Throw a "space blanket" over the pug mill and put a light bulb under it
for heat. That would seem the easiest, so the first thing to try.
Ages ago, when I lived in the country, I used an egg washer bucket to
keep my throwing water warm. It has a built in element w/ thermostat
that keeps the water at just the right temperature (warm enough for
washing eggs, but not so warm as to cook them).
Gordon
On Nov 19, 2005, at 5:47 PM, Lili Krakowski wrote:
> All I can think of for your clay buckets is to get one of those big
> rubber
> tubs, put the claybuckets in, fill the tub with water, and use an
> aquarium
> heater....
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