CheeseForum.org ยป Forum
GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => EQUIPMENT - Making Cheese => Topic started by: Cartierusm on January 20, 2009, 01:27:10 AM
-
Ok so now that I know my construction works for stringing the wires I went ahead and built two new perfect curd knives. Here are a couple of pics of the frames all welded and buffed. I will string the wires tomorrow. They are all stainless steel and the handle are solid. Got a sweet deal on a 5' section of 5/8" solid stainless steel for $5. I recently changed metal supplier as the old ones were screwing me. I can't believe the new company is literally 50% cheaper. The one with two cross bars are for the horizontal cuts. The one with one bar is for vertical cuts. In pictures I've seen for vertical cuts they have another long bar down the center, but to me if the sides are not supported they will start to buckle when the wires are stung. My way makes it much more sturdy. They are both 8" wide and 24" tall.
-
These look great. Nicely done. a couple of questions.
What gas is required to weld SS?
Aslo, what are the dimentions of your SS flatbar?
-
OH you want me to talk about gas! ;D Depends on what type of welding, if it's Tig welding then straight argon, if it's mig welding TriMix which is expensive. I tigged these as I want the welds to be small, accurate and sanitary. Sanitary welds are welds without holes in the puddle. Hard to explain unless you weld. Mig welding leaves tons of little holes. The SS flatbar is 1/2" x 1/8". Very flimsy until you weld up a frame.
P.S. I'm just going to make 1/2" cut ones, then when I cut the curd I can double cut, or if I'm feeling up to it next week I'll make 1/4" ones. Knowing me I'll be doing that.
-
Carter, those look fantastic. You do realize that you are killing me, right? Have I mentioned that I really want to get a quality set of curd knives??
Do you also realize that coveting is a sin and with your photos you are causing this to happen in my life???
Okay, that's enough guilt laid for now.
I'll be back later with more (btw, Jewish mothers have NOTHING on Irish mothers when it comes to laying guilt. I have been taught well). ;D
Dave
-
Let chose a few words from that last statement shall we? Sin, Covet, Laid, killing, knives, life, guilt. Sounds like a script for Law and Order.
Sorry about the drool factor Dave but remember pace yourself, you have a new cheese press coming, that should hold you over. Remember professional curd knives are $2000, at least from my competition. ;D
-
Carter, those look really good. Did you drill a ton of little holes to string the wire through to do one continuous run or are you doing each wire individually?
What TIG welder are you using? I've been 'shopping' for a used Miller here locally for the last 3 years and still have not uncovered anything worth while. Here with all the oilfield activity lately (may be drying up again with the barrel price) we have a lot of welders but mostly truck mounted MIG setups.
-
Thanks Ryan, I have a 300amp Miller. I weld my neighbors cars door shut at night. I always thought about using my plasma cutter to cut a car in half if they cut me off in traffic. OOPs thought this was my therapy session.
The wires were not on in that pic here is a pic of the finished vertical knife. I'm going into the shop in few minutes to do the Horizontal cut. No I don't string the wires through, that won't work, once you bend the wire around the side it will crease on the edge of the metal and then as you string it retentioning which is the most important part would be impossible. And drilling small holes in SS is almost impossible, you would go through a ton of bits.
-
SA-WEEET!!! 8)
You definately have that nailed now. What did you end up with for the wire? SS fishing line?
-
Carter, looks great, makes me sorry I'm not making cheese batches that big! Congrats!
-
Carter...
Once again, I'm more than impressed. You certainly have a nack for manufacturing.
Great looking work!
Dave
-
Thanks. I'm using the same wire I used before it's welding wire .023. I just finished the hoziontal cut one. I'll post pics later today. I've definately got the technique down, it's really not that hard once you employ the right skills.
-
I just can say WOW. Wish I could build that or find someone here to build them for me based on your pictures. They look great!
-
Sing/Gerrit & Others
FYI, Carter has a website in his profile where he's going to be making and selling his knives.
-
Carter,
One thing I have been concerned about, (and Wayne mentioned this in an earlier post), is the fact that when introducing the knife into the curd you will smash a half inch wide section of the curd to bits.
After seeing these photos I see you have taken care of that problem...
By making an angled handle, the knife can be inserted at a sharp angle and then leveled out once it is in place. If I'm picturing this correctly, that will only affect the curd by the 1/8" thickness of the flat bar. FANTASTIC DESIGN!
You never cease to amaze me with your ability.
I'll be contacting you for a set of these, shortly.
Dave
-
Thanks Dave. All the design are this way and when I insert it into curds that has set properly it just breaks and allows it in. It really doesn't hurt it.
-
So you are going to add horizontal wires on to that curdknife too?
-
No I have a separate knife for that. I'll post pics soon.
-
... when introducing the knife into the curd you will smash a half inch wide section of the curd to bits.
This might be a silly question, but is there any harm in having the curd knife already in the vat just after adding the rennet? That way you can just start dragging it once the curd sets without causing a 1/2 inch piece of metal to smash the curd as you introduce the knife.
BTW, Beautiful Knifes!
Quick question, since you are not stringing the wire, are you welding each and every end to the frame?
-
the knives and frame act as a lever and if they move or vibrate ever so slightly it'll mess up the set. Best to put them in after it sets.
-
I agree with everyone that those knives look great. A little out of my price range since 400 dollars is the monthly salary of a professor at my university. The welders in my country only get 8-10 dollars a day, so I will probably have my metal shop here construct something similar.
I do have a thought though. Since most of us use large pots for cheese production, wouldn't making a ring shaped outer bar the size of 20/30qt stock pots work better.
If you have a rectangular shaped vat those would work great. I would take 10 or 12 gauge s. steel wire make the out ring with two straight handles sticking up on either side. Then use the thinner wire like a 24 or 26 guage welded to it. You push the wire through the cheese rotate it 90 degrees and bring it up. That way you get your perfect size in one up and down motion.
Do you think that would work?
-
Think about it, when you push it through it's only making vertical cuts, you still have to make horizontal cuts. The way you describe you'd get long cubes. Plus you won't be able to weld that wire, you need to solder it.
-
you are right that you only make vertical cuts when you go down, but then you rotate 90 degrees when you are under the curd and pull up slicing it the other direction. soldering and welding in my language are the same word but I get your point.
-
WHen you go down you are going vertical, just because you turn it 90 degrees at the bottom and pull up you are still pulling up vertically. In order to cut them as 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/2" cubes you would have to push down, rotate 90 degrees,pull up, rotate a little to cut the long cubes into uniform cubes. Pull up 1/2" rotate 90, pull up 1/2", rotate. Get it? If not then try visualizing it, just going down once, rotating 90 degrees once and pulling up will give you long 1/2" x 1/2" cubes, that are the length of the pot 14" or what ever size pot you have.
-
Hi,
There actually is a curd knife for round vats that is a beauty and it functions very similar to what you had in mind - only that it adds horizontal wires. I saw it on a German Cheese Supplier's web site. It is obvious that this kind of knife only fits one diameter vat, but then again how often does one change vats. The company sells a knife specific to each of their vats which come in sizes of 70l, 150l and 300l. (unfortunately they are fully automatic and a bit pricey).
For the sake of cleaning, I would hope the vertical section is detachable ...
-
I have seen thos in France for cam. manufacture. They are very old school, a son-of-a-b(*^%#@ to clean and it's all one wire, so when it breaks....it BREAKs. I didn;t know anyone made these anymore.
-
I just ordered some Stainless Steel flatbar. (1/8" X 5/8") and will be constructing a simple curd knife from Stainless Steel fishing line and SS eyebolts.
If a line breaks, i snip a new line and re-string it.
As I build, I will post the design and pics.
-
Good luck Wayne. Can't wait to see what you come up with.
Cartier, I would love if you could post a close up of your string welds.
I also had a thought of why not have both horizontal and vertical wires on one knife welded to either end?
I think having two large knives takes up a lot of room.
Thanks again for sharing your pics and designs. They look very good.
-
We discussed this already, not sure where, but you'll find it.