Old farmhouse find. What is it? HELP!

[richmud]

This was found in an old farmhouse in Kentucky and i can't find anything like it on the internet. Does anyone know what it may be? The tub is about 5 or 6 gallons with a slanted bottom and a spigot. Please help.

[hosman321]

Welcome to the forum!
Are they parts to a moonshine still?

[mart]

Can only see the last pic but looks like a washtub to me !! The kind you would use with a rub board !! Would be too heavy to lift and pour out dirty water so the spigot made it easy to drain !!

[CuriousCollector]

I agree that it looks like parts to a still.

[mart]

For a still it would have to have a lid !! The lid is where the condenser (worm) would attach !! It doesn`t look like it  had a lid !! The pot would have been the evaporator for the mash !!   Of course all the parts may not be there. There is one part that looks interesting but cannot see it well !! Would be good to know what its made of !! The evaporator and condenser is usually copper !!

[richmud]

Here is a pic of the (filter) it consists of several aluminum cones with holes in them.

[CuriousCollector]

What appears to be missing are all the pieces that would have been copper.  Copper prices being so high, it's not surprising.  It's worth more for its melt value than at tag-sale value.

[mart]

The pot " evaporator " that is shown, if it is copper that would have been where the money was !! Condenser would have only been about 2 ft. of copper tubing.  The person hasn`t told us what the pot with the spigot is made of !! It would help if we knew what all parts are made of !!

[richmud]

The pot is made of metal not copper. I also posted this on another forum and the answer I got was a cream separator. I have never seen one though. Does this sound like what it may be. Thank for the responses.

[mart]

Actually it could have been a cream separator !! Raw milk would be strained into the pot, cream rises to the top and can be dipped off !! But it looks more like, after the cream rises the milk was drained from the pot by the spigot and the cream remained to be drained last !!   Cream would have been churned for butter and buttermilk !! I have milked a few cows in my day but not quite that many !! This could have been used in a small farm dairy with 3 or 4 cows !! Back in those days that would have been a pretty good income for a family !!  We only had two cows, a holstein and a jersey, and they supplied all 2 families needed and raised a few calves at the same time.

[waywardangler]

mart is correct, those are parts to a cream separator.

[cogar]

I thought there were only two ways to separate the cream from the milk.

Either by centrifical force or by letting the butterfat rise to the top and skimming it off. My mommy use to do that skimming thingy bout everyday when I was a child. One could put those skimmings in a churn and make butter or in a Cream Can and sell it. And that is why even to this day we still call them Milk Crocks and the old blue and green ones are highly collectible.

My 1st thought for the use of that pot & parts pictured above was for Maple Syrup making because the Maple sap should be strained before it is put into the pot to boil off ........ but, there are a few of those parts I can't think of a use for.

And Maple Syrup making is not a 1 day thingy, it goes on contiinuously for 2 to 3 weeks. With the spigot and slanted bottom of the pot ....... one could drain off a "batch" of syrup into small containers (jars or cans)...... and then immediately add more Maple sap for the next "batch" without ever taking the pot off of the "HOT" stove surface.    

[mart]

We also used the crock churn for butter and buttermilk. But a setup like this,, which I honestly have never seen before, could have been for a larger production. Many times any excess milk left after the cream rises was fed to the hogs on our farm.  And even with our two cows when you figure milking twice a day and the cows giving at least a gallon each, (our holstein gave much more than that ) its still a lot of milk !! You would have left a couple of gallons with the cream for buttermilk !! If I had thought about something like this,, I would have certainly used it !!  I hated having to wash and clean those crock churns !! You do have to dip off any cream from the drinking milk, but usually we left the cream in ours !!  Taking off the cream made it taste like store bought milk !!

[cogar]

Now those parts do look like they are from an old cream separator, like this one …..
 

But I don’t think that 5-6 gallon tub with a slanted bottom and a spigot was part of said separator but I could be wrong.

Me thinks it served the same purpose as this new one …….



Which can be purchased here from MKS Enterprises: 
http://www.maplemadness.com/backyard.html

[richmud]

Yes, I believe it is parts to a cream separator. Thanks for all the info everyone it was a big help.