A Dying Art

Changed an agitator motor on an old 500g Fullwood milk tank today, had a bit of fun getting the paddle out of the old motor, but par for the course with these.

The electrical connections for the motor are in a piece of 3/4" plastic conduit with a lid. It was standard practice with these as with many things of this vintage, designed in the 60s before todays IP65s had been thought of to waterproof this lid once the connections had been made with electrical tape.

I wonder, do they teach this in college these days :D

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Originally Posted by monkey spanners

Changed an agitator motor on an old 500g Fullwood milk tank today, had a bit of fun getting the paddle out of the old motor, but par for the course with these.

The electrical connections for the motor are in a piece of 3/4" plastic conduit with a lid. It was standard practice with these as with many things of this vintage, designed in the 60s before todays IP65s had been thought of to waterproof this lid once the connections had been made with electrical tape.

I wonder, do they teach this in college these days :D

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Most of the students I see think milk comes in plastic bottles from the supermarket. :)

I spent my first 10 years working on all types of bulk milk tanks and I know exactly what you mean about the electrics.

Take the insides, open the front lid and the only thing seperating you or the water from the electrics is the loose fitting lid of the electrics box, which normally was loose or missing.

I like the rubber caps that screwed over the outside of the toddle switches to waterproof them, but on the inside the electrics were almost exposed to the water.

Good machines.

I have replaced the head gastket from an old prestcold with one made from a kellogs box once to get it going. The comp was so rusty you could not recognise it as a comp :).

Cheers taz.

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Years ago i was topping up the water in one of those Fullwood tanks and got distracted by a phone call, came back to find a piece of the polystyrene insulation had blocked the overflow and the waterpump motors were half submerged and still running....

Jon :D

I still install these old full wood tanks even today, and even modern tanks/silos.
Does make me smile when the farmers got his hose pipe all over the front boxes and motors.

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Originally Posted by supra_84

Does make me smile when the farmers got his hose pipe all over the front boxes and motors.

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They fill everything up with water! I fitted some new flourescent lights in the parlour for one customer as he had a dairy inspection in a few days and couldn't get a sparky. Went back the next day to find most of the lights full of water where he had steam cleaned the parlour and the water had got into the trunking and run along into the lights :rolleyes:

Jon :)

Can't remember the name, you might be able to remind me.

The fiberglass blue milk tanks of various sizes.
The little ones had the unit integral on the top of it.

Anyway one farmer we had filled the tank full to the top of milk and it was a large tank that held 1000's of litres of milk.
He had filled it the the top with milk but he had drained the water out of the base. No water meant the weight of the milk was now transfered to the fiberglass base and it just push the legs through the the bottom.

We had to chain the tank out then I had to go inbetween and refiberglass the holes in the bottom. Because of the height of the milk parlour we could only chain the thing up about 2 foot and because I was the lad I was sent in to do the fiberglassing.:rolleyes:


taz.

I think the blue ones would be Alfa Laval, my old boss sold one of these and the leg fell off as we moved it into the dairy, had to fibreglass it back on before the farmer noticed ;)

There were some greeny blue ones as well, Desco's.
Had one of these spring a water leak where the milk vessel bolted through the fibreglass, managed to fix this with one of those cast conduit box lids and some permagum after 2 hours lying on the floor with ice water dripping on me :rolleyes:

Jon :)

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Originally Posted by monkey spanners

I think the blue ones would be Alfa Laval, my old boss sold one of these and the leg fell off as we moved it into the dairy, had to fibreglass it back on before the farmer noticed ;)

There were some greeny blue ones as well, Desco's.
Had one of these spring a water leak where the milk vessel bolted through the fibreglass, managed to fix this with one of those cast conduit box lids and some permagum after 2 hours lying on the floor with ice water dripping on me :rolleyes:

Jon :)

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Alfa Laval,thats the one :D

As for you laying in the water repairing it, you would'nt have it different :D
The joy of being a fridge man eh:p:p

taz

I am searching on the internet for the place where farmers tell stories about refrigeration repair men.:D

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Originally Posted by Frikkie

I am searching on the internet for the place where farmers tell stories about refrigeration repair men.:D

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Oh you could just imagine it could'nt you :eek: :D:D

taz.

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Originally Posted by taz24

Oh you could just imagine it could'nt you :eek: :D:D

taz.

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I think it might be a longer page than this one Taz.:D