Cream Separator - Anyone Want to Experiment?

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As pointed out on another post new cream separators are expensive ($700 and up). The ones I have seen come up at farm auctions never have instructions and all appear to be missing parts.

As far as I know a separator works on the centrifuse principle. Is anyone willing to try this?

Put the milk in tightly sealed glass jars. Evenly space them around the bottom of a washing machine tub. Then cushion them with a blanket, soft foam insulation or something. Now set the machine on the final spin cycle.

You may have to use wood frames or something between the jars to help keep them from all going to one side of the tub. Do a bit of family brainstorming first.

Who's adventurous?

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 29, 2000

Answers

How about using a thick piece of foam like used in patio furniture. Cut it to the shape of the wash tub (use cardboard as pattern). When done the foam should look like a large donut. Then cut holes in the foam at 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock and 6 and 9 o'clock and place glass jars in holes. Maybe top it with another foam donut so the jars don't jump. How much milk would you put in jars, 1/2 full, 3/4's? I don't have a cow or I would give it a shot. Can anyone add or improve on this idea?

-- Mark in NC Fla (deadgoatman@webtv.net), November 29, 2000.

My separator runs the milk with the centrifical force through a bunch of discs. What part do they play in separating the cream from the milk? Are you thinking maybe the force of the centrifuge would make the fat molecules separate out to the top? That would be an interesting concept and save having to wash all those discs!!! In my quiet days of winter I will have to give this some thought.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 29, 2000.

A simple test would be to put raw milk in a jar and twirl it around your head awhile. Then check to see if there is separation of the milk and cream. If cream is heavier than the milk, I would think the cream would be on the bottom of the jar. Comments?

-- JLS in NW AZ (stalkingbull007@AOL.com), November 29, 2000.

Cream floats.We had always put the milk in the frigin wide mouth gallon jars,left it to seperate on it's own,then skimmed off the cream.What's wrong with a low tech method? I don't understand needing a cream seperator at all.Clue me in.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), November 29, 2000.

Cream in cow's milk will float to the top (a lot of it anyway). However, it will take several days for the cream in goat's milk to do so. In the meantime the milk or cream can pick up an off-odor. Thus, a separator is a quick way to get almost all of the cream quickly.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 29, 2000.


how about useing a honey extractor,, that way you could contol how fast it spins. Anyone got milk ??????

-- STAN (sopal@net-port.com), November 29, 2000.

Cream floats. Steel ships "float" and they are heavier than water.

-- JLS in NW AZ (stalkingbull007@AOL.com), November 29, 2000.

LOL!! Cream floats because it is mostly fat, and fat is LIGHTER than water!! I don't think Ken's idea will work, though I will be interested to hear from anyone who tries it! I think that without the separator plates, the cream would just mix back in with the milk. I am going to try making butter (our primary use for cream) without separating the cream out first -- you would have to shake a larger volume of liquid, and it would probably take longer, but it should work, especially if the milk sits in the frig for a day and then I use the top half of the jar. Most other things work fine with straight whole milk instead of cream. (Ice cream recipes included!)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), November 29, 2000.

We have two cream seperators here at the farm and my mom still put her milk in a shallow pan, about 6" deep, on the bottom shelf of the frig. and skimmed the cream off the top next morning. She made a skimmer, took an oval piece of tin, punched holes in it and kinda cupped the metal. She had seperated cream and made butter for years this way. Had a glass butter jar with a hand crank, pattles in the jar. I remember one summer for some reason they couldn't sell the milk so mom moved her washing machine, the old fashion wringer type out on the porch, filled it with cream, set it to agitating and made a washing machine full of butter. She had a rather large round wooden bowl and a wooden butter paddle that she worked the buttermilk out of the butter. Kept washing it with clear water until the water stayed clear. She sold 1# patts of butter at the factory where she was working at the time. It was probably to much work cleaning the seperators. The one here have about 12 or 14 disks. I've often wondered how they worked since they do spin, however neither one spins very fast. How do creamery's seperate cream on a really large scale for 1/2% milk and so forth?

Make me wonder now to what happened to the big bowl, paddles and butter churn. Amazing how so many of those things walked off the farm. Oh well, I'm not making butter anyway but would be nice to have moms stuff.

-- Betsy K (betsyk@pathwaynet.com), November 29, 2000.


at the lab, the centrifuges for separating "specimens" hold the tubes at about a 45 degree angle, with the tops toward the center. I'm guessing that this reduces the remixing when removing the tubes (over what it would be like if the tubes were horizontal) and increases the action of the centrifuge (over what it would be like if the tubes were vertical). So I would think a frame that held jars at that angle would work best, if the speed of the washer were up to the job.

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), November 29, 2000.


Raw cow's milk also contains an enzyme that helps separation. I donated samples of goats' milk for a dairy science class years ago and that was one of the things the class tried in lab. The goats' milk that had a bit of raw cow's milk added separated nearly as fully and quickly as the straight cow's milk. So....does your neighbor own a fresh cow?

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), November 29, 2000.

I never did figure just how a cream separator works except to recall that they are jolly hard work if you had to turn the handle.

They work on a centrifugal principle where the milk is forced between a number of thin steel plates that are tightly compressed together.

A useful experiment might be to put some milk in a porous container in the washing machine. I expect the milk would spin out before the cream. However I have no idea of just how one might make practical use of such an technique.

-- John H (john@cnd.co.nz), November 30, 2000.


I have only seperated cream by letting it sit in the fridge over night then skimming off the top. For making butter I have put cream in a large mouth canning jar half ful. Wait until cream is room temps. then shake like crazy. You will see the butter seperating. This is great arm exersises. I have also used an electric butter churn that uses a 5 gallon bucket. The moter was hooked on top of the metal stand. Under the moter was a metal rod with a plunger type of metal that had holes throughout the sides. It ran well, and I noticed it did not go fast. If you overmix the cream the butter will not seperate. Also if the cream is too warm it will not seperate. If I were to use my washing machine with glass jars, I think the machine would spin too fast for butter. Be careful when trying this as the jars might displace and crash against each other and break.

-- michelle (tsjheath@ainop.com), December 05, 2000.

I am sorry.I have a question that where I can get a cream extracter for Goat or Cow's milk for commersial perpose????

-- smita (smita_pradeept@hotmail.com), March 05, 2002.

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