Home Distiller

30 gallon cast iron farmers caldren for wood or coal. wonder what i could do with this? cob

FYI that is a washing machine.
ever seen those westerns when there's a Chinese laundry and they are dip washing clothes
Little piece of Americana history.

SCORE

That is quite a nice piece. I could do something seriously redneck with that. Great find.

A fabulous piece. Whatever you do, don't damage it. Is the boiler part copper?

blanik

blanikdog wrote:A fabulous piece. Whatever you do, don't damage it. Is the boiler part copper?


blanik

the boiler is cast iron very good condition. it has two lifting trunions, you can see one., it has a 1/2" hole drilled in the bottem center of the pot which probably saved it from rusting out, and can be repaired with a wood plug, copper hammered bung, or tapped for a threaded plug. it is about 5/8" thick where the hole is drilled.

still crazy wrote:FYI that is a washing machine.
ever seen those westerns when there's a Chinese laundry and they are dip washing clothes
Little piece of Americana history.

SCORE

sorry stillcrazy my recources are antique collectors not tv westerns and their opinions are unanimous with the farmers caldron. these were made in 22, 30, 40,50, and 60 gallons washing was done in copper, or later galvanized pots because washing in cast iron made your tighty whities orange cob

most likely used ts scaled pigs/render fat,making soap.the hole probably was drilled and used as a decoration, possibly as a flower pot.
it whould be good cooking grain, cast heats very even.that is why it was/and still used.

That is very cool, but wouldn't the iron be bad for distilling? I thought that not having iron in the water was an important thing in a distillers water supply...

Maybe you wouldn't pick up enough cooking in it to make a difference??? Thats really cool anyway!

Dnderhead wrote:most likely used ts scaled pigs/render fat,making soap.the hole probably was drilled and used as a decoration, possibly as a flower pot.
it whould be good cooking grain, cast heats very even.that is why it was/and still used.

dnderhead got it 100% including the hole.
i have some corrected and some new information. correction it was made in 22, 30, 45, and 60 gallon pots. new info it sold for $32.50 and the caldron alone sold for $9.25 u.s. i can't determine what year those prices are for, but will guess about 1900.
j.d. iron would be bad for distilling, but dnderhead is right about cooking......is their a chart on the home site about how many lobsters fit a 30 gallon pot? cob

Goodonya dunder. You are indeed the man.

blanik

It may make a nice double boiler with a properly sized pot inside, in the pic it looks as though the cauldron is about the same basic shape as an alembic.

very similar to these ..all these had good solid copper bowls in them the new zealand version i guess thats a beauty it would carnk

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