After a long search (we can't afford to buy new) I found a old Cream-Separator. It is a DE LAVAL , NEW WORLD'S STANDART SERIES 14 . The Lady I bought it from, bought it years ago from somebody else and they showed her, how it all went together. She herself never ended up using it, but she is confident that all the parts are there. Unfortunately, she can't remember, how it goes together.It can be crancked as well as has an electric motor. I played around with it, but I simply can't figure it out. Is there anybody out there, that has a instruction manual for one of these? Maybe you would be willing to copy it? Or maybe you know how a Separator goes together? I need any help I can get on this! If you need more information, on what parts I have here, please e-mail me, and I will do my best, to describe them to you. Thank you for any help. Karin

-- karin morey (www.wind_crest@hotmail.com), January 09, 2001

Answers

You might try finding what you need at one of these sites. http://binderbooks.com/index.html This site sells reprinted manuals for International products including cream separators.

This site is being redone and is pending full usage. It had a bulletin board for antique separators. The old link I had directly to the bulletin board is no longer usable, but here is the link to the main site. http://www.sepinc.com

Putting the cones into proper order is the biggest hurdle that you will face. I think they are numbered, or ours on the farm were.

-- Notforprint (Not@thekeyboard.com), January 09, 2001.

Go to www.ebay.com and search on cream separator. You will find listings there for instruction manuals.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 09, 2001.

I guess the De Laval brand would be similar to the Alfa Laval we saw in this country, most cream separators seem to be much the same anyway!

You should have the mechanical bit, a sort of gear box which will have a little spindle that spins really fast as the handle is turned. You will want to bolt this to a bench, it might even have legs for bolting to the floor.

There are two common types, one has a large bowl fitted with a sort of tap (faucet?), the other has a smaller bowl with the milk outlet in the bottom of the bowl. The big type of bowl sits on a bracket/stand arangement on top of the gearbox, the smaller type of bowl sits on the top of the machine, in both cases the bowl is the last part to be put in place. Some big machines won't have a bowl at all, they were installed in milking sheds with large vats for the milk.

You should have a heavy assembly, a sort of cone shaped thing that will fit and balance on the little spindle thing. Alternatively you should have a large number of small pieces which you will assemble to make up the cone thing.

If the cone is already assembled you should take it apart, it needs to be washed and anyway you have to do this everyday. Disassemble by unscrewing the round nut on the top of the cone, there should be a wrench thing with two small nipples that will fit the holes in the nut thing.

Okay, you have everything before you and everything, except the gearbox, has been freshly washed and dried.

Find the round, heavy steel thing that might be imagined to look like a candlestick. Place this on your work space, a rubber ring is fitted into the rim of this piece. Now find a chunky, vague cone shaped, (maybe brass coloured) piece of metal that slides down the shaft of the 'candlestick'.

There should be a dozen or so 'skimmers' these are light metal cones with holes in them, they should fit over the chunky piece. Skimmers are often stainless steel.

There should be a single cone left that probably has three ridges down it, it looks a bit like the skimmers but will have (probably) no holes in it. Take a close look at this as near the top there should be a little set screw. Drop this cone over the skimmers and all that is left is the heavy top of the cone, drop this in place and there should be a few turns of thread exposed. Screw on the round nut and tighten quite firmly.

Place the cone on the spindle, it should spin freely. Resist the temptation to turn the handle at this stage, the cone can reach very high speed (maybe a few thousand RPM) and if it jumps off someone will get hurt.

Now lets turn to the tinware. There will be two similar (but not identical) spounts, these fit one above the other and that assembly fits above cone thing. The top spout will deliver the cream. The biggish end of the cream spout will have a shallower appearance to that of the milk spout. You can move these around to suit where you have your cream bowl and the skim milk bucket (oops! must remember to say 'pail').

There should be another round piece that will fit on top of the spout and will have a small tube that extends down into the hole at the top of the cone.

One of the few bits left should be the float, a hollow metal circular thing, it drops in the top.

If you have the big type bowl then that goes on the bracket at the top of the gearbox with the faucet thing over the float. If you have a smaller type machine the whole bowl assembly fits on top and will have some sort of valve arangement that goes just above the float.

Turn the handle, you might find it quite hard to turn especially when I tell you that you must maintain a minimum speed which as I recall is something like 55 turns per minute. Keep a steady pressure on the handle as the cone gets up to speed. Most machines had a bell that rung each turn of the handle but this ring changes to a dull metallic click as you reach the magic speed.

Pour about a gallon of water into the bowl, turn the handle up to speed again and turn on the faucet. Water should flow out the milk spout. Turn off the faucet before allowing the machine to slow down, unless you want an unsheduled floor mop job. Empty the bowl.

Let the cone spin down then lift off the tinware bits, there should be no water in the space where the cone runs, if there is then the rubber ring in the cone is no good or maybe you did not put enough effort into tightening the nut.

If everything is ok you can milk Daisey and put her milk in the bowl. Get the machine up to speed again, turn on the faucet and watch for the magic to happen. Don't forget to keep the speed up until all the milk is done.

You might have a frame thing that fits over the top of the bowl, this would originally have held a strainer to remove unmentionables from the milk. You might have a weird springy strip of steel with loops on the ends, this was for mounting on a worksurface as a form of clamp and will hold the cone while you wrestle with the nut.

You will also need long bottle brushes for cleaning.

If you have an electric machine the same rules about speed apply. Most systems had a form of slipping clutch so that the motor would not burn out while trying to get the machine up to speed. If the clutch is adjustable just tighten it enough to operate, if it won't come up to speed or if the bell starts to 'ding' while operating then tighten the clutch a bit.

You can adjust the amount of cream extracted by adjusting the little set screw I mentioned near the top of the cone.

Washing is a chore but can be made easier with a couple of tricks, run warm water through after the milk, use wire about, #8 gauge, to make a large bobby pin type thing, you thread all the skimmers and bits on this then shake them in the sink of washing water.

I hope my memory has not let me down!

-- John Hill (john@cnd.co.nz), January 11, 2001.

Well done John!!! I am really impressed. I was trying to figure out how to tell someone all that stuff and could not get it sorted. I bought ours used, but it was all put together. I never knew that little screw would change the cream setting. Thanks :}

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 11, 2001.

Thanks Dianne, I have not seen a cream separator for about 35 years but I bet they have not changed much! Is my memory slipping or is there not a pin that must be in the right place when fitting the top to the cone?

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), January 12, 2001.

I don't have a pin on mine, things just won't fit together on the cone if they aren't lined up just right, there is a little notch on the cone cover and then a little thingy sticking out on the bottom piece that slide together when you tighten it down. Is that the pin you mean?

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 12, 2001.