Oblique-Wing Reel Churn: Four Wings Across the Line of the Axle

"The angles at the bottom of the chamber opposite to the edges of the agitating wings are cut off by a slanting board on each side, inclining from the bottom to the side at an angle of about 40 or 45 degrees, nicely fitted and made water tight, giving the same play for the wings as they have from the bottom and sides."

Print the reel standing on its cross (/uploads/blueprints/oblique-wing-reel-churn-reel.stl): the wings rise at 30° to the axis and print without supports. Print the front bearing with its drip lip (/uploads/blueprints/oblique-wing-reel-churn-front-bearing.stl), the rear socket (/uploads/blueprints/oblique-wing-reel-churn-rear-socket.stl) and the crank arm (/uploads/blueprints/oblique-wing-reel-churn-crank-arm.stl). Print in PETG at 0.2 mm layers, 30 % infill, 4 walls; wash before first use.

Take a food-safe box about 150 mm square. Drill the front and back on one line 80 mm up, a little below the centre as he set it. Screw the front bearing over the front hole, lip downward, and the rear socket inside the back. Glue two plywood strips into the bottom corners at 45° and seal them with silicone.

Hold the reel inside the box and pass a 12 mm hardwood dowel arbor through the bearing and the reel into the socket. Fix the reel with a small screw through its hub, which comes out again for washing. Glue the crank arm on the arbor's front end and a dowel handle in it. Stand the box on legs at a height for turning.

US 1,860 drawing sheet, public domain (expired patent).

Let the heavy cream stand until it reaches about 15 °C, checked with the thermometer. Pour in 500 ml and fit the lid. Turn the crank steadily and time until the butter comes. Pour off the buttermilk, add cold water, churn a little and pour off again until it runs clear; work in a pinch of salt and weigh the butter. Take out the screw and draw the arbor to lift out the reel, and scald the box clean.

**Constant Webb** of Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut, received US 1,860, dated 26 November 1840. His arms reached about six inches from the centre; the arbor's outer end ran in a metal socket in the front with a lip below "to catch and return the oozing if any should flow"; the wings were curved to approach but not touch the sides and bottom. "For larger dairies the several parts may be proportionally increased." He claimed the reel and the manner in which the agitating wing-boards are arranged upon the arms of the cross. **Honest limits.** A food-safe box and a printed reel with straight wings stand in for his box and curved boards; a screw through the hub stands in for his threaded arbor. FDM prints hold food in their layer lines, so wash well and replace when worn. Your times and weights are the result.