Oblique Box-Dasher Churn: A Hollow Slanted Dasher, Open on Two Sides, Churns Fast and Gathers the Butter Inside It Turned Slow

"The dasher being hollow, a few slow turns of the same causes the butter to collect within the box so as to be removed in a lump. ... The object of the diagonal lips b', b', is, to gather the butter against, and prevent it from being thrown out of the box in turning it around."

Glue up two hardwood ends 22 mm thick, 350 mm wide and 320 tall. On each draw the inside: a 300 mm half circle with its centre 160 mm up, and straight sides rising 150 mm above the centre to the top. Rout a groove 1.6 mm wide and 8 deep on that line. Cut a slot 16.6 mm wide down from the top edge to the centre, rounded at its foot, as the journal bearing, and a hardwood keeper that fills the slot above the journal. Bend a 1.5 mm stainless sheet 416 mm long into a U to fit the line, set it in both grooves with silicone sealant, and screw hardwood sides 22 mm thick outside its straight parts. Screw four hardwood legs 40 x 40 mm, 390 long, to the ends, splayed out. Cut a hardwood lid 444 x 350 x 22 mm, notched over the keepers, with a 25 mm air opening o.

Cut two strips of 1.5 mm stainless sheet 360 mm long, each 160 mm wide; bend each to a curve of about 300 mm radius following the end plates' curved edges, with a 20 mm lip b' at one long edge turned on round the corner. Screw them to the end plates' curved edges, the lips at diagonally opposite corners, leaving the two slanted sides open. Push a 16 mm stainless journal into each end plate's boss and pin it: one 40 mm long, the other 90 mm for the crank. Lay the journals in the slots and drop in the keepers. Pin a crank of mild steel flat bar, 120 mm throw, with a hardwood handle, on the long journal.

Pour about 10 litres of heavy cream at about 15 °C, checked with the thermometer, into the box, so it stands below the axis, and put on the lid. Turn the crank briskly, timing it. When the butter comes, turn the same way slowly for a few turns until it gathers inside the dasher. Lift off the lid and keepers, lift the dasher out by its journals, take out the butter, pour the buttermilk into a bowl, wash the butter in cold water until it runs clear, salt and weigh it.

**Moses D. Wells** of Morgantown, Monongalia County, Virginia (now West Virginia), US 31,756, 19 March 1861, "Churn-Dasher". He claimed "the oblique box dasher D constructed and operating substantially as set forth, that is to say, with two flat sides, two curved sides, and two open sides, and turned in the same direction for churning, and for gathering the butter, but at various velocities". He says only that the journals have "suitable connections to facilitate the removal of the dasher"; ours lie in open slots under keepers. The patent gives no sizes; every size here is ours.