1. I built my little garbage disposal apple grinder in the early 90's,
and have been using it ever since. It works very, very well. It has
always puzzled me why more people don't try it. I have posted a fair
number of messages on the garbage grinder over the past few years, and
still see people looking for a fast, efficient way to grind apples.
That way is not a toothed grinder a la Happy Valley's "apple eater",
which should be called the apple chunker. The household garbage
disposal is a miniature hammermill, which produces an apple slurry with
the juice cells broken up. The effect of a hammermill cannot be
duplicated by teeth, screws, or even knives. And you can walk in to any
Home Depot or Lowes, select your grinder off-the-shelf, build a small
table with simple tools, and be in the apple grinding business in an hour.
2. Mark has identified the two problems with the garbage grinder, which
are its tendency to overheat under continuous usage, and the necessity
of cutting apples in half or even quarters to get them in the throat of
the unit. Mark's solution of using two grinders in parallel is a good
one, but I believe using a better quality (and higher priced) disposal
is another. Because of the environment in which they normally function,
garbage disposal motors are sealed units. They are not naturally
self-cooling. But a small motor will overheat faster than a large one
under similar conditions of load, and the more expensive models have a
larger motor and grinding chambers of all-stainless steel. A larger
motor in a larger enclosure will also dissipate heat better than a small
one. My own grinder is built with the cheapest available disposal
($30), with only a 1/3 hp motor (At the time, I considered it
experimental.). But even so, I can grind continuously for about 1/2
hour before the heat overload pops. If I ever get tired of that, I will
buy the best 3/4 hp $200 disposal I can find.
3. Of course you can engineer and build your own unit at home. Claude
Jolicoeur of Quebec did that, and is very satisfied with the result.
But I suspect that Claude is either a skilled machinist, an engineer, or
both. I wouldn't know where to begin to build a grinder without off-the
-shelf parts. Claude is pretty sure his grinder is faster than a
disposal, and one of these days I will load the disposal grinder in the
pickup and drive to Quebec for a grind-off with Claude. Win or lose, at
least I would get a nice trip to Quebec, and probably have quite a bit
of fun in the process.
4. The Italian hand-cranked machine in the link posted by Tom looks
pretty good, but at $200 is no cheaper than the best garbage disposal.
While Italian-engineered machines are often very good, I look at the
picture of this thing and wonder how its little rollers would deal with
whole apples, and what kind of slurry would emerge below. Aside from
the fact that I think a garbage disposal would be much faster (and motor
driven as well), it is the quality of the slurry that determines juice
yield. When I was using a toothed grinder, 2 gallons per (54 lb.)
bushel was a good yield, and I threw out about as much juice with the
cake as I produced. The disposal grinder will produce 3 gallons per
bushel even with dry apples, and up to 4 gallons with good ones. Heaven
only knows what the Mother Earth News washing machine grinder produced,
but I don't think I could get my wife to turn over the washing machine
for such an experiment. She would probably tell me to go out and buy a
steamroller.
5. Among the comments that I have received in the past on the disposal
grinder is that it must be "unhygienic". Well, not really. You don't
use it for garbage, after all, and cleanup is a snap: Just run the hose
down the throat for a few minutes with the motor running, then squirt it
up from below through the discharge pipe. I have dismantled my disposal
after a season's use, and found it squeaky clean in the grinding
chamber. Another is that cutting the apples before inserting them in
the throat slows down the operation. Well, not by much. When I was
using the "apple eater" grinder I found that whole apples would just
bridge up or rotate over the grinding drum, and I had to cut them in
half to produce even apple pieces.
6. Finally, while I have not heard from too many people who have tried
the disposal grinder, I have heard from no one who tried it and did not
like it.
Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
[NAFEX] Apple Juice in MN,
Don Yellman, 12/21/2003