wrote "I'm visualizing something that holds 4 bottles on gimbals, with an electric motor (small), so that the centrifuge allows the bottles to adjust into the horizontal position as the rpm increases. As the motor slows, the gimbals allow the bottls to settle. When rpm is zero, the bottls hang vertical.
------------------------------------------ you could duct tape the bottles to a mower blade for really fast separation.....just kidding,lucas
My concern with the washingmachine is the high rpm g-forces and restricted working space for bottle attachments.Yes, the cieling fan concept would require some kind of enclosure, but I like the gentleness of it (it doesn't have to be attached to the cieling).
Jeff
That'd be great, but what works for me is an old washing machine. The tub holds twelve 2 liter bottles, standing upright. The G force compacts the lees against a vertical wall of the bottle, but the solids tend to stay in place even after turning off the machine, allowing the relatively clear wine or juice to be decanted fairly cleanly.
BTW, balance isn't all that critical. Washing machines are built to be pretty forgiving of eccentric loading. Still, it's not a bad idea to balance full bottles opposite bottles appropriately weighted with water.
This centrifuge works better on lees from finished wine than it does on juice lees, but it's still good on juice. My yield from either juice or wine lees is usually about 50%. The lees that remain are often too thick to pour, so I throw away the bottles because they're too hard to clean out.
Tom S
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