# antique extractor



## mgstei1 (Jan 11, 2014)

Have one exactly like it for over 40 years. Gave to me by an old beek but like you, dont have any idea who or where it comes from.
Never blows out comb cause the basket mesh has raised ridges the length of the basket.
Grandkids love to spin it. And the cast iron gate never leaks a drop so whoever made that valve, knew what they were doing.


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## Ozark Mountain Bee Team (Mar 21, 2013)

I have the same extractor. I bought it about 8 years ago from an older beekeeper that had moved to Missouri from California. I bought a larger extractor last year and started using this old extractor as a bottling tank. mgsteil1 is correct, the cast iron gate never leaks a drop. I have no idea who, where, or when this extractor would have been made, but I would like to know...


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Looks a bit like a Root, Novice extractor.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

mgstei1 said:


> Have one exactly like it for over 40 years. Gave to me by an old beek but like you, dont have any idea who or where it comes from.
> Never blows out comb cause the basket mesh has raised ridges the length of the basket.
> Grandkids love to spin it. And the cast iron gate never leaks a drop so whoever made that valve, knew what they were doing.


I'd be vigilant with young children around this. My first thought after spinning it was that there are all kinds of ways to get entangled and injured with this. Open gears, no handle disengagement and no lid. Both OSHA and the FDA would hate this thing.


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## Ozark Mountain Bee Team (Mar 21, 2013)

jim lyon said:


> Open gears, no handle disengagement and no lid. Both OSHA and the FDA would hate this thing.


This may be why I love old tools like this!


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## angryhippie (Mar 11, 2010)

I have a 24 frame Root extractor built in the 20's. The thing is awesome, but I would suggest coating the whole thing with Camcoat due to the galvanized metal and lead joints.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

I have one exactly like it. Painted mine white but it was the exact same shade of green. Used the Camcoat on both the inside of the extractor and the basket. Gave it quite a few coats. I use it to extract. Ran at least 50 gallons thru it last fall but I'm not keeping track.
I'm pretty sure it was made in Ohio. Look on the cast iron parts. (crank part). It has the name of the company that made it and what city it was made in. It used to have a spout with a nice valve on it but mine snapped off.
My beekeeper uncle mailed the extractor to me from Oklahoma in 1977 I think. It was old then. It's for sure an antique.

@jim lyon. Before you roast me for using the extractor and selling honey out of it.
I'm in Illinois as you can see. Here we're exempt from USDA and FDA regs until we sell more than 3 TONS/year. 
I'll buy something nice and stainless once I hit that mark.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Just drove to the extractor shed to look. 
If you look closely along the bottom edge of the crank assembly...the bar that is the main support it says in fairly small letters that look stamped in or maybe it was cast that way.

The Standard Churn Company Wapakoneta, Ohio. 

Google "the standard churn company honey extractor" then look at the images and the very first one is a picture of your extractor.

Here is an old article with a picture of the same extractor. 
http://www.beeculture.com/beeyard-thoughts-observations-updates/


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

aunt betty said:


> Just drove to the extractor shed to look.
> If you look closely along the bottom edge of the crank assembly...the bar that is the main support it says in fairly small letters that look stamped in or maybe it was cast that way.
> 
> The Standard Churn Company Wapakoneta, Ohio.
> ...


Great detective work. Looks like you nailed it. I'm not gonna give you a hard time for using it either. Its the FDA that might be concerned.....assuming they haven't been given pink slips yet by The Donald.


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## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

LOL there is one for sale locally on CL
https://denver.craigslist.org/for/5985044601.html


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## wheeler88 (Mar 6, 2011)

I've got one these I bought for $50 about 15 years ago. I don't use it any more but it is still in good working condition. They were well made.


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## lemmje (Feb 23, 2015)

I inherited that same one from my dad who had it for well over 50 years, still works great, and you are right, there are a lot of ways to get little fingers or hair caught up. Plus you gotta wash your arms often as the honey floats up and gets on everything.


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## Bowfinger (Apr 17, 2015)

My earliest memories are of this extractor. Same color. same basket. I've seen others but with a different basket. Abt ten years ago my dad now 92 had a stainless barrel made for it! I asked him if he got it used , he said it was old when he got in the 1950s. So now, it's the one I have and currently use. I did a good bit of "upgrading" it. I made some plexiglass lids. The basket has been partially painted. It really could use painting with the food grade epoxy paint. But it's ok. I also put some braces in the bottom to try to convert it to an 8 frame radial. That hasn't worked too well. I took it apart and painted the gears and all the steel above parts. 
The best and MOST IMPORTANT upgrade was putting a flat disk so that I would not tear up my thumb. I put it on the wrong side of the handle while turning it. When the handle came close to the edge of the barrel and bolts. It Stopped! WITH MY THUMB IN IT, bout tore the skin off and felt like it was broke. Blood was spilt. Later, I just cut a 4 or 5 inch disk from an antifreeze jug and put it on the handle spindle toward the barrel. Works. 
Also, I can't see it in yours but mine has a squarish sheet metal cross piece. This is to seat the frames in. It's the height of the frame edge. If you need a pic of it I could send it. I had a empty frame jump up and it broke it. So it goes plenty fast. And can be dangerous as previously mentioned.
The bearing. Mine is about rusted out so I try to not let my honey get that deep in the extractor. That was one of my winter projects. To press the old one out and replace it. Man at the bearing store said it was metric sized. But, I haven't done it. It may take a machini$t for that bearing. A sealed one would be nicer. But if that bearing holder got tore up then the whole thing would be toast. 
I have it mounted on a tripod, which sits on a bread tray roller. It vibrates and shakes around but on the wheels it just stays in one small place, and is portable. Good luck if you use it.


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## BadBeeKeeper (Jan 24, 2015)

angryhippie said:


> I would suggest coating the whole thing with Camcoat due to the galvanized metal and lead joints.


When I was looking for an extractor a few years ago, I saw one that looked similar waaaaay in the back corner of a shed. I had to ask myself if it was something I would want to eat out of, and the answer was "No". I tried to think of ways to 'clean it up' to make it acceptable and decided that it would take entirely too much time and effort, and might not even be successful. So, I passed on the deal in favor of a nice, shiny new stainless model.

I might have got it just for it being an antique...but I already have a lot of 'old stuff' and I have to be a little picky in order to avoid marital discord- the wife likes old stuff too...sometimes...but I wouldn't have a place for it to live and it would have ended up in a corner of a shed, and since cash was already an issue it was much better sitting in the shed it was already in.


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## naturebee (Dec 25, 2004)

Agree with Michael on this. Looks like a novice's extractor, which was a non reversible extractor.

Perhaps this is it:
https://books.google.com/books?id=4...novice extractor"&pg=PP66#v=onepage&q&f=false

Joe
Historical Honeybee Articles
https://www.facebook.com/Historical.Honeybee.Articles/


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Watching extractor videos and this one came up.


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## satilla308 (Apr 11, 2020)

I have seen many mention the potential dangers of galvanized equipment. Is there a difference in the galvanization used on metal water pipe available at Lowes or Home Depot?


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## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

No, it is the heavy metal zinc. Galvanized pipe is not coated on the inside anymore. Pipes usually rust from the outside in.

Navy replaced galvanized bolts for the "safer"cadmium. Not safe to handle them either.


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## pmitchum (Jul 4, 2021)

jim lyon said:


> Had a relative pick this up for me at an antique store recently. Despite the rust its still actually in very good mechanical working order. I have looked it over pretty closely to try to discern who may have manufactured it and when but, aside from some faded letters on the outside that appear to been painted on the metal, there don't seem to be any clues. It looks like too much engineering on the mechanism for it to be homemade. Anyone out there with any ideas?


The Standard Churn Company in Ohio.


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## DocG (Aug 4, 2020)

Bowfinger said:


> My earliest memories are of this extractor. Same color. same basket. I've seen others but with a different basket. Abt ten years ago my dad now 92 had a stainless barrel made for it! I asked him if he got it used , he said it was old when he got in the 1950s. So now, it's the one I have and currently use. I did a good bit of "upgrading" it. I made some plexiglass lids. The basket has been partially painted. It really could use painting with the food grade epoxy paint. But it's ok. I also put some braces in the bottom to try to convert it to an 8 frame radial. That hasn't worked too well. I took it apart and painted the gears and all the steel above parts.
> The best and MOST IMPORTANT upgrade was putting a flat disk so that I would not tear up my thumb. I put it on the wrong side of the handle while turning it. When the handle came close to the edge of the barrel and bolts. It Stopped! WITH MY THUMB IN IT, bout tore the skin off and felt like it was broke. Blood was spilt. Later, I just cut a 4 or 5 inch disk from an antifreeze jug and put it on the handle spindle toward the barrel. Works.
> Also, I can't see it in yours but mine has a squarish sheet metal cross piece. This is to seat the frames in. It's the height of the frame edge. If you need a pic of it I could send it. I had a empty frame jump up and it broke it. So it goes plenty fast. And can be dangerous as previously mentioned.
> The bearing. Mine is about rusted out so I try to not let my honey get that deep in the extractor. That was one of my winter projects. To press the old one out and replace it. Man at the bearing store said it was metric sized. But, I haven't done it. It may take a machini$t for that bearing. A sealed one would be nicer. But if that bearing holder got tore up then the whole thing would be toast.
> I have it mounted on a tripod, which sits on a bread tray roller. It vibrates and shakes around but on the wheels it just stays in one small place, and is portable. Good luck if you use it.


I have been using this old extractor for a long time now. I was concerned this last season because the bearing was a bit "wonky". I pulled it out (with much effort), and found the balls were pretty badly rusted. I found a sealed bearing that was close to the same ID/OD, but I had to enlarge the hole in the base a wee bit. (About 8 hours of sanding with a cut down flapper sanding disk (well 4 sanding disks). I had to cut the down the flapper disks to the same width of the bearing so as not to taper the hole. Freezing the bearing let me seat it with one good whack with a socket of the same diameter as the outer race. Mine has 12 14 set in the main arm above the name of the company. Mine has a beautiful glass ball (green and white like a marble). Any idea how old it is?


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