Cane Mill in Progress

My friend JD and I took apart the cane mill last week.

He brought some citric acid and made up a solution in a 5-gallon bucket, so we could get the rust off the parts.

This is what a gear looked like before soaking:

And this is after three days:

It looks like new cast iron. Pretty amazing.

The outside of it is mostly lichen-free now, thanks to more solution and a wire brush, but it’s not as nice as it should be. We probably need to get a bigger tub to soak parts in, since the 5-gallon bucket isn’t big enough to hold most of the pieces.

We need to cast some new Babbit bearings, plus mount it somehow, plus clean all the rest of it, but it’s going to happen. We’ve got a long time until it’s the fall cane season.

Though I may plant sorghum this year, which would give us sorghum to crush in June, so we don’t have forever. One piece at a time. We also need to get a sugaring kettle, which is a problem all its own.