Jumping the Moon Dairy - the next chapter

[Devonviolet]

Hey @babsbag, I've been wanting to ask you a question about something you said, a while back, but now I can't find it. You were talking about getting your new equipment up and running, and said something about acids.

Is that for sterilizing the equipment? When I first started milking, I found an acid wash, online, that I believe was a pH of 4, for sterilizing equipment. I am pretty sure it was a chemical of some sort, and I don't like the idea of using chemicals, if I can avoid it.

I know that plain vinegar has a low pH, so looked it up and found this:

"most commercial distilled white vinegars contain 5-10% acetic acid and have a pH roughly around 2.40 - 3.40. The textbook pH of vinegar is 2.5."

The vinegar I get locally is 5%, so I am assuming it has a pH of 3.40?

So, I'm wondering what you know about using plain vinegar as an antiseptic for cleaning milk processing equipment- IOW would it be sufficient for me to use, processing milk in my kitchen? Oh, and what I read said the acid should be left a minimum of one minute, but 2+ minutes is better. I have straight vinegar in a spray bottle, on my counter, and I spray everything and leave it at least 2 minutes. That, of course is in addition to washing everything thoroughly with soap and water.

 

[babsbag]

I have never heard of using it but the pH is right, it needs to be 3. I clean my bucket milker everyday with bleach and Dawn and then once a week I break it down and use an acid wash to remove the milk stone. Right now I am using up chemicals that were given to me when I purchased the system but after that I will be looking for some that "might" be safer.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

I know several people who use vinegar for their milking equipment.

I use a milk stone & acid rinse (when we use the machine) that was made for this purpose.

 

[Devonviolet]

Thanks Babs. What you say about the acid removing the milk stone makes sense, as acid dissolves calcium, and milk stone is actually calcium deposits.

What I have read, online, is that washing equipment will set the calcium and cause milk stone. By rinsing the equipment in cold water first, it rinses the calcium off and avoids milk stone. I have been doing that for three months and don't have milk stone. But then, I don't know if it takes it longer to show up.

 

[babsbag]

I wash in cold water at the barn as that is all I have. I run 5 gallons of soap and bleach solution through it and then 5 gallons of just bleach solution. I still get milk stone so I am not convinced that it is temperature related. The dairy equipment is Clean In Place (CIP) and it does a detergent wash, then an acid rinse, and then a 12% chlorine sanitizer. All of it is done with water that is over 114° (I think that is the magic number from the code) but each soap company will tell you what temp. their product will perform at its best.

I am still pinching myself...can't believe that the equipment is finally in place and WORKING.

 

[babsbag]

I am installing sliding doors for the goats to enter and exit the milking parlor and the directions make no sense whatsoever. I am not stupid and I have a pretty good grasp on construction type projects so why is this so confusing? I am using this bracket.

Notice the square holes in the front for the carriage bolts? Now I thought that the metal strap goes on the front of the door, but if I do that the bolts go all the way through and rub on the wall of the barn. If I put the bolts through from the back then the square holes don't serve any purpose for the carriage bolt. There is also an adjustment nut under the raised part on the top of the strap and that is only accessible if the strap goes on the back of the door and the nuts show on the front. Is that really want they want you to do? But the installation instructions show the strap on the front of the door and the bolts coming from the back so why the square holes and why carriage bolts, they don't go into the plywood door backing very well. And why the adjustment nut if you can't reach it after the door is installed?

I'M CONFUSED.

 

[Hillaire]

how much space is it if you were to have it installed from the wall to the door... how far are the bolts hanging out of the wood? I believe I have always seen the plate on the front of any sliding doors with this on there... as far as the carriage bolt and square hole Honestly if it were me I would just throw bolts that are big enough to fit through the hole and if its too long in the back grind it down with a grinder but that's just me lol

 

[babsbag]

I thought about grinding it down... they stick out about 1/2" The doors are 3/16" plywood with metal siding over it with a 1x6 frame around it all. They are about 1.25" thick total as I wanted really lightweight doors. I'm not sure if cutting the bolts would give me enough clearance. The plate on the back seems weird but the carriage bolts threw my a curve ball, that and the adjustment nut. Of course I would really like to get to that nut as they don't hang perfectly parallel to the siding and I am a "level and square" fanatic. Doesn't help that this in on a trailer that we built that most likely isn't "level and square" as my DH does not share my same compulsion. So my dilemma is always "do I go level or do I line it up with the vertical siding?"

 

[Hillaire]

this is just a thought but since it is so tight is there a way that you can run a board from where it needs to connect and have it at the width to make clearance basically put it on the building then attach the rail of the door to that? would that give you the clearance you need?

 

[babsbag]

It would except that the rail is already up and I hate to redo it. It is on metal siding so I already had to cut spacers to bring the rail brackets out even with the ridges in the siding. I went ahead and put the bolts through from the back and just ignored the square on the plate and on the bolt. There is also a hole drilled in the top of the door to allow the hanger bolt to protrude down into the door. Supposedly if I make the hole big enough I have some in/out adjustment space. I have another door to put the plates on so I am going to play with the location and size of the top hole and see if that will allow be to pull the door away from the wall. If it does I will take this door down and re-drill the holes. Of course I already pounded the end caps on the rail to keep the door from coming out. *SIGH*

I did 5 doors a few months ago but they were quite heavy and I used different hangers. I was cursing those at the time and thought that these would be easier. Perhaps "easy" and "barn door" only go in the same sentence when you can hire it done.