Hand powered appliances

[keljonma]

My hand cranked cast iron grain mill is useful. I posted on another thread that I am having this hooked up to my stationary exercise bike to pedal the grinder.

One of my friends did this last year at the Chesterland Bicycle Shop!

Foley Food Mill has more power than a ricer, which is a press that you grip the handles with as much strength as you have to force food through. I wouldn't part with my ricer for cooked rutabaga, a family biggie.

A ricer is good for making cream cheese and ricotta really creamy for cheesecakes too!

 

[Henrietta23]

Oh yeah, I forgot about my pasta machine. It's the basic hand turn model. I also have one of those mills that I've only ever used for tomatoes.

 

[enjoy the ride]

I've always wondered how one uses a bike to run appliances. I can see putting a belt on a wheel but how one would get it to run something?
Or how one uses a bike to generate power. I remember having a small generator on my bike when I was s kid to pwer a light but it make the bike almost impossible to pump.

 

[freemotion]

I have all the hand tools needed to turn sides of tanned leather into strapgoods, like bridles, halters, collars, belts, etc, including a splitter to make the thicker peices the desired thickness....or should I say thinness? Haven't used 'em much in a few years, but I used to do all the repairs and make some reins and stirrup leathers and training equipment when I used to work with horses full time. I won't part with them, they may be useful someday....along with some partial sides of good bridle leather and all my scraps.

Love my hand-crank pasta roller.

I admit I LOVE my electric appliances, but that is not what was asked!

When I could not find anyone to mow my pasture without paying "landscaping" prices, I gave up and ordered a custom-made (sized for a woman, not a 6" man as many tools seem to be) European scythe. LOVE it, no regrets. It paid for itself the first season, and so this spring it is free, in my book. And I love using it, it is very meditative, great exercise, and very satisfying to see the groomed area increase in size as I waltz across the pasture. AND it is actually better if you mow while the dew is still on the grass, unlike a power mower.

Does my 2 hp (hen-powered) garden tiller count?

 

[enjoy the ride]

Oh-freemotion- for a couple of years, I made my living traveling around to various hunter jumper and saddlebred farms doing tack repair with my little suitcase of tools. People where so happy to have me to repair things and re-stuff saddles, that I had more work than I could handle. I learned to do it using an old, old book on harness and saddle making. It had complete instructions for making all kinds of harness and saddles and "horse clothing."

I haven't thought about that in years.

 

[freemotion]

Cool! I had to give up many hand-intensive activities when I became a massage therapist. I have to save my hands to earn my living, so no more leather work, knitting, raking (I use a leaf-blower, which I hate), until I retire!

 

[patandchickens]

I've always wondered how one uses a bike to run appliances. I can see putting a belt on a wheel but how one would get it to run something?
Or how one uses a bike to generate power. I remember having a small generator on my bike when I was s kid to pwer a light but it make the bike almost impossible to pump.

I keep thinking I'd like to jigger together a way of running a water pump off a bicycle. Not so much for the well as for removing floodwater and sumpwater (the whole assembly would probably live in the barn )

I'm really not sure where to begin with it, though -- whether you'd want a hand-operated pump and hook it up to the bike like you'd hook a foot pedal up to a grinding wheel or sewing machine, or whether you'd want to hook the bicycle up to some sort of generator type thing to power an electric pump. Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

Pat

 

[freemotion]

How could I forget my apple peeler/corer/slicer? But only when the apples are very crisp, otherwise, it becomes a very messy juicer!

Another TJMaxx clearance find for $5 some years ago!

 

[Beekissed]

My most frequently used "appliances" in the kitchen aren't appliances at all....my manual can opener(we don't do cans often, but I love how quick it works) and my paring knives.

My mother still uses her can opener that was army issue...you know the type which consists of a sharp, hook blade on a small fold out strip of metal. You operate it with a rocking motion. I never could use the darn thing!

 

[sylvie]

Adding my garlic press. How did I forget that?!

And a "Mouli" cheese grater, is a handle that turns a round grater. When cheese is grated and added at the last minute to food the taste is amplified and less needed. Parmesan and Asiago are two examples.

I have a mandoline for manual slicing but don't use it much.

I've got a cake frosting decorator tip set with the applicator. I use for deviled eggs, meringue mushrooms, canapes. Does that count?