On Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:16:01 -0500, George Shirley
> wrote:

>Took almost precisely two hours and fifteen minutes to get the boiler
>level down to where I decided to shut it off. So far we have five cups
>of pear juice and I haven't emptied the juice container part lately so
>there will most likely be more.
>
>Once I got the thing up to boiling I set the timer for one hour and
>walked away to do other things. Worked fine, did the job I hired it to
>do, and I'm happy with the machinery. Not real happy with the clamp on
>the end of the tubing but believe I can attach a stainless steel quarter
>turn valve to that end and do a better job of controlling the flow. May
>even increase the length of the tubing so I can just set a pot on the
>oven door and let it run into that once it starts juicing good. I see
>many potentials here. Thank goodness I used to operate units in chemical
>plants, same theory as a basic boiler with a petcock here.

George,

You bin lookin' in our kitchen?
I got rid of that chintzy little hose clamp years ago.
But, there's one thing I may do differently than you, I let the fruit
steam for the whole time before I start to draw off any juice.
I fitted a SS 3/8 inch ball valve with a couple of 3/8 inch IPS to
barb adapters to the end of the hose from our steamer. Flattened about
a 4 inch section of a 9 inch long piece of 1 inch hardwood dowel. Used
two SS gear clamps to clamp the valve to the flattened portion, with
the output barbed adapter overhanging the end of the dowel. That way I
have a nice cool handle to hang onto while pouring the juice. It goes
into either the jelly pot or jars that sit on the open oven door. Made
a long hook that fastens near the side of the range hood where the
handle/valve hang while steaming. Rube Goldberg for sure but does the
job like a champ.
I convert the amount of juice needed for any given jelly recipe into
grams then I set a little 3 Kg scale on the oven door, put the jelly
pot on the scale and use the valve to meter in the exact amount of
juice required. No handling hot measuring cups, just straight from the
steamer into the jelly pot.
I probably love tinkering and inventing work savers almost as much as
I do cooking, preserving and eating ;-).

Ross.