"KD" > wrote in message
...
> Hi folks:

> Question though...in my household, I have several things that affect where
I
> do my winemaking - a husband who doesn't want to trip over things, cats
who
> are naturally curious and want to investigate the fizzing bucket by
knocking
> off the lid, etc. I did my fermentation in a closet in a spare upstairs
> bedroom, because my basement was too cold a month ago. I drag a stool into
> the bedroom when I'm going to siphon since there really isn't a table in
> there, have hubby there to hold things steady and stuff everything back
into
> the closet when i'm done.
>

Might want to see if you can hunt one of these down
http://www.gibs-web.ca/lift.html A photo of a lift I managed to pick up
for $150, my son's father in law had it laying around and wasn't using it
any more. This one is rated at 500 lbs and has a hydraulic ram you pump up
to lift the full carboy to about 4.5 ft. My back gave out a few years ago
and I mainly use it to lift the carboys to table height where I slide them
off onto the table. Store it the laundry room out of the way when not in
use.


As far as the cold basement I built a box out of plywood a few years ago
slightly larger than a 5 gallon carboy. I placed a 100 watt light powered
through a thermostat. Worked like a charm the bulb gave off enough heat to
keep the inside of the box at whatever temp. I set the thermostat for.

After knocking over a couple bottles during filling I hunted around and
found the plastic milk carton seen sitting on the lift platform it holds 16
bottles and no fear of knocking them over any more. I got a couple and they
hold more than enough bottles to do a 5 gal. batch of wine.


> So as I've been doing my thing with the wine kit, I've often had thoughts
of
> a table that would make things easier for the person without lots of
space.
> In my mind, my fictional winemaking table has higher shelf for placing the
> primary for ease of siphoning, a groove for it to fit into to make it
> unlikely to tip. A lower shelf for the carboy to sit on with a groove too,
> maybe even something bottles would fit into once you're ready to start
> bottling, to keep them steady. Even a storage area to put your stuff when
> you're not using it. All of this would fit in a standard closet.
>
> Surely I'm not the first person to think of this. Is there such a thing as
a
> table for this purpose? Or do I have to build my own?
>
> Thanks!
>
> KD
>
>