We were scalding and scraping a hog yesterday. I remembered washing a truck once with a pressure washer a friend has for his airplane. It gets the water up to 200 degrees and no telling how much pressure. It also peeled paint off the old work truck I was washing. I got to wondering if it would knock the hair off a hog fast and easy, plus leave him clean and shiny.
Posts by Ed Norman
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I looked in the catalog, they say the temp will go up to 200. I guess it is adjustable. It sure would clean up the hog nice, and I bet it would blast the hide off if you weren't careful.
We got a clean new horse tank, about 90 gallons, to scald them in next weekend. I don't really want to build a fire under it to heat it. I saw on that 100 year old Handy Farm Devices book online the best way to heat a tank was to run a pipe from the tank and into a fire. I unscrewed the plug on the horse tank, threaded in a three foot pipe with a plug, and ran it thru a 35 gallon drum with a hole in the side. I built a nice fire in the drum and kept it going several hours and heated the water from 55 to 78 degrees. It would belch bubbles and hot water, but was too little to heat the thing. I can turn up the water heater in the house to 150, then run a hose from it to fill the tank. Then i only have to raise the temp another 15 degrees.
We got a clean new horse tank, about 90 gallons, to scald them in next weekend. I don't really want to build a fire under it to heat it. I saw on that 100 year old Handy Farm Devices book online the best way to heat a tank was to run a pipe from the tank and into a fire. I unscrewed the plug on the horse tank, threaded in a three foot pipe with a plug, and ran it thru a 35 gallon drum with a hole in the side. I built a nice fire in the drum and kept it going several hours and heated the water from 55 to 78 degrees. It would belch bubbles and hot water, but was too little to heat the thing. I can turn up the water heater in the house to 150, then run a hose from it to fill the tank. Then i only have to raise the temp another 15 degrees.
Thanks for the replies. I had considered using hot rocks, and might still. I've done that when scalding chickens before. I had also considered using something like you describe, r.h., if I had the copper, I know I would. I don't think it would melt as long as it had water in it, it shouldn't get over 212 degrees if it didn't have any pressure. If I do use the tubing, I think I'll coil it to fit close to the turkey fryer burner.
It sure looks like it would work, and be simple to build, too.Beeman said:Has anyone tried a hot tub wood heater like this www.cowboyhottubs.com ?
I bet this would work and probably pretty quick.
Today I set the tank up on short sawhorses. I stuck the turkey fryer under one end. We filled it from the water heater with 150 degree water and it maintained that temp while we stuck the hog. I put plywood over the tank to trap the rising heat, that helped. We tossed him in, he bobbed around a few minutes, then we pulled him out and scraped him. Hair came off real fast. Just as we got him split and hung, sleet and snow started so we left the other hogs for tomorrow.
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