What it be?

[daepp]

I recently purchased a home with some acreage that was formerly used to grow/pack citrus. Among other interesting “finds” on the property was this thing below. It had 4 wheels (only 3 are present) and if I work at it the top portion will hinge forward.

Any thoughts on what it is?






A tray (?) at top





Steel wheels



Axle?



Only “labels” I could find:

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Looks like it could be a Harley Davidson lightweight sports bike to me

[daepp]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Looks like it could be a Harley Davidson lightweight sports bike to me

And just as reliable...

[Toast54]

Looks like a really, really big bear trap....keep your eyes open. Orange you glad you found it?

[LWJ]

It seems to be similar in shape to an old printing press. I don't think that is correct. Doesn't seem to move the same way. Missing lots of bits.

[tabs]

A Big Orange Juice Spueezer...

[daepp]

Originally Posted by LWJ

It seems to be similar in shape to an old printing press. I don't think that is correct. Doesn't seem to move the same way. Missing lots of bits.

My first thought was printing press (though I’ve never used one). Then maybe some form of food-stuff press.

[stevej37]

An orange harvester? Workers place oranges on the tray..which pivots up to load into a box?
I don't know..just a guess.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by stevej37

An orange harvester? Workers place oranges on the tray..which pivots up to load into a box?
I don't know..just a guess.

Hey sounds like a good story...

[stomachmonkey]

Press brake

[masraum]

I can't imagine anything meant to be used in a cirtrus grove that you would want or need to be made out of cast iron or all metal like that.

It's hard to see how it would work with the angles of the photos, but I could maybe see it being a brake. Heavy duty, all metal, that fine threaded rod to make hard work easier, etc...

[daepp]

Yeah, the wheels certainly don’t suggest use in a grove. There were a lot of packing houses nearby at one time. In fact, I think there’s a boiler from one on the property as well.

[John Rogers]

I agree the wheels suggest use in a cement floor. I'd try to find some old Mexican fellow who used to work in that area and show him/her a picture of it and see what they say. My guess is a machine to make the boxes to put the oranges in?

[ossiblue]

Found this old picture of a citrus packing house. The shape/form of the wooden stands used by the workers looks a lot like the item in the OP. Maybe it's an iron version of the stands used to pack the citrus that also performs other functions, like pressing the slats over the top of the crate, once filled.

[masraum]

I have an uncle that's, I think, 82. His father worked in the citrus business packing plants, etc.... When he was a kid and out of school during the summer, I think he said at the age of 6, his father would take him to work and put him to work doing small jobs for pennies. He ended up working in the fruit business pretty much all of his life and all over the country (FL, Cali and other places as well) and retired from it. I sent him the pics of this thing and this is what I got back, "he has never seen anything like it in citrus or on any of the packing sheds he worked in CA...inspecting grapes, corn, tomato’s, peaches, nectarines, tomatoes, garlic & plums."

So, I think it's pretty unlikely to be directly related to the fruit business.

[john70t]

From function:
1). It look like something heavy sits on the square box which is solidly attached to the A-frame and wheels and does not move.

2). The long pocket trench with a small back splash is attached to swivels and made to dump backwards.
The base frame has a stop for the pivot arm.
It is highly adjustable to respond to precise weight.

There are no other attachment points. There are no drain holes. No other mechanisms seem to exist.

I would guess a box of heavy fruit is first set on the platform.
Select fruit is placed in the pocket trench.
When there is enough weight, the entire trench assembly swings back and dumps into something else, like a belt or wagon.

[Zeke]

The top swings over the bottom and is not only parallel but adjustable in height. My guess is that once a crate is full the crate top is placed on the crate and the machine applies downward pressure. I had family in farming but they're all dead now so I can't ask. And I don't remember exactly how a crate was secured but I do think I remember that they were reused often times with a new grower's label since they didn't necessarily make it back to the original grower.

They were in fact uniform so that stacking facilitated transportation. They were made in a rectangular shape, 12 x 12 x 27 inches, with a slatted lid. So a system to secure the top was necessary but it had to be reusable, therefore not nailed or otherwise any fastening system that tended to destroy the crate. So, I think it was twisted wire and the machine somehow aided in that process.

BTW, the pic above of the crate packers looks correct to me. Sometimes the produce came down wide conveyor belts and was picked. My grandmother had such a system for sacking potatoes. Now potatoes were gunny sacked in 100# sacks (actually 104 pounds wet as they had just come out of the washer) and hand trucked into a cooled rail car 5 high. Took some real men to handle that job.

Now why the old tops are never with the antique crates is a question I can't answer. And I may be all wet myself in answering the identification of the machine

[daepp]

Wow - great info Milt, thanks!

I had previously made contact with the original owner of the property, and he confirmed he saved a bunch of stuff from his citrus-farmer-grandfather's barn. Based on the age of the grandson, in all likelihood his grandfather would have been born near the end of the 19th century. I hadn't yet found this "thing" so I didn't ask him about it, but he did confirm that the boiler (he called it a steam generator) was from that barn, and that the oil cart was for filling smudge pots.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Looks like it could be a Harley Davidson lightweight sports bike to me

Naw, it's too modern to be from HD

[vash]

damn..is that runaway bamboo?!!