Home meat processing shop
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Deepwoodsbutcher making progress congrats and good luck to you.
cdavis Thank you
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Deepwoodsbutcher I’d say screaming hot water access, STRONG sprayer, wash down station, easy to sanitize working surface, plan your trash well, meaning either mobile or multiple, different levels or ability to set some equipment higher than others. For example a stuffer that can ha dle having a bowl or at least a lug underneath the stuffing tube. Access to a clean and usually empty freezer space to cool meat.down, good places to get equipment out of the way quickly. Floors that are easy to clean and lastly LOTS of staging surfaces!
Jonathon I think you have covered nearly all the major concerns in one post. Hot water will be a tougher one. At first I’ll be using a bucket water heater, but later will probably add on demand hot water. We have pressure washers too. Disposal is a concern for me at my kill site. I have thought about taking hides to a local slaughterhouse I used to work for. Gut piles and heads will be a different matter I have to figure out. As far as leftovers at the shop, most meat scraps will get picked up by people who feed raw diet to their dogs. And as long as the boxes aren’t too heavy, our garbage pickup doesn’t have an issue taking inedible scraps. Your idea of having equipment at the proper height is an excellent point. I have a rolling rack for meat lugs that will work along with my stuffer so sausage can fall right into lugs as I stuff. The grinder is on its own stand and adjusted to work with the same lug rack. I can easily grind right into lugs. I also added wheels to my grinder stand since it will be situated in a corner. This way I can pull it out for easy clean-up, or move it to a different area if I have someone working with me. I think if someone read your post and took the suggestions, they would end up with a wonderful work shop. I really appreciate everyone’s advice and helpful suggestions. The little things sometimes get forgotten on big projects, but they can make a world of difference in the end quality.
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Jonathon I think you have covered nearly all the major concerns in one post. Hot water will be a tougher one. At first I’ll be using a bucket water heater, but later will probably add on demand hot water. We have pressure washers too. Disposal is a concern for me at my kill site. I have thought about taking hides to a local slaughterhouse I used to work for. Gut piles and heads will be a different matter I have to figure out. As far as leftovers at the shop, most meat scraps will get picked up by people who feed raw diet to their dogs. And as long as the boxes aren’t too heavy, our garbage pickup doesn’t have an issue taking inedible scraps. Your idea of having equipment at the proper height is an excellent point. I have a rolling rack for meat lugs that will work along with my stuffer so sausage can fall right into lugs as I stuff. The grinder is on its own stand and adjusted to work with the same lug rack. I can easily grind right into lugs. I also added wheels to my grinder stand since it will be situated in a corner. This way I can pull it out for easy clean-up, or move it to a different area if I have someone working with me. I think if someone read your post and took the suggestions, they would end up with a wonderful work shop. I really appreciate everyone’s advice and helpful suggestions. The little things sometimes get forgotten on big projects, but they can make a world of difference in the end quality.
Deepwoodsbutcher you’ve put a lot of thought and effort into this. You’re going to do great.
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Jonathon I think you have covered nearly all the major concerns in one post. Hot water will be a tougher one. At first I’ll be using a bucket water heater, but later will probably add on demand hot water. We have pressure washers too. Disposal is a concern for me at my kill site. I have thought about taking hides to a local slaughterhouse I used to work for. Gut piles and heads will be a different matter I have to figure out. As far as leftovers at the shop, most meat scraps will get picked up by people who feed raw diet to their dogs. And as long as the boxes aren’t too heavy, our garbage pickup doesn’t have an issue taking inedible scraps. Your idea of having equipment at the proper height is an excellent point. I have a rolling rack for meat lugs that will work along with my stuffer so sausage can fall right into lugs as I stuff. The grinder is on its own stand and adjusted to work with the same lug rack. I can easily grind right into lugs. I also added wheels to my grinder stand since it will be situated in a corner. This way I can pull it out for easy clean-up, or move it to a different area if I have someone working with me. I think if someone read your post and took the suggestions, they would end up with a wonderful work shop. I really appreciate everyone’s advice and helpful suggestions. The little things sometimes get forgotten on big projects, but they can make a world of difference in the end quality.
Deepwoodsbutcher Good idea to be thinking about work area layout and work flow and it sounds like you have been doing that.
Having work surfaces and storage areas at the correct height can mean the difference between performing tasks in comfort or being exhausted and/or sore at the end of the day. Having worked in commercial meat plant production, I know you are familiar with the repetitive motion injuries that can happen.
Having your work-flow moving in one direction without crossing back saves steps and time and potentially cross contamination between raw and cooked product.
Well planned material handling is important too. Keeping materials at the optimum height till the entire production run is finished minimizes the overall amount of lifting and motions required throughout the day.
As you and others mentioned, having rolling carts and tables on wheels is a great idea unless something absolutely needs to be in a fixed location.
As far as disposal of inedible and offal waste, do you have any rendering plants in your area. They might make pickups of some of your wastes if you could call ahead and give them some advance notice.
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Deepwoodsbutcher you’ve put a lot of thought and effort into this. You’re going to do great.
cdavis Thanks. I really appreciate that
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Deepwoodsbutcher Good idea to be thinking about work area layout and work flow and it sounds like you have been doing that.
Having work surfaces and storage areas at the correct height can mean the difference between performing tasks in comfort or being exhausted and/or sore at the end of the day. Having worked in commercial meat plant production, I know you are familiar with the repetitive motion injuries that can happen.
Having your work-flow moving in one direction without crossing back saves steps and time and potentially cross contamination between raw and cooked product.
Well planned material handling is important too. Keeping materials at the optimum height till the entire production run is finished minimizes the overall amount of lifting and motions required throughout the day.
As you and others mentioned, having rolling carts and tables on wheels is a great idea unless something absolutely needs to be in a fixed location.
As far as disposal of inedible and offal waste, do you have any rendering plants in your area. They might make pickups of some of your wastes if you could call ahead and give them some advance notice.
processhead Excellent points. I’m definitely in the mind set of, “work smarter not harder” at this point in my life. As for a rendering plant, I don’t know where the nearest one is, but I will look into it. I may also be able to drop off at the slaughterhouse and just pay the owner a disposal fee. Thanks for the tips!
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Your Processing building looks awesome. I like the cutting table. One of these days I am going to build a building dedicated to butchering and processing as my wife is getting tired of me doing my processing in her kitchen, lol
DJS303 that sounds like it will be a win/win!
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Working on using up the insulation leftover from the cooler construction. There is enough to do quite a lot of the cutting room, and I have a full sheet left for the door. I’ll foam some of the larger gaps, but not going to go crazy. This area I’ll only cool when using, so 3" of good insulation in the majority of the space should be enough for my purposes. I also ran the wires to the boxes today. Coming right along.
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What kind of moisture barrier are you using between the plywood sub-floor and the exterior floor? Will you be hosing down the floor to a drain or just wet mopping?
Paul
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What kind of moisture barrier are you using between the plywood sub-floor and the exterior floor? Will you be hosing down the floor to a drain or just wet mopping?
processhead good question Paul!
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What kind of moisture barrier are you using between the plywood sub-floor and the exterior floor? Will you be hosing down the floor to a drain or just wet mopping?
processhead treated wood subfloor. Joists made of 2x8 treated. Insulation in between on the cooler portion.
Spray and squeegee clean-up -
processhead treated wood subfloor. Joists made of 2x8 treated. Insulation in between on the cooler portion.
Spray and squeegee clean-upDeepwoodsbutcher Looks and sounds like it’s gonna be awsome when finished!
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processhead treated wood subfloor. Joists made of 2x8 treated. Insulation in between on the cooler portion.
Spray and squeegee clean-upDeepwoodsbutcher
I can’t recall if you mentioned it already, but what kind of equipment are you using to cool your refrigerated areas? -
Deepwoodsbutcher Looks and sounds like it’s gonna be awsome when finished!
RON PARRISH Thank you. I’m looking forward to it.
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Deepwoodsbutcher
I can’t recall if you mentioned it already, but what kind of equipment are you using to cool your refrigerated areas?processhead I have a coolbot system. It uses a window ac to cool. My walls, floor and ceiling are filled with 6" of insulation. The coolbot easily maintains temps in the low 30s during hot summer weather. It does a great job of allowing me to cool and age a beef. I chose this as an easier diy option over commercial refrigeration and it seems to be cheaper to run/ maintain.
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Got the windows in today
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Got the windows in today
Deepwoodsbutcher good deal. More progress. You’ll be there before you know it.
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Floor drain in today. Prepping the floor for epoxy tomorrow. Making a little progress each day
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This next step with the epoxy floor is what I’ve been looking forward to seeing, being able to spray it down if needed will be such a help. It’s really coming along great!
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