Headin' to the Woodshop to make some Wooden Cheese Fountain Augers

So here's the thinking: We need six augers for the cheese pumps outlined in the previous post, and we are woodworkers. It didn't take us too long to decide that we would give our favorite material a shot.

Our plan is to build the body of the pump from 1 1/4" schedule 40 PVC pipe. This pipe has an approximate I.D. (Interior Diameter) of 1.25inch, and we've found that 1 1/4" dowel rod slips perfectly into it.

To cut the auger we will take a three step approach.

1. A 1/4" deep groove will be cut using an angled fence on the table saw.
2. Using an overarm pin router with a small pin running in the saw kerf from step one, we'll enlarge the groove to it's final width and depth. 1/2" of so.
3. Next we'll switch the small pin for a 1/2" pin and offset it from the original alignment to enable us to add a second groove. This way the auger will move twice as much cheese per rotation!
   

Illustration #4 shows that we will later drill into both ends of the auger for a fixed pivot on the top for the drive pulley, and for a "bearing" on the bottom. More to come on this.