Homemade Ham Holder - Hardware Hints?

[matthew]

Sorry for the alliteration

Am about to order an Iberico ham and am wanting to make a new holder for it. Currently I have a relatively cheap one like this - it's done the previous two legs but the metal hoop is bent already and it's a bit flimsy overall.

The nicer ones have fancy stainless steel hardware to hold the ham in place - this sort of thing - but they are very pricey - I'd rather spend the £200 or more on ham

So far am coming up short on ideas for readily available hardware - ideally stainless steel - that I can use to grip on the base (spikes of some kind?) and to hold the foot - am a bit fixated on the hoop+spike, but I'm open to anything that will do the job. I keep thinking there must be some kind of existing ironmongery that I can turn to the task. I'm not that metalwork-y but can do a bit of grinding/cutting; also trying tapping if required...

 

[Spindle]

Hi

Try Googling loudspeaker isolation spikes - might be something there to suit

Regards Mick

 

[Spindle]

Hi

And searching on stainless steel gimbal may give you some ideas.

Regards Mick

 

[monkeybiter]

Well I initially assumed I had missunderstood the title of the post due to being overtired, but on clicking your first link my eyes have been opened to a strange new world.
In our house we usually manage to devour our food long before Isaac Newton relinquishes his grip.

 

[matthew]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated... no luck on Gimbals yet, but

Try Googling loudspeaker isolation spikes - might be something there to suit

Bingo - those should do the job! Already got a plan as to how to make it with these; now I just need some kind of cradle/vee to stop it falling to one side.

Well I initially assumed I had missunderstood the title of the post due to being overtired, but on clicking your first link my eyes have been opened to a strange new world.
In our house we usually manage to devour our food long before Isaac Newton relinquishes his grip.

Well, certainly it doesn't last long - but keeps for a month or two! Note this is cured ham as opposed to just cooked so it's more of a deli thing than a meal so a leg lasts a while. Some of them are insanely expensive - >£500 for a Jamon (back leg), but I go for the smaller Paleta (front leg) and spend around £100 or so. Still about half the price of buying the meat sliced in a shop...

 

[JakeS]

Am about to order an Iberico ham and am wanting to make a new holder for it. Currently I have a relatively cheap one like this - it's done the previous two legs but the metal hoop is bent already and it's a bit flimsy overall.

Did you see this other design from the same image search?

https://www.iberus.com/en/paleta-serran ... /a-121001/

That looks a lot easier to fabricate. You can do the top fixing by cutting the aperture first, drilling a hole from one side to accommodate the screw-spike, then ripping (or splitting, if you're feeling brave!) the upright perpendicular to the drilled hole, using a forstner bit or a router to cut a cylindrical hole just too small to fit a nut, hammer-and-epoxy the nut in and then re-glue down the previously-ripped line to enclose the nut (and pre-tapped hole) inside the drilled-out section. Or using a tap-in screw-thread insert if you're feeling lazy. ;-)

Then you just need a length of threaded rod or a machine screw that fits the nut you enclosed; epoxy on a suitable handle at one end and grind to a point at the other. I guess the bottom fixtures are just a pair of spikes which can similarly be ground from steel rod and epoxied in. You won't need to worry too much about softening the metal when you grind, even, 'cause you're not going to be using it for anything more taxing than forcing its way through comparatively-much-softer cured meat. (And if you thread your own rod, softening it a bit by accident first will actually make your life a bit easier!)