Auto Tanner Question

My personal opinion is auto tanners are great machines to have around, especially if you do lots of taxidermy work. If you are tanning lots of hides, then yes this is a good machine to have. A wet drum, which is similiar to the auto tanners is also a good machine, its just the drum spinning without putting compressed air into the chamber. There has been much debate over the years whether there is even a need for air. The great thing about a wet drum is simply this, you can put your hide in, the tanning chemicals in, turn it on and several hours you will have a nice plump cape to shave on your machine. When doing static tanning, in buckets or a rubbermaid stock tank, you have to manually by hand move the hides from time to time, to make sure that all parts of the hide are being exposed to the tanning chemicals.

 

The auto tanner does not pickle and tan. That's two different steps. Now the tanning crystals that are supposed to be used with the auto tanner you have to watch out for. I'm not saying they don't do a good job, it's just that they do not lower the ph. Therefore the chances of bacteria growing are still increased. The idea behind the auto tanner is to force the chemical into the hide in a short amount of time. The thing I do not like about the auto tanner is your committed to the hide when you start it. I may not have a days where I have three to four, or five hours to work in my shop. When I'm getting a hide ready I can flesh it and split everything in 30 min. Salt it for a few days. Then I can drop it in the pickle and walk away from it. With an auto tanner you can't just walk away from a hide and leave it in there with the crystals indefinitely. I tested an old hide doing this. I checked the ph of the solution and it didn't lower anything. Left the hide in there for 24 hours and hair was already starting to slip.

They way I do things is very simple and you can work at your pace. When I say work at your pace I mean it. I am a very busy person. I put a hide in a pickle in July. I finally had a chance to finish it up last week and mount it. Everything was perfectly fine. I mix up a slightly bigger batche of pickle when doing a deer cape to greatly reduce the chance of the ph raising on me. Once I drop it in everything is all good until I can get to it. I occasionally turn the hide to make sure everything is getting solution to it. I ended up selling my auto tanner because of these very reasons. It was just as simple doing it my way versus the fast way.

 

I use Krowtann, so my steps are very different! I get the hide prepped as you normally would for a pickle, remove the big hunks of meat, fat, membrane, turn and split everything. I wash it with dawn dish soap, rinse it. Put in the recommended amount of water, krowtann, salt. put in the hide. Turn on machine and walk away. There is no testing ph with Krowtann. Then several hours later, I take hide out, neutralize, then shave on machine,wash in tide. Done deal, oil hide, tumble, and mount. Simple as that. Krowtann in my personal opinion when it comes to using wet drums, auto tanners, is one of the best products for the home tanner that is looking to get a good wet tan. There is no salting the hide before hand, no ph testing through any processes. You put water, salt, and Krowtann with hide a few hours later, bam you got a good plump hide ready to neutralize and shave. Real simple!

 

Sent you a couple of PM's. Did you get them?

 

You can not compress water/liquid. The pressure does nothing in the top of the tank, it is just a gimmick. The agitation is what does the tanning process. You can not force liquid into an already water logged skin. We have covered this several times here in the archive.

 

Low T, I agree with you! When I first purchased my Auto Tanner, I had no idea, I just used the air for a long while. Then after reading so many posts on here about not needing the air. I decided to start running my machine without the air, and got the exact same results. So I no longer use the air. You can actually save yourself a lot of money just building yourself a wet drum. Auto Tanners are ridiculously priced in my opinion. I feel though that the constant turning motion, with the chemicals of your choice, I get a better overall tan. I've done Krowtann in buckets, in a rubbermaid stock tank, and I feel I get the best results with a wet drum. Tazzymoto has a nice looking wet drum he makes, I believe he calls his a cape saver tanning machine.

 

I have seriously been considering buying one these just seems a bit pricy to me. Perhaps I will message tazzymotto

 

I use Steve's (tazzymoto) auto tanner, the Cape Saver, for almost all of my tanning and I can tell you, it has been a great time saver for me.
There is a video showing a basic demonstration of me using the tanner, which you can watch at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DDDXha7zLU

I'm a spokeswoman for Steve's products, but I wouldn't recommend something if I wasn't truly impressed with it. In the 15 years I've been tanning, I've tried many products and methods. I static tanned all my stuff until a year ago, when I got the cape saver, and I've really enjoyed it. YES, you do have to keep with it once you put a cape in there, so if I know I'm going to be busy later on or the next day, then I will choose to tan that hide in a bucket. But most the time I just plan accordingly. I like to tan three deer capes at a time, in 5 gallons of solution, in the tanner. I will flesh and turn them in the morning and place them in the tanner at noon. All I have to do is come out and shave them later that evening. At 10 minutes per cape, I don't mind setting aside 30 minutes around 7-8pm to quickly shave the capes and put them back in the tanner. Then I'll let them rotate overnight. In the morning, I'll pull them out and do a second shave, and return them to the tanner until after lunch. Then neutralize and remove. Done! Fully tanned in 24 hours. At this rate, I will tan 15 capes a week without being overwhelmed with more than 3 at a time.

So far I've only used Steve's tanning crystals in the machine - BUT - there are many other tans that can be used in the machine. You could use the auto tanner with a pickle solution inside and use it just to speed-pickle your hides, and then remove and use a paint on tan. I really like the Pro-1 chemicals, so I'm going to be experimenting more with using them in conjunction with the auto tanner.

But I've been happy with the auto tanner crystals. I've used a lot of tans, and I'm critical about them. I never liked Krowtann. I want something that is going to shave plump, neutralize to a nice soft dishrag-texture tan, AND have minimal shrinkage upon mounting, and I was skeptical that these crystals would be very similar to Krowtan since the process is similar (a one-step process vs. a separate pickle and tan). But I've been happy with my results. Now, I AM oiling these hides after removing them from the auto tanner. I think that's essential for cutting down on shrinkage. The auto crystals may seem a little expensive, but if you think about the fact that you're not buying TWO products (pickle and tan) OR salt (salt is included in the crystals), I think it's not bad at all.

Basically, if you're not in any rush whatsoever to tan hides, then a static tan will work for you. But I like how I can accomplish more in less time with this auto tanner. With a standard pickle in a bucket, I have to wait a minimum 3 days to shave the hides or they'll be pink and raw underneath. With the auto tanner, it will be PLUMP and at least 90% penetrated within 6-8 hours, depending on this thickness of hide. Shave once, return overnight, and next morning they're completely plumped throughout. That's been my experience.

 

Wow you got me wanting to try these tanning crystals out now, I like the idea of just using one thing, instead of having to use all the salt I have to use with Krowtann! I will order me some! Thanks for the info Amy!

 

You're welcome! Now, you'd have to ask Steve to explain the difference in the standard crystals (2.50/ea) vs the premium (4\ea). I've only used the premium. Still, it comes to less than $7 a cape.

 

I had always wondered about the claim that it would "force" the tanning agents into the skins. Somehow the didn't seem to make sense to me. The only advantage I could see with the air pressure might be a tighter seal at the hatch, but if you have good seals to begin with, does this really matter? My guess is probably not!

 

Even the seals on Auto Tanners leak overtime. I do think the air pressure does help keep the door tighter sealed, but it does not take very long to break that seal and it starts to leak. And it's really pointless to replace them, which I had done, and it was not long before it was wet on the outside again. I've not seen that happen with just mine, but others I've seen who use them as well. But it's not a big enough leak to hurt anything. You still come out with a good pickle or tan!

 

Yes, the idea is not to force the tan into the hide using pressure, but to speed up the process simply by rotation. I was advised that it is the pressure that builds up inside the barrel (naturally) that can force leaks around the seal. I drilled a very small hole in one side of the end of my barrel (I'd never fill it up that high, so it doesn't cause a problem at all) and that took the pressure off and cut down on leaks. I still get some minor leakage around the lid but the stand that the barrel sits on is the perfect height for a plastic rectangular storage tote and I just stick that under there to catch any drips. It just makes good sense to do that anyway, just in case.