Show us your press

How about we help those building presses with pics of ours? Looked for a show us your press thread, came up empty. Well here's mine. That second to last one is of the smash stick to push the apples into the shredder (a laminated drum with stainless flat head screws.)
Props to my pops, without him taking me up on some crazy rabbittrail whim, I'd just be dreamin.
(belt guard....we dont need no steeenkin belt guard)

scratter and press all in one.... nice looking bit of kit... I assume you have 2 baskets so while pressing one the other is filling? then once full it's slid fwd under press and hay presto?

is there a solid base under the slats on the shelf?

Yep, assembly line style. That way we can keep the process moving along.
There is a solid base under the slats, with a hole to drain out.
The shredder (scratter?, always like to learn comparative terms) took some thinking on how to build. Had to have one that was simple, efficient and easy to clean. It does a good job of macerating them.
thanks for the compliment.

Hey Pommeau that's a nice setup! Tell me more about the Scratter design what size is the motor, what are the RPM's and what size are the 2 pulleys? I have a very large very old press that I bought last year for cheap but am trying to figure out something to build for grinding. Right now I use a 3lb hammer and a 5 gallon bucket. I put about a dozen apples in the bucket and pound them with the top of the hammer until I get a mush. It works but it's messy and as labor intensive as it sounds!

Mine looks like this. It's from 1872.

Babski,
1/3 hp motor, 1750rpm 1.5" on motor, 10" on drum. Happy to answer any other questions that might come up.

Mike,
Nice! Sure dont make stuff like they used to, I'd love to get 100 years out of ours. Would sure be nice if we could get a qulity press for just over a jackson!

Here's mine haven't got to use yet. I built it from cider press and barrel plans. Ordered the barrel kit from the guy.

I made this press from a kit that included the welded-together screw and handle, an acme thread nut and plate, and metal straps. I forget if the tub staves came too, or if I had to make them myself.

After only one season, the 3/4-inch plywood pressing plate I made got worn completely through by the screw. I found a man with a metal fabrication shop just over on the next hill, and he made this fantastic, 1/4-inch stainless-steel plate for me, and even included a short tube welded on that fits the screw just right and keeps the plate level.

Works great.

the OP totally created this post to show off! And congratulations, that is awesome!
Ron Burgendy: Hey everyone, come see how good I look!



Seriously though, nice job. I don't have a press but I've been dabbling with the idea of making one but it would most definitely be simpler than that.

Well I am proud of it, but that's all my fathers doing. He likes to do stuff right, and do it once. His hobbies include deriving satisfaction from hand cutting dovetails, and spending weeks on hand staining furniture, so even his purely functional stuff looks nice.

Nice Burgundy clip, watched it replacing "I" with "my press" and am still laughing. If I only looked half as good in that 'stache

Some stuff you cant see are the Steel ears welded to the large Nut buried in the frame for the screw. So I genuinely want to put something out there for people to look at, deconstruct, then build.

I was hoping to get some plate press pics in here.

WHO'S GOT A PLATE PRESS, POST YOUR PICS, THEN COME AND LOOK AT MY PRESS THEN TELL ME YOU LOOVVVE IT

I should probably show a picture of this setup in action because these pictures really don't do it justice. It's a very rudimentary setup and nowhere near as fancy as the ones in this post, but I can press about 12 gallons of juice in about two hours with it. It's very efficient and, in my opinion, is faster than the traditional hand crank scratter.

It's not very traditional, but it gets the job done. I use greenhouse shade screen to and a frame to make "pomace cheese" on a hand=made apple wood press frame then press it with an apple wood lath-covered board. I really should see if I have some better pictures or a video or something so you can see it in action. It works really, really well and my neighbors are always stopping by and trying to get me to give them free jugs of juice. I always give them a sample and it blows their mind, but this nectar is too valuable to just give away in bulk!

^ Are the holes just on the bottom of the 5 gallon bucket for the juice to come out of?

CodyA said:

^ Are the holes just on the bottom of the 5 gallon bucket for the juice to come out of?

Click to expand...

No. Bucket isn't a part of the setup. Like I said, not a great picture.

He's a picture of my buddy Bob helping me press last Aug. this shows it in action a little better.

bigsky with the first plate press, thanks man!

Czm said:

Here's mine haven't got to use yet. I built it from cider press and barrel plans. Ordered the barrel kit from the guy.

Click to expand...

Looks good !

spirit10 said:

Looks good what size is the barrel and where did you get it ? How much?

Click to expand...

12x14 I believe. I had to put it together. I'd recommend getting it assembled prior. It came from cider press and barrel.

Fin!

Should have agitated the pulp after the first press and then pressed the same pulp again. Then repeat. And put smaller amounts of pulp in the basket. Oh well, I now know for my next batch. Still got about 100 pounds of apples in the freezer!

Cody, Very nice. What I did was put two bags of pulp on it. The bottom bag was the fresh pulp and the second bag (on top and separated with a plate) was a second pressing. The second pressing was definaly less moist than the first pressing.
Big Sky. Very nice too. Where the heck did you get a pan that big? My first press was a plate press, but I think it was too small. I had to stack multiple plates and they always wanted to slide one way or another. What you did is much better than my feeble attempt.
Question for anyone with an oak press. What do you do to preserve the wood? I have all my oak peices ready to form into a "barrel".

Watco butcher block oil. It's food grade and is waterproof when your done just wash your stuff off with water. Look it up you can find it on amazon at a good price. Lowes has it around here but not Home depot. It dries with a hard finish and is more than worth the time it takes to do it you will be glad you did it. You should be able to get it for around $15.00 shipped

Not sure which one we used, but once dry just about any modern "varnish" is safe.

The epoxy I used says it dries 10x harder than concrete... By the looks of my tray and disk, they're NEVER coming apart, much less lose it's seal. Might be overkill though...

Here's mine solid red oak.

Nice press, looks sturdy AND purty.