COLObrewer
Well-Known Member
I made this fruit press a couple of months ago and have been tweeking on it since apple picking season.
Made from a used wire reel with plastic ends. then bought a plastic water heater tray at home depot to catch the juice. Then wrapped the staves with two stainless straps from some stock I have laying around, with one screw in each stave to hold them in place.
I moved the bolts that hold it together to the outside of the "staves", cut a hole in the top just wide enough so the slot that holds the staves is still there. Then passed two of the bolts through an alumaforme A-frame (Any metal A frame can be used here) for the press bracket. I also cut the outside of the ends to make the whole thing smaller and so that it would fit in the water heater tray.
The press plate is the piece I cut out of the top, then I place 8X8 blocks on top of that as needed to get it up to the bottle jack height.
The first problem I had was the bolts pulling washers through the plastic at the bottom, so I cut these brackets out of some other aluminum scrap I had, they span the ribs of the bottom so they don't pull through.
The next problem was the cheesecloth breaking from the indentations in the bottom shown here with holes drilled through them to let the juice out.
So I devised this plate made from plywood to fit in the bottom (cut in two pieces to fit it through the top hole.
This was the first time we didn't break it when we used it. We've used it for 15 gallons of apple juice, one batch of white grapes and this small batch of red grape wine after fermentation. I don't think a store bought press would do any better and we can probably fit 3+ bushels in it (Would probably need bigger bolts and bracketry for a full press). Here's a picture of the grape cake left in the muslin cloth after I pulled it out.
The only other thing I will probably need to do is replace the bolts with larger ones, as you can see they are bending quite nicely at the top where I made them too long, etc.
Keep on brewing my friends!
Made from a used wire reel with plastic ends. then bought a plastic water heater tray at home depot to catch the juice. Then wrapped the staves with two stainless straps from some stock I have laying around, with one screw in each stave to hold them in place.
I moved the bolts that hold it together to the outside of the "staves", cut a hole in the top just wide enough so the slot that holds the staves is still there. Then passed two of the bolts through an alumaforme A-frame (Any metal A frame can be used here) for the press bracket. I also cut the outside of the ends to make the whole thing smaller and so that it would fit in the water heater tray.
The press plate is the piece I cut out of the top, then I place 8X8 blocks on top of that as needed to get it up to the bottle jack height.
The first problem I had was the bolts pulling washers through the plastic at the bottom, so I cut these brackets out of some other aluminum scrap I had, they span the ribs of the bottom so they don't pull through.
The next problem was the cheesecloth breaking from the indentations in the bottom shown here with holes drilled through them to let the juice out.
So I devised this plate made from plywood to fit in the bottom (cut in two pieces to fit it through the top hole.
This was the first time we didn't break it when we used it. We've used it for 15 gallons of apple juice, one batch of white grapes and this small batch of red grape wine after fermentation. I don't think a store bought press would do any better and we can probably fit 3+ bushels in it (Would probably need bigger bolts and bracketry for a full press). Here's a picture of the grape cake left in the muslin cloth after I pulled it out.
The only other thing I will probably need to do is replace the bolts with larger ones, as you can see they are bending quite nicely at the top where I made them too long, etc.
Keep on brewing my friends!
