Construction of the Cider Press The Frame can be made from pieces of four by two softwood or stainless steel.Wooden cider press frames are held together with coach bolts and screws whereas the stainless version is riveted and welded. The top member has to be very strong to take the extreme pressure exerted by the bottle jack.The juice tray needs to have a lip all round and an outlet pipe which can be a piece of white plastic plumbing pipe.PressingThe form of the cheese (height x width) is produced by using a softwood 'mould' which we lay onto a couple of thin softwood lats resting on the cheese below. We use net curtain for our cheese cloths (nylon or polyester) and select by the thickness and strength of the yarn - and hopefully a plain pattern. The net must be machine washed before the first use. The milled apple pulp is poured into the mould and spread out to give an even depth. The net curtain rectangle is then folded over to produce a rectangular cheese, the slats are slid out, frame lifted off and the process is repeated. The juice starts to flow straight away and by the time we have added the blocks of timber that spread the force of the screw, we have a good flow going. We feel racks would increase the flow of juice and give a more efficient pressing leading to drier pomace. More pieces of softwood are added to take up the gap as we've run out of screw thread. By putting the timber at right angles and using blockboard, we ensure the pressure is fairly equally distributed. The pressure is really on here and the cheeses have compressed considerably - compare the position of the sheet of blockboard with the yellow bar-code sticker on the frame, with the same view in the first image in this section. We are careful not to put too much pressure on the 'cloths' as the net curtain material could burst. You can clearly see the juice accumulating in the tray before it pours into the 5 gallon bucket. It is very tempting to keep placing a glass under the outflow and sampling the fresh-pressed juice... Unloading the press shows the pomace has been compressed. The cheese starts off about 45mm (1 3/4 inch) thick, but is compressed to about 9mm (3/8 inch). You could use a car jack in place of the screw Cider Making
When we built our press we read through this and had a rummage to see what we had laying about. So what we built wasn't like this but goes as follows: A cross piece made from 2 cuts of 2x4, drilled holes into the ends to take four 3" lengths of threaded bar. Couple of nuts on the end with some large square metal washers to spread the load. At the other end of the bar we had some oak sitting around so made a double 'platform' to take the pillow case filled with crushed apples. Inserted the bag between the two 'platforms' and compressed with a car jack.
This is ours: http://thelatebay.com/index.php?topic=1642.msg22819#msg22819 Today my dad and I made up a press and got busy with the apples: Yes that's a trolly jack but only two ton. Version 3 will have a bigger jack We got 10 litres from around 70 apples and still got shed loads left on the tree waiting to fall
That look's pretty easy to knock up and i have a 3 tonne trolley jack you could also probably use a hydraulic press you would have a hell of a lot more pressure there and would be handy for the van too ! ;D
The only issue you may come to is splitting the bag, also we ended up breaking the oak platforms due to too much force. Take your time with the pressing, a little bit at a time.
that is true i have been given a homebrew kit so will give that a go as i have a few fruit tree's but they are only young and haven't produced any fruit yet but when they do i will be getting on it! ;D
Tell Jen to put her shoes outside then you'll have all the room you need It's also break-downable. (it that even a word?)
