Broken Cider Press
Sep. 5th, 2006 08:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsWell, the rest of the weekend was brutal. I finished making the cider press only to have it break on me. The design was sound, but I need to refine it somewhat.
Basically, the press is built of two 18"x18" boards of 1" plywood, with 2x4s framing one piece and reinforcing each piece, one underneath, one atop. The reinforcing braces must be placed perpendicular to the grain of the plywood. Once you've assembled them all together, you drill a 3/8" diameter hole in each corner such that it penetrates squarely the reinforcing braces. Now, place the press into a 20"x20" plastic basin and fill the base of the press with a 1" layer of apples that have been run through a food processor. Put a towel over that layer, and add another layer. Keep adding until you've filled the frame.
Now, with a wrench and four hex bolts, slowly screw down the top until juice runs out into the basin. Keep going for quite a while, letting as much liquid drain out as possible. Then disassemble the press, discard the compost and refill. It's possible to get a lot of liquid out of the apples his way. Unfortunately, my press broke on the second go. I had not drilled the holes for perfect alignment, and I used carriage bolts instead of hex bolts, and they tore loose from their fittings and spun in place. Undoing them wrecked the threads. I'll try again next year.
Omaha and I ended up hand-milling and squeezing the juice out by hand, a real pain in the neck. But we got a gallon and half of must out of about four gallons of apples, so we're fermenting that to see what we get.
Basically, the press is built of two 18"x18" boards of 1" plywood, with 2x4s framing one piece and reinforcing each piece, one underneath, one atop. The reinforcing braces must be placed perpendicular to the grain of the plywood. Once you've assembled them all together, you drill a 3/8" diameter hole in each corner such that it penetrates squarely the reinforcing braces. Now, place the press into a 20"x20" plastic basin and fill the base of the press with a 1" layer of apples that have been run through a food processor. Put a towel over that layer, and add another layer. Keep adding until you've filled the frame.
Now, with a wrench and four hex bolts, slowly screw down the top until juice runs out into the basin. Keep going for quite a while, letting as much liquid drain out as possible. Then disassemble the press, discard the compost and refill. It's possible to get a lot of liquid out of the apples his way. Unfortunately, my press broke on the second go. I had not drilled the holes for perfect alignment, and I used carriage bolts instead of hex bolts, and they tore loose from their fittings and spun in place. Undoing them wrecked the threads. I'll try again next year.
Omaha and I ended up hand-milling and squeezing the juice out by hand, a real pain in the neck. But we got a gallon and half of must out of about four gallons of apples, so we're fermenting that to see what we get.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-06 05:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-06 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-06 08:25 am (UTC)There's also a decent "make it yourself" design in the old "Back to Basics" book that was published by (I think) Readers Digest. Worth it for other things in there too.
That design uses a scissor jack from a car to apply the pressure.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-06 03:34 pm (UTC)Neat!
I'll be more than happy to beta test the cider.... ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-09-06 05:20 pm (UTC)