pressure scale/regulator

[dogbuckeye]

Hi....I'm new to making hard cheeses and am looking to buy a cheese press.  Any advice on what is best?  We're looking to make 2 gallon batches at a time.  How important is having a built-in cheese regulator/scale on the press?  Besides reading pressure from springs (easy?), I only found one press that has a built in regulator:  http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/p/48-Cheese-Press-with-5-FREE-Cultures-C1-C101-C2-C201-C21-.html

I'm tempted to make my own using PVC (how healthy is that?), etc. but that would utilize a spring for pressure.

One press I found is all stainless steel, including the mold and seemingly the follower: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2Gal-DELUXE-CHEESE-MAKING-PRESS-Stainless-EASY-Pressure-System-/190690320619?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c660760eb

Having stainless steel valuable/helpful?

Last question....how important is having a press that can go higher than 50lbs of pressure?

[linuxboy]

What kind of cheese? For anything other than milled curd styles, you don't really need a press. If you really want one anyway, an off the wall or lever type press performs best for home use.

[Tobiasrer]

I built a home made dutch style, its grea because it comes apart and together easy (6bolts) for storage and its simple to do the math to figure your pressure aplied/weight needed, I think there are even some great tools in some of the threads here that people have made on excel etc. The feed back I have gotten is regulating the pressuure (and maintaing after it expels whey) is dificult with spring type press.

[dogbuckeye]

I'm looking to make hard cheeses which require a press.  I'm leaning towards the dutch style because of the pressure issue.  Thanks for the hot tip on tool making!

[george (MaryJ)]

Member smolt1 also makes a fantastic Dutch press for a very nice price.  Been using it for almost a year now and it beats the pants off anything I'd used before that.  Pretty sure the website is sturdypress.com - else you could search the forum to find it. 

[bbracken677]

I can second that product review! I have a sturdy press myself. Does a great job! I have had it up to 10 psi and no problems. Comes with software to help you calculate pressing weights and pressures.