Pressing range for new cheese press

[Danbo]

I have a medium size Dutch cheese press but I am thinking about making a bigger wall press (I found som great examples in this forum) to be able to use larger moulds.

I have some 20 cm moulds (8 in) that I want to use for pressed cheeses around 3 kgs (6.6 lbs).

Does anyone know what maximum pressures are needed for various types of cheeses - preferable in psi (pounds per inch) making it possible to calculate the right weights for different mould diametres.

I know that some cheddars require very high pressure (up to 50 psi in commercial production I think??) but what about other cheese types?

50 psi on a 20 cm (8 in) mold would translate into about 2500 kgs (5511 lbs). I'm not planning to make a press capable of that...

My moulds can withstand significant preassure as they are sturdy commercial ones with very thick walls.

I know that there are already some discussions on this subject in the forum but I still havent fond the answers. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough...

What would be a reasonable maximum pressing weight for my new cheese press?

:-) Danbo

[Spoons]

Washed curd types: 4.0 - 4.5 psi. This works really well for me. The interior paste is flawless. Because they only need to press 3 - 4 hours, 2 psi isn't enough and will give you paste with mechanical holes. This is purely esthetic...

Milled curd types: 15 psi. A bit of a disclaimer; I've only started pressing this much recently. I made a double gloucester and a cheddar using this much pressure. There was an immediate improvement on the following: I used to press cheddar types at around 4.5 psi but I had cracking problems every time during the air drying phase even with a really good 87-90% RH. My first two cheeses pressed at 15 psi didn't have this problem. So, for now, it looks like 15 psi solved that problem. I won't open them before another 10 months or so unfortunately, so I don't know how the paste looks like.

Italian-type (Parm and friulano): 4.5 psi is enough from my exp. No mechanical holes.

[qdog1955]

Danbo----and you probably won't get exact answers-----Lot's of us have pondered this mystery-----myself and others here seem to agree on one thing, that those huge amounts of pressure are not usually necessary----what I started doing, is start my first press with a light weight, usually less then 1 psi and then up the weight with each flip until I get a good curd knit----it takes a little experimenting, but has worked well for me so far.
  It seems the books are a little vague about exact psi, too.
 Remember you also have to calculate your mechanical advantage of your cheese press. I'm pretty sure there are spread sheets and charts available on here---do a search.
Qdog

[qdog1955]

I should probably add-----that the most psi I have used to this date is 11 psi ---and I probably didn't need that much.
Qdog

[Andrew Marshallsay]

There is an assumption that presure in PSI is the same for all mould sizes but I'm not sure that is true. As you have found, when you look at the pressures used commercially you would have to be nuts to use them in your home press. The good news is that you don't need to. The highest pressure that I have used is 6.4 PSI in a 10cm mould. That was for a cantal (notoriously hard to knit) and it did the job.
It is interesting to note that Caldwell does not give pressures in her book but advises to only use as much pressure as you need.
You may find this thread interesting: http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,11094.msg85113.html#msg85113