Author Topic: Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.  (Read 4868 times)

bratrules1

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Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.
« on: February 25, 2015, 01:22:45 AM »
Well am looking to make a press ASAP I was looking in to making a dutch press but I don't want something to big. Is there anyway that I can build a small dutch style press? Or what would be the best advise for making a press. I want to make one with springs but am having a hard time finding stainless steel parts. I seen this example online I was wondering if this will work cause it seem kind of easy to put together. Maybe with a longer arm?

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2015, 01:32:01 AM »
Check with Smolt.  He sells a compact version of the sturdy press.  Very inexpensive and VERY good.
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bratrules1

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Re: Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2015, 01:56:25 AM »
Thanks I'll look him up!!

Kern

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bratrules1

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Re: Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2015, 03:27:10 AM »
That is pretty cool!! But wont the rubber bands get lose after awhile? I like the dutch presses cause of the constant pressure. 

Kern

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Re: Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2015, 03:52:53 AM »
Read all the posts in the link above and you'll see that you can simply add one more rubber band to bring the pressure back up.   ^-^

qdog1955

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Re: Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2015, 11:21:40 AM »
If easy and inexpensive is what you are looking for----the one you show is all of that, and will work fine----but it will have some limitations---you can always up grade later after you have more experience.
Qdog

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2015, 02:06:10 PM »
If you already have the one in the picture simply replace the horizontal arm with a longer one to move the moment further out and gain more mechanical advantage.  The design is basic but just fine.
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bratrules1

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Re: Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2015, 09:03:55 PM »
If easy and inexpensive is what you are looking for----the one you show is all of that, and will work fine----but it will have some limitations---you can always up grade later after you have more experience.
Qdog

yeah i was thinking of going with this design for now its easy and cheap to make am looking to make a cheddar and with out a press its not happening. I have a friend who has all the right tools and know how to build a really nice one. But alas he has no time at the moment.

If you already have the one in the picture simply replace the horizontal arm with a longer one to move the moment further out and gain more mechanical advantage.  The design is basic but just fine.

Yes the one am going to put together I want to add a longer arm. Question,  how do I go about calibrating the weights?

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.
« Reply #9 on: March 02, 2015, 09:36:22 PM »
Put a scale under the vertical plunger and hang a weight on the arm.  See what it reads.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2015, 01:35:31 AM by Al Lewis »
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Offline smolt1

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Re: Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.
« Reply #10 on: March 02, 2015, 09:56:03 PM »
Or, measure the distance from the hinge pin to where you hang the weight and divide by the distance from the hinge pin to the plunger. That is the MA(mechanical advantage) of the press. The one in the picture looks to have a MA of about 15 inches/ 5 inches or 3.  Now hang 1 gallon of water on the lever. That weighs about 8 lbs, so now your press is pressing with 3 X 8 lbs or 24 lbs. Of course the lever weighs something and should be added to the total, but for Cheddar just press away and forget the finer details.

bratrules1

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Re: Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.
« Reply #11 on: March 03, 2015, 12:53:41 AM »
Or, measure the distance from the hinge pin to where you hang the weight and divide by the distance from the hinge pin to the plunger. That is the MA(mechanical advantage) of the press. The one in the picture looks to have a MA of about 15 inches/ 5 inches or 3.  Now hang 1 gallon of water on the lever. That weighs about 8 lbs, so now your press is pressing with 3 X 8 lbs or 24 lbs. Of course the lever weighs something and should be added to the total, but for Cheddar just press away and forget the finer details.
Thanks for this info. I will also try using a scale to make sure my numbers are good.

Guiseppe

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Re: Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.
« Reply #12 on: March 04, 2015, 11:44:14 AM »
Hi Bratrules,

I'm fairly new to this game but I have made my own press merely by copying a Dutch Press pictured on the 'net.

Calibration is about as easy as it gets.  It will work either for the Dutch Press or the other which you have pictured.
What you need is a set of bathroom scales and a set of kitchen scales.

If you start with the kitchen scales with no weights added to the arm you can tell what pressure is applied just by resting the vertical plunger on the scales.  In my case, with no weights, just the vertical plunger and horizontal lever arm in place I had nearly 5 pounds.
Next I replaced the kitchen scales with the bathroom scales and started attaching weights to the end of the pressure arm furthest from the vertical plunger until I achieved a pressure on the scales of 50 pounds (the press will undoubtedly take a lot more weight than this).
I marked this position on the pressure arm and then weighed the actual weights that I had used.  In this case it was 7 pounds 13 ounces.
I then moved the weight back along the arm towards the press whilst leaving the bathroom scales under the plunger arm.  About a half way along I achieved a reading of 40 pounds, I marked the lever arm at this point and nearer to the vertical plunger the scales read 30 pounds.  I marked this position as well.
I now had three marks on the lever arm which related to 50, 40 and 30 pounds pressure assuming that 7 pounds and 13 ounces were applied at these points.
I then placed a mark half way between the 50 pound mark and the 40 pound mark and again added weight until the reading on the scale was 20 pounds.  That turned out to be 2 pounds 9 ounces.  Again I moved this weight back towards the pivot point and when it reached about half way between the 40 and 30 pound marks I had previously made I got a reading of 10 pounds.
.
I now had a means of accurately applying 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 pounds pressure by just using two weights, 7 pounds 13 ounces or 2 pounds 9 ounces.
I don't even need to keep these weights because all I do is fill plastic bottles with tap water until I have whichever of these two weights I need (as measured on the kitchen scales) and hang them from the arm in a plastic bag.  It may not look particularly elegant but I know that I am applying exactly the correct weight.
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Hope this helps.

Guiseppe

Kern

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Re: Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.
« Reply #13 on: March 04, 2015, 03:55:26 PM »
Guiseppe:

I love the scientific method of doing things.  Have a cheese on me!   ;D

Kern

Guiseppe

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Re: Am looking to make a cheese press and i can use some help.
« Reply #14 on: March 05, 2015, 08:09:55 PM »
Kern -

Thanks for that.  In actual fact my method is far more scientific than the scientific methods I read about.  There is virtually no possibility of error.
By using my method I know that by hanging a given weight on the arm of my press at a given point which is marked I am applying a known pressure.
By all means do complicated calculations based on Pi, work out your mechanical advantage to within half a gnat's eyebrow - I know my method works and is simplicity itself.  It's ideal for a technophobe (that would be me).
The only thing I would do differently if I did it again would be to recalibrate it to a round figure.  I did it the wrong way round and ended up with weights of 7Lb 13 Oz and 2Lb 9Oz.  Had I thought about it I should have gone with 8Lbs dead and 2 1/2Lb and marked the arm accordingly based on those weights - it's as broad as it is long but if you're using standard scale weights it's obviously easier to work in round figures and standard size weights.