Here are pictures of a couple of final details that I finished up last night.
The first two pictures show the press, including the final details, in its permanent home on top of my cheese "cave."
The next two pictures show a close up of the first of the final details, a "ship's wheel" adjuster, to make it easier to move the screw up or down as needed. I had debated whether to go with a socket in the top end of the screw, into which I could put a standard 1/2" drive socket extension, or whether to go with something like this. Originally I was thinking that the ship's wheel route would require cutting a keyway ... but then I decided that I don't necessarily want to use this while under weight; rather to adjust as needed between changing weights, or if needed to move the screw up and down when pulling the mold out for flipping. So it doesn't need a super-strong drive system (such as a keyway); instead, just a pressure pad will suffice. If you look at the peg in the lower right quadrant of the picture, you'll see that one picture shows it unscrewed part-way, and the other shows it screwed in to provide clamping force. (The screw does not bear directly on the acme screw -- I don't want to mess up my nice shiny finish!
Instead it presses against a pad of hard maple, which then presses against the acme screw.)
The last three pictures show a close-up of a detail that I transferred from my previous press -- a flanged knob that will keep a weight from sliding off the end of the lever. (In actual use on my previous press, the weights never seemed to have an inclination to do this -- friction was sufficient to hold them in place -- but I am not comfortable not having some insurance to make sure I don't drop a 25 lb. weight onto the floor!) The last picture shows the brass threaded insert in the end of the lever, into which the knob threads -- I wound up making the insert, because a) I didn't have one of the right size on hand, and b) this is something that only takes a few minutes to make out of brass. Actually, I made two, one of which is used in the "ship's wheel."
It is possible I will decide the ship's wheel adjuster is not the way to go, after all -- I can see that I will have to move it up and down to get it out of the way, and I don't know how tedious that might get; I may still machine the 1/2" socket in the acme screw, so that I can choose between the systems. But for now, I think I'm done! So today I am planning to make some cheddar and put the press through its paces.
