New compact, compound-lever, selectable MA press

[awakephd]

If and when you start making apple cider with the press, we want to see pictures!

[OzzieCheese]

Will be during the apple season.  Later in the year.

[Macgos]

Hi guys - Mark here... recently into cheesemaking and thinking about building a new press. Realise this thread is a few years old - but wondering if you had any more thoughts since your last post OzzieCheese on this all wood version? I too am in Australia - so might need to score some Tassie oak from Bunnings as well. This style looks great and fun to make - all you guys have done a great job with it. Very inspiring. 

[bbgg91]

This is an old thread but it inspired my design for a compound lever press. I to used tassie oak but from Mitre10 not bunnings. I ended up with an 11 times mechanical advantage so it works quite well. The good thing about this deign is that it is stable and compact. Mine is also designed to come apart but it looks good just as an item.

[rsterne]

Beautiful job.... AC4U....

Bob

[Mornduk]

This is an old thread but it inspired my design for a compound lever press. I to used tassie oak but from Mitre10 not bunnings. I ended up with an 11 times mechanical advantage so it works quite well. The good thing about this deign is that it is stable and compact. Mine is also designed to come apart but it looks good just as an item.

Please share some pictures. I always wanted to build this press, but put together a quick one and it works well enough, so it's still in the "holiday project queue"

[bbgg91]

I made the press using a plastic mitre cutting box, a hand held circular saw and a drill press. It turned out ok but I was aiming more for function over looks. The tolerances could be better so I had to add a little bit of slack into the system. I think this press will last a while. I have also made a new pressing piece with smaller distances between the holes. The others were a bit far apart.

[OzzieCheese]

Wow and WOW !  That looks familiar. Well done. I've been using mine for years and haven't had the need to alter the design apart from the weight application points.  I have a 10 times and 12 times eyelet to get some knarly pressing weights. I also migrated away from milk cartons full of water to a series of gym disk weights.

[Mornduk]

I just want to say thank you for this wonderful design. I finally built a prototype with cheap wood and it easily went under 810lbs theoretical force for 24h while pressing a cheddar.

Short story long I got in love with Andy's/awakephd's beautiful craftmanship and decided to build this press a long time ago. Sadly at some point I needed a press under short notice and put together a simple one with PVC that withstood 280 lbs which was enough for the cheeses I like to make, and is still going strong years later, so there was no reason to build this one.

Finally I found an excuse, as I am experimenting with Koji in cheese and wanted to make a cheddar subbing shio koji for dry salt... but that would take at least 600 lbs for the 6G make I do. At last I had a valid reason to build it! I made my plans, but was waiting to get a good bargain on hard maple or white oak, when I found myself with a "free weekend"... I didn't have the wood so I settled for going into Home Depot and getting whatever was available there (pine) to build a "prototype" that I would break but at least would get me ready to do the real thing later. I just used a coping handsaw, a hand sander, and a drill press, and honestly went through quickly as I was expecting to break it (e.g., I just sanded the joints I was going to glue not the whole thing). I built it with wood glue and dowels. It worked fine but the secondary lever burst open at 300 lbs... I built another one and the press went to 810lbs, which was enough for my needs. I've got them under that kind of pressure three times already with no issue.

So long story short, this design is GREAT. And I have a Frankenstein press that works so fine I don't know when I will find an excuse to finally build the "real" one and make it pretty

[Gorkde]

Now I'm really blushing!

I build one of those presses and wondered about the 2 vertical spacers holding the pressing plunger in the middle.
In my logic they should amplify the horizontal movement of the plunger because they are very much at the top.

So I built it and did some testing without them and simulated them with 2 clamps holding wood in place.
As I thought it has way more wobble at the bottom with those spacers.

Basically now I will leave them away and have drilled way bigger holes in the plunger to allow movement in the holes and avoid even more wobble.

My pin holding it is 5.5mm and my holes in the plunger are 8mm.tested pressing a Kitchen towel roll and there's no noticeable wobble.


So my question is why are they even there? Majes no sense at all if the amplify wobble of the plunger.
Could it be nobody even thought about that since it has been posted? Or am I missing a point somehow?

[Gorkde]

Ok, here's my finished Version of this press:

I built the press from Oak simce a woodworker told me thats the best to use. The bottom os Beech.
I bougt 22mm thick Oak planks and let them cut into 30mm strips.

Then I cut them in lengths and connected 3 of then for the maim frame stands using wood glue and dowels.

I tested it using the 5kg weight only and got 37kg to 50kg pressing power on low amplification setting depending on where on the arm I put it. So about 10times amplification.

On the highest amplification setting I got 137kg pressing power out of the 5kg when i put the weight close th the press. Didn't test the highest amplification at the outermost lever but should come close to 200kg there.

As weights I bought 0,5 / 1 / 2 / 5kg fitness weights. All combined it schon give me up tp about 300-350kg which I probably never need anyways.

Before this my first press was done using 2 wooden round kitchen boards where I drilled 3 holesand glued round wood  poles in the bottom one so I could slide the top one which had bigger holes on top and put water buckets on it as weight.
But there I was pretty much limited to 2 water buckets so about 20-30kg.

[NeilC1]

Good Morning,
I saw the compond-lever cheese press on Youtube.  I was impressed with the design.
I would like to find the plans for the press. I have not found any on the internet.
My search brought me to this forum.
Are there plans available for the cheesepress?
In the older posts the pictures are no longer available.
Any help or advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
Neil
necron1@gmail.com

[hawk223]

Did these plans and pictures get posted anywhere? I’d also like to see them as I’d like to build a press with compound mechanical advantage.

Also is there a way that this forum could retain the photos and files uploaded?

[smolt1]

Email me at rwoodshop@hotmail.com and I will send you the plans.
Cheers
Bob Samuelson