Author Topic: Hello from Tasmania.  (Read 7315 times)

5ittingduck

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Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #15 on: April 23, 2017, 10:02:50 AM »
Ah, memories ;)
For we do not just experiment with cheese here, we also do meat.
Home made Bacon, Salami, sausages and cured meats.
We often have excess back fat to render for lard, and also get the sweet smoked fat from the bacon process.

Jay-1

  • Guest
Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #16 on: April 23, 2017, 10:20:27 AM »
 wow, that looks real good... :)

Offline awakephd

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Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #17 on: April 24, 2017, 09:41:07 PM »
Mal, good to hear that the press is still working well for you.

And 5ittingduck - I'm "rendered" speechless ... :)
-- Andy

Jay-1

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Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #18 on: April 25, 2017, 01:14:17 PM »
Thanx for the Welcome awakephd,rawprawn, well ive now made my first cheese, a Colby, took me around 7hrs by the time i last adjusted my final pressing at 3am last night, after 12 hrs of pressing im about to get it out of the press and let it air.

 I cloth banded this Cheese and coated it with lard last night and i'm over it all ready, It's wax from now on, lard and cloth is too messy not to mention you re visit the mess every time you turn your cheese.

Offline awakephd

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Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #19 on: April 25, 2017, 02:31:13 PM »
Eventually it will be covered with mold, and that will reduce the greasy mess ... :)
-- Andy

Jay-1

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Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #20 on: April 26, 2017, 10:57:01 AM »
 My first Cheddar cloth banded with lard after it was air dryed for 3 days.

Offline OzzieCheese

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Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #21 on: April 28, 2017, 02:46:00 AM »
They look awesome..  Have a well earned cheese.

--Mal
Usually if one person asks a question then 10 are waiting for the answer - Please ask !

Jay-1

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Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #22 on: April 28, 2017, 07:45:19 AM »
They look awesome..  Have a well earned cheese.

--Mal

Thanx OzzieCheese, dont mind if i do...please have some cheese for the mention.

Jay-1

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Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #23 on: May 01, 2017, 04:29:24 AM »
 Hobbies all seem to be expensive,  I also brew my own beer (better than professionally) made beer, no head aches in the morning unless you way over indulge and fraction of the price of craft beer, now as you all know i'm new to cheese making and have been slowly gavering all the gear to help me make a great cheese, it all adds up, ive built one cheese press and have been thinking about building another using a new jack and press from the bottom up, up, down...same same? right...Mal got me thinking when he posted the links on how he built his last one, what do you think of this idea??

DoctorCheese

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Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #24 on: May 01, 2017, 05:31:42 AM »
using a new jack and press from the bottom up, up, down...same same? right...Mal got me thinking when he posted the links on how he built his last one, what do you think of this idea??
I would only be worried about having to clean all the whey that drains on to the jack mechanism. If you built with the fluid dynamics of the process in mind I don't see why pushing from the bottom would be a problem.

Offline awakephd

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Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #25 on: May 01, 2017, 03:21:44 PM »
In terms of the cheese, it doesn't care if it is pressed from the bottom up rather than the top down. The design may be more complicated due to the need to keep the platform aligned straight as it moves up.

But when you talk about a "new jack," are you talking about using a hydraulic bottle jack? I would strongly caution against this, for several reasons: 1) I'd be concerned about hydraulic fluids getting onto my hands and then to the cheese. (No such thing as a jack that doesn't leak at least a little bit, at least eventually!) 2) How will you measure the amount of force you are applying? (Certainly do-able, with a pressure gauge and appropriate math, but more complications and more opportunities for leaks ... and the typical bottle jack will not have a readily available port to add a gauge.) 3) Hydraulic jacks are really intended to apply 1000's of lbs of force, not the 5-10 you want to start with; it may be quite hard to keep the pressure down even to apply just the 200-300 lbs you'd want at the end of pressing a typical cheddar. (More pressure is not better - if you press too hard, too quickly, you will close up the rind before all the whey has escaped, and even at the end, if you press too hard, you will either get cheese squishing up around the follower and/or split your mold.)  4) If you just use a typical bottle jack, the pressure you apply to the cheese will dissipate as soon as the cheese compresses. So you will need, not only a pressure gauge, but also a pressure regulator and a pump that can continue to pump hydraulic fluid to maintain the pressure as the cheese compresses. Again, more opportunities for leaks and mess, not to mention you're now starting to talk about a good bit of expense.

Rather than a hydraulic jack, you will be MUCH better off using a pneumatic cylinder. Leaks are not a problem (so long as you are using clean air), and pressure regulators are inexpensive and readily available - though the less expensive, the less precise it will be. You will need to do some math to figure out how much force is applied to the ram for a given psi of air pressure - basically multiply the air psi by πr², where r is the radius of the pneumatic cylinder. But if you go with a pneumatic cylinder, there is no good reason to put it at the bottom; much easier to mount it at the top and press down. The only complication in going this route is having an air compressor at hand to supply the pressure; small compressors are readily available, run on 110v, and can be had for not too much money (under $100 if you go with a cheapie from Harbor Freight) ... but they are NOISY when they run. Really, really noisy. So if you're setting this up inside, this may be an issue.
-- Andy

Jay-1

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Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #26 on: May 04, 2017, 12:49:14 AM »
In terms of the cheese, it doesn't care if it is pressed from the bottom up rather than the top down. The design may be more complicated due to the need to keep the platform aligned straight as it moves up.

But when you talk about a "new jack," are you talking about using a hydraulic bottle jack? I would strongly caution against this, for several reasons: 1) I'd be concerned about hydraulic fluids getting onto my hands and then to the cheese. (No such thing as a jack that doesn't leak at least a little bit, at least eventually!) 2) How will you measure the amount of force you are applying? (Certainly do-able, with a pressure gauge and appropriate math, but more complications and more opportunities for leaks ... and the typical bottle jack will not have a readily available port to add a gauge.) 3) Hydraulic jacks are really intended to apply 1000's of lbs of force, not the 5-10 you want to start with; it may be quite hard to keep the pressure down even to apply just the 200-300 lbs you'd want at the end of pressing a typical cheddar. (More pressure is not better - if you press too hard, too quickly, you will close up the rind before all the whey has escaped, and even at the end, if you press too hard, you will either get cheese squishing up around the follower and/or split your mold.)  4) If you just use a typical bottle jack, the pressure you apply to the cheese will dissipate as soon as the cheese compresses. So you will need, not only a pressure gauge, but also a pressure regulator and a pump that can continue to pump hydraulic fluid to maintain the pressure as the cheese compresses. Again, more opportunities for leaks and mess, not to mention you're now starting to talk about a good bit of expense.

Rather than a hydraulic jack, you will be MUCH better off using a pneumatic cylinder. Leaks are not a problem (so long as you are using clean air), and pressure regulators are inexpensive and readily available - though the less expensive, the less precise it will be. You will need to do some math to figure out how much force is applied to the ram for a given psi of air pressure - basically multiply the air psi by πr², where r is the radius of the pneumatic cylinder. But if you go with a pneumatic cylinder, there is no good reason to put it at the bottom; much easier to mount it at the top and press down. The only complication in going this route is having an air compressor at hand to supply the pressure; small compressors are readily available, run on 110v, and can be had for not too much money (under $100 if you go with a cheapie from Harbor Freight) ... but they are NOISY when they run. Really, really noisy. So if you're setting this up inside, this may be an issue.

 All very good points! I may have to re think this, after all gravity,leverage and weight will apply a constant downwards pressure naturally...back to the drawing board. Thanx for your input folks.

Jay-1

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Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #27 on: May 18, 2017, 08:55:09 AM »
 :) Another cheese underway, first pressing of a Sage Derby Cheese, will post another photo when its fully formed.

Jay-1

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Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #28 on: May 18, 2017, 01:06:14 PM »
 3 hrs on, notice the compression of the cheese.

DoctorCheese

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Re: Hello from Tasmania.
« Reply #29 on: May 19, 2017, 01:38:37 AM »
I'm excited to see this one