This is my incarnation of the backyard Dutch Cheese Press inspired by "Alex-The Cheesepenter" and "Phischy". I used Pine and Oak, because that was available cheaply at the local hardware store. Here are some pictures.
Some notes:
Screw holes were drilled and then filled with a dowel and sanded over
All joints were screwed and glued
The press is covered with a couple of layers of a mix of beeswax and food safe mineral oil
The lever multiply factor is about 3 to 4 times depending on where you pivot the arm or hang the weight. If you make the lever arm longer, you'll get a higher factor.
When pressing the cheese, place a food safe plastic chopping board between the uprights, under the plunger arm
Have pressed cheeses with weights up to 7kg (thats abt 15 lbs I guess), with a resultant plunger pressure of 28kg (60 lbs ?) as measured on a kitchen scale. Its quite stable at these weights and possibly a lot higher.
I'm sure there are other ways of doing this, this is my way
Pictures and a sketchup plan are attached. You can use Sketchup to measure the plan or change it. If you do, please post the results here with pictures
Rgds
Greg