Not necessarily, I may move them inward to decrease the pressure on the cheese. The design that I patterned off of that it that way so I followed suit. By moving the weights toward the plunger it will decrease the pressure on the cheese. For example, if I have to press the cheese with 15 lbs of pressure, my 5lb weight would have to be 20" from the fixed point of the lever. If I had it out on the end, there would be 20lbs on the cheese. I wish that I had had the lever made about 6" longer. Requires hanging less weight on the end.