modifying fruit press

[Rev Lovejoy]

Hi folks - I'm brand new here - great forum. I'm a new hobbyist. I have tons of equipment from other hobbies, and I was wondering if it's possible to modify a fruit press (for winemaking) to be a workable small scale home cheese press. I read a thread here where a bathroom scale was used to measure pressure. I would love to try this with my fruit press. Anyone ever do something like this?

[FarmerJd]

Welcome to the forum. Yes, you can use a fruit press with scales to measure the weight produced. The catch is that as the whey leaves the cheese, the pressure decreases quickly. In other words it is hard to maintain a constant pressure. It will work but it will require constant attention especially at first.

[Lennie]

My press has a threaded shaft down the middle, I don't know how it'd work on a cheese.

[DeejayDebi]

Many of the expensive beginners presses sold work with a threaded rod and a spring. The pressure reduces as the curds loose whey and shrink/compress under the pressure

[Lennie]

Those are outside the cheese though.  My fruit presses have the single rod unning down the middle.  I guess you make a wheel of cheese with a hole through the middle.

[DeejayDebi]

Most actually have the pressure rod going down the middle pressing on a flat plate like this: