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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => EQUIPMENT - Forming Cheese => Topic started by: Worlock on March 21, 2009, 01:28:56 AM
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List of materials:
1X12x2 Red Oak Board ... $11.92
1" x 36" Oak Dowel (2 each) ... $7.96 (for both)
3" PVC Test Cap ... $0.59
3" x 5' S40 PVC ... $6.57
1 dollar cutting board $1.00
With taxes total was $29 and change
Child in picture ... priceless
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Cut off 6 inches of PVC from my 5 foot length in my miter box.
Oh, and cutting 1/4 inch rings off what's left makes a fun ring game with bottled water for my 4 and 10 year old girls...
Gish... not sure what I'm going to do with the rest of it. Lot of extra.
Sized up the cap and a can of beans that i'll be using for the press. Will have to dremel off the lip to make the PVC cap a nice even press on the curds.
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Cut the Oak board in half, and the dowels at 12 inches in height.
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Measured out 1/2 inch from the corners and traced the size of the dowels.
Clamped them together, and will drill both boards. Bottom board will be glued to the dowel of course, and the top holes will have to be sanded a bit bigger to allow free movement of the board over the dowels.
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Everything came to a complete halt when I realized I only had a 3/4 inch drill bit. Went ahead and drilled it anyway thinking I can always widen them out.
I was wrong.
Fail worthy wrong.
Ted, that's red oak your working with. And that stuff is hard as all get out.
Tried filing. Fail.
Tried super spinny sand wheel on the drill. Fail.
Tried drywall bit on the drill. Fail.
I realized that it was later on at night, and you don't go around my neighborhood here in DC at night. Safer to stay home, will get a 1" bit tomorrow.
To ease my frustration, went ahead and drilled my holes on the PVC...
Work stoppage till I get the bit.
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I like that cutting board. Dead cheap and seems to solve the problem of where the whey is going to go in one fell swoop. Where'd you find it?
Also, I was going to say you can use some of the extra length of PVC to fashion a couple camembert hoops -- but it looks like you already made your main press into one. I'm pretty sure you're not going to want all those little holes when you've got 100 pounds pressing down on your cheese -- but I've not yet gotten into pressing, so confirm that with someone more knowledgable.
I'll have to check out using a pvc test cap as a follower. I've got no router, and don't want to attempt to cut down a cutting board manually. Ugh. My hands are not precise enough for that.
Congratulations, the press looks great!
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Cutting board was 99 cents from the Dollar Tree.
Too many holes huh? Hmmm... I did notice far far fewer in the commercially available ones out there. Since I had like 5 feet of the stuff I could always make another. In this config you can put more than one press in there and just regulate how much weight you put on top.
Maybe one hole per every 2 inches or so then. Can make another one and see if it looks more like what's normally used.
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Ok. So I tried to take the 3/4 holes from last night and use a 1" bit on them to widen them.
Fail.
There is something to be said for the phrase "right tool for the job".
I trashed the wood, ended up with oblong holes, nothing nearly the quality I felt was needed for a project like this.
So I went out and got another set of oak, cut it, and repeated the hole process... The following is a dry fit:
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Next I'm sizing up feet (from the wood from my previous failure) so that I can give solidity to the vertical columns.
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After apoxy'ing them in place, I drilled pilot holes and a wider recessed hole for the screw head.
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Dry fit...
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Cutting the test cap so it suits my needs as a follower...
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After cutting the test cap, wanted to make sure it evenly followed through the PVC so it ensured even pressure...
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Work stoppage for the night... Sanding everything down for tomorrows lacquer finish. My local BX (Base Exchange) didn't have any varnish or stain... and I'm not traveling off base after dark alone.
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Ted, great work, similar to the ones posted here (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,41.0.html), but with all the details, step by step pictures, tricks and traps that make it way easier for next person.
Love the draining board, better that my system where I just raise my hoop up out of the draining puddled whey. FYI, I built my followers out of cheap cutting boards (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,105.0.html), but used neighbors band style jigsaw, even still I didn't cut perfect round followers. If you need a longer spacer after your follower than can of beans, I bought section of next size down PVC pipe from local Home Depot here in Houston Texas.
PS: Cute "priceless" daughter, ours girls are now teenagers.
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Very nice indeed. I like the countersunkscrew holes on the "feet" of this press. Nice detail.
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Next day.
How to keep the rods straight while the glue sets.
Scrapped the screws. They were never perfectly straight, which made them not line up with the roof's holes. Binding this way and that it never moved freely.
So instead going the old fashioned route with apoxy.
First idea was to set them with my form. After that didn't work out, descided to use toothpicks as wedges and an angle while the glue set. That was the final breakthrough for me, and they're all perfectly straight.
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Pre-varnish and post-varnish
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I hate the varnish.
Hate it like I hate all things hatefull. Hate it hate it hate it.
My wife insisted that I get a water soluable stain / poly.
I wanted to just go with clear polyurethane...
Now it's uneven stainy mess.
If there was a mental image of a kid kicking the tin can home from school emoticon, I'd post it....
Sigh...
All that time this weekend for it to turn out like crap right at the end.
Worklog complete.
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Ted, from here looking at pictures, the varnish looks great!
So next is to put it in service!
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Lol thanks John. I don't like to make rash decisions. My first instinct was to burn the mess. Cooler heads prevailed and I decided to let it set up for a few days to better sand it down. I'll rethink it after that, and might learn to like it. But man did I learn some lessons.
Brush stain/poly is thick. And I don't mean Beyonce's best attribute thick, I mean near gelatinous. Brushing it on simply was too much. Using a damp washcloth with extra coats meant that I could control better how much of it and where it was needed most. If I had to do it over again I certainly would go that route instead.
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agreed, i think it looks great. Little things like taking the time to countersink, or a router to ease and edge or to center things, really sets some projects out from others. gives the impression one actually cares what the project looks like. Someone who takes pride.
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Hiya Ted!
Just curious, if we ignore the varnish issue (I'm generally not a big fan of varnish either, at least not on lighter woods), how does the press work?
I followed a similar design, but I did it very quickly and so everything isn't perfectly square - I think I did mine from conception to completion in 2 hours. It's pretty sloppy. Anyway, my problem is the top "tray" tends to bind... It's not such an issue when I have weight on it as long as I center the weight, however when I'm just putting the tray on or trying to take it off, it can be a serious PITA. I'm pretty sure it's because I didn't bother to square up my dowels.
By the way, I'm not sure what diameter dowels you used, but I used 1" dowels and they happen to be exactly the size of quite a few weights... I had a bunch of weights in my basement and I could easily add weight as I needed it, and with the 4 dowel design the weight is evenly distributed (which helps keep my top from binding).
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Greetings Shoelessone,
Besides from the noted varnish issue it works wonderfully. I've been testing various weight to the same cheese to compare the results in texture and anything else that seems different.
The only way to fix your problem (which I had very very similar issues to yours) is to:
a) Widen your top tray holes
b) Straighten the dowels.
I shined a light from the bottom during specific "bind points" to see where I either needed to straighten or widen and decided which to do.
If the dowels are crooked a bit, the hole will line up only at certain points of the travel path and bind at others.
I'm using 1" dowels also.
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Good job, can I have those Jalepenos if you're done with them?
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I think it looks great hon. You did a fine job. Nice play by play too. I like natural wood too makes the grains so pretty. I like tung oil. Been using it for years. I post my pet project for you in the craft section.