CheeseForum.org ยป Forum
GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => EQUIPMENT - Forming Cheese => Topic started by: Cheese Head on May 25, 2008, 02:44:38 PM
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For the pressing phase of aged cheeses, my initial mold worked well but using heavy hand weights as posted here (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=41.0) did not. Mostly cons and pro of this system were:
- They were awkward, as had to screw on and off the hand part of dumbell.
- Could only get a mximum of 20 lb/9 kg and even that was awkward.
- Dangerous as could slide off top or accidentally drop on potentailly cracking or damaging countertop or floor.
- Would only press one cheese at a time.
- Only plus was except for mold, built using household parts.
Building on problems above, pictures of reg's excellent homemade cheese press in same thread above, and other web pictures, I have bought a Cheese Press Cart! Well OK it's a super heavy duty chromed steel cart. And heavy duty and heavy it is; box says holds up to 500 lbs, I put it on families bathroom scales, 21 kg/46 lb! I bought it at USA Sam's Club (http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=146064), Walmart's wholesale division, for USD50+tax. Looks like similar unit selling on Amazon.com USA from Target Stores USA here (http://www.amazon.com/All-Purpose-Utility-Cart/dp/B0002O9HXU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1211727325&sr=8-1), albeit for USD90 plus expensive shipping.
It will be dual use:
- Reside in the laundry room where it can store cheese making equipment and boxed of soda pop, like reg uses for weights.
- Come out to play and work when making and pressing cheese.
The shelves of the cart are adjustable on 2 inch/5 cm notches on the vertical posts. They are held at a notch by a split medium hard black plastic wedge that goes around the post at the notch and then the steel shelf slides down the column and over the wedge and compresses it in place to fix the shelf. Unit was easy to assemble except top shelf which was fiddly holding the wedges in place while lowering the shelf over them. Comes with hard plastic sheets to stop small items droping through, picture with 3 boxes high of soda below.
For cheese pressing mode, if I push/bang the middle not heavily loaded shelf back up and temporarily remove the 4 corner wedges, then the shelf will slide down until it hits the cheese. Adding weights such as boxes of soda pop or water on top of the shelf will then apply the pressure, similar to reg's press, the posts provide the stability while the shelf with weights drops as whey is pressed out of cheese.
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very handy piece of equipment and the price is right !
reg
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Ok, I'm anxiously awaiting to see this thing in action. You could press several cheeses at once.