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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => EQUIPMENT - Forming Cheese => Topic started by: Mary Ruth on February 26, 2009, 12:39:56 PM
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For those of you who have made your own presses: where did you find the spring? I got mine at an auto parts store but am still muddling through this entire process, can't figure out exactly how much pressure the press actually exerts. Pressed my very first farmhouse cheddar last Sunday, will let you know how it comes out in a few weeks :D
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Mary Ruth, I also found my springs at a hardware store. I basically looked for something that just looked right. No science involved and it has been working out pretty well for me. What I did to 'calibrate' it is pretty basic. I screwed on an old ruler to on of the cross members to measure the amount of compression on the springs. Then I used some weights for the desired pressing weight I wanted. I added those to the top of the press and measured the compression of the springs. If you do not have weights you could somehow use a bucket of with measured amounts of water. Water is 8.33 lbs per gallon. Here is a picture of my press FYI (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,571.msg4200.html#msg4200)
Hope that helps you out!
Ryan
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Why yes that does help Ryan! Nice pics, too. LOVED the kitchen set and I bet the little did too ;)
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Hate to say it but you're never going to get repeatable or accurate results from a spring. I'm not being negative just informative. Just want people to know so they are aware even if they do use it as I'm not saying not to use it. ;)
These companies that sell a press with a spring and advertise they are accurate and so forth are full of the other end of the cow.
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Mary, Carter is correct in that the springs are going to give you just an approximation of the real force applied. That being said they get you in the ball park and can still make great cheese with them. If all works out then you can invest in something better and more accurate.
Also, be aware that the pressing weights typical of the 'recipe books' are based on a certain mold size. There has been much dicussion here regarding translating those back to actual pounds per square inch (psi) a.k.a. pressure. The idea is that you want to use the same pressure to press your cheese independant of the mold size. Carter, has some charts and such that help with the calculations but basically if you need 10 lbs of force applied to a 4 inch mold then you'd need 50 lbs of force on a 8 inch mold to maintain the same pressure on the whole surface of the cheese. This is definately the cliff note version... :) I'm sure a quick search will find the original topics.
Ryan