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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => EQUIPMENT - Forming Cheese => Topic started by: H-K-J on April 02, 2012, 04:54:40 PM
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This is what I have so far just creating as I go along, I have read everything on the forum, really like the discussion on Boofers press and have come up with some idea's
The pic shows the direction I am going and not the finished project. It will be a double pulley system (2 up 2 down)
I am also keeping a record here if you want to watch it go together (Slowly but surely) ::)
http://cocker-spanial-hair-in-my-food.blogspot.com/2012/03/building-cheese-press.html (http://cocker-spanial-hair-in-my-food.blogspot.com/2012/03/building-cheese-press.html)
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I like the open front end of your design, makes it more flexible for different mold configurations or for pressing under whey in the cheese pot. I made mine with a sort of U frame, and it limits the size of what I can press. I'm curious to see how you're going to attach the presser arm, and are you going to attach a stabilizer to keep the presser arm straight? It needs to stay straight so you don't get lopsided cheeses. If the presser arm and stabilizer are both really easy to adjust the distance from the pivot, you'll have a lot of flexibility to press big molds, little molds, and several molds at once. I'd like to start making four one pound cheeses sometimes instead of one four pound cheese, and my press is just too small, so time for mark 3. I use a double pulley system, too. Can't be beat.
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Ditto what Dave said plus a small design thing. With a hefty and long lever the minimum weight you can press will be significant. Also there is a calculator on my website that will work for any lever press.
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All comments welcome, :)
it is a work in progress, as I build I am trying to work things out,here are a couple Pic's of what I did today,
for tomorrow I have some new ideas, for some reason I turned it into a major project, and you can call home-n-ask my wife. :P
http://cocker-spanial-hair-in-my-food.blogspot.com/2012/03/building-cheese-press.html (http://cocker-spanial-hair-in-my-food.blogspot.com/2012/03/building-cheese-press.html)
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Looking good!
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Didn't get much done just put the uprights together, glued, screwed, drilled, countersunk, plugged and sanded, it did take awhile though.
today have ideas for the base :)
http://cocker-spanial-hair-in-my-food.blogspot.com/2012/03/building-cheese-press.html (http://cocker-spanial-hair-in-my-food.blogspot.com/2012/03/building-cheese-press.html)
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Nice work!
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looks like it is going quite well-very nice looking work. Thanks for taking the time to post your work.
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It will be a double pulley system (2 up 2 down)
??? A quad? ??? 4 pulleys, right? ???
But what happened to just driving the cadillac up on the cheese? :(
Ah yes, a true labor of love. :)
A cheese for your unbridled press-making enthusiasm....
-Boofer-
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The double pulley sytsem should give you the weight you need without having to wash splashes of whey off the Cadillac.
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The double pulley sytsem should give you the weight you need without having to wash splashes of whey off the Cadillac.
yeah, but you won't get that neato cadillac symbol in your cheese!
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LOL ;D you guys funny :D and yup a 4 pully had to give up on the caddie idea the wife say's she dont want no gravel in her cheese :o
I got a little more done yesterday damn house work is gettin in the way of my creativity >:(
I have fixed the base so the warp thing wont break, now to fix the top and make it a little flatter that will happen after the dishes are done :(
Thanks everyone for the encouragement and the cheese Boofer :)
http://cocker-spanial-hair-in-my-food.blogspot.com/2012/03/building-cheese-press.html (http://cocker-spanial-hair-in-my-food.blogspot.com/2012/03/building-cheese-press.html)
and the continuing saga
http://cocker-spanial-hair-in-my-food.blogspot.com/2012/04/cheese-press-continued.html (http://cocker-spanial-hair-in-my-food.blogspot.com/2012/04/cheese-press-continued.html)
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Between house chores and driving across town to jump start the wife car didn't have much time for the project all I got done is layout for the plunger alignment section and then it snowed this morning, I just love Idaho weather >:(
Today I play and possibly get something built ::)
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Yep, mil-spec...that's what I thought. ;)
I forget now...how does this project affect the parabolic reflector array again? I think I got lost somewhere in the blueprints. ::)
-Boofer-
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Yep, mil-spec...that's what I thought. ;)
I forget now...how does this project affect the parabolic reflector array again? I think I got lost somewhere in the blueprints. ::)
-Boofer-
HOW the heck do I know, I am just an idiot pushin buttons
Bare with me it is coming together :o
in my world certain things come together at certain times I get whey to involved
I have the tools and I can
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I am impressed! Are you sure you don't just want to put a finish on that and display it in my livingroom? I'll sit it right next to my 1947 Seaburg Jukebox!
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I am impressed! Are you sure you don't just want to put a finish on that and display it in my livingroom? I'll sit it right next to my 1947 Seaburg Jukebox!
Yeah, we can put the DVD player here and the whatchamagizmo there...but where's the big screen gonna go?
Great engineering project, but will it press cheese as well as impress us? 8)
-Boofer-
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LOL :) If it doesn't press cheese I will give it to DJD and let her sit it next to her 1947 Seaburg Jukebox ;)
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I really love it. It's a very nice piece of craftsmanship and well thought out too.
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DJD yer makin my head swell :) I have been out gettin things fitted, revamped, stained, aligned, coated and trimmed
tomorrow I will coat it one more time and start puttin it together :D
Thanks for your support ^-^
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I really like the idea of using T-rails. Adds a lot of strentgh and stability. Reminds me of an elevator. Almost done and it looks really great. One or two more polycoats should do it. It's gonna be great!
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I got it all together, :) all except the pulley system, I will probably start looking for the parts today (if the wife will let me) ::)
As it stands right now I have a tear weight of 11 to 12 Lbs. and a mechanical advantage of 5.676 not sure what it all means but it will all change when I start to figure it out.
I placed 45Lbs. on the arm and got 230Lbs on the scale :D I am realy very happy with my first home made press just as it stands and it surely will improve with the pulley system
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Oh, that is nice. All it needs is a cheese in press. :D
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I got it all together, :) all except the pulley system, I will probably start looking for the parts today (if the wife will let me) ::)
As it stands right now I have a tear weight of 11 to 12 Lbs. and a mechanical advantage of 5.676 not sure what it all means but it will all change when I start to figure it out.
I placed 45Lbs. on the arm and got 230Lbs on the scale :D I am realy very happy with my first home made press just as it stands and it surely will improve with the pulley system
so with four pulleys, you'll have to attach a half of a grape to get the correct psi. 8)
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A thing of beauty!!!
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Oh, that is nice. All it needs is a cheese in press. :D
And yes, I'm thinkin Swiss :D
so with four pulleys, you'll have to attach a half of a grape to get the correct psi. 8)
I don't know about half, I was thinkin maybe a whole one but you could be right :-\
A thing of beauty!!!
:) Thank you, I do appreciate everyone's support and comments ;D I still have one or two Ideas to complete and then CHEESE TIME!!
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Oh Boy, that is beauty !
Just keep going on :)
Hande
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Man that IS pretty! Well done! Trying to follow the arrangement. Does the lower suport board go up and down with the piston to make it adjustable??
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DeejayDebi
I hadn't realized that wasn't explained, what I came up with was to drill adjustment holes in the T-rails and place cabinet shelve levelers in the holes at the proper height in order to keep the support board and the plunger directly over the mold.
As the cheese compresses I will be able to adjust it without having to release the pressure (my thought anyway) :-\
I am adding pic's that might help with my explanation
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Okay I see it now very nice! I suspected that was the case. A cheese for you that is the prettiest press I've seen!
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Okay I see it now very nice! I suspected that was the case. A cheese for you that is the prettiest press I've seen!
Yeah, MOMA* called, they're sending a truck over to pick it up. ;)
-Boofer-
(MOMA* = Museum of Modern Art)
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Okay I see it now very nice! I suspected that was the case. A cheese for you that is the prettiest press I've seen!
Yer makin me blush ^-^ DJD
Yeah, MOMA* called, they're sending a truck over to pick it up. ;)
The wife said she aint gonna let-em have it, it took to long for me to build :-\
Thanks to all for the cheeses and the support ;D It was a project of hit and miss, had fun building it, when yer unemployed you do most anything to keep yer sanity :o
I do have questions like;
most recipes I am looking at call for pressures like 25# or 10-12-15#, I have used the calculators on site and were my arm and plunger weigh 11 to 12# and my M/A is 5.676471, I would only need a half of a grape ;) to get the lower pressures and a whole one to get 25#
So what is the purpose of the quad pulley system, I placed 20# on the arm and got about 122# +/- on my scale, granted it is an analog and it was only a test.
soooo, in what situation would I need 200 to, say, 300# or more, I can reach this as I have added 45# to the arm and am getting approximately 240# although I can see where 5 or 6# hanging from the pulleys would be easier to handle and I do think it would look really cool 8), is there a time that I will need this kind of pressure or am I just over thinking it like I usually do ???
As usual all help and comments are welcomed.
H-K-J
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soooo, in what situation would I need 200 to, say, 300# or more,
is there a time that I will need this kind of pressure or am I just over thinking it like I usually do ???
Hey, I think you've "broken through to the other side"....
Very rarely do I find a need to press in the extreme. Quite often my Dutch press sits quite lonely and probably feels abandoned out in the garage. I use the downward force of the lever & piston (11 lbs) to safely press quite a few cheeses. That is often quite enough to knit the curds and expel whey, especially if the pressing is done in the pot and/or with a seed-heating mat wrapped around the pot to keep the curds warm while pressing. I have found that for peace of mind I will put the pot under the press, even if pressing lightly (11 lbs), so that I don't have lopsided cheeses or falling weights. The pic shows one such pressing with just the weight of the lever arm, piston, and the can of soup :D.
I did have to put on some weight (yes, I know...it's the cheese I eat! ::)) to get to a higher psi for my recent Maasdam (250 lbs/ 7.9 psi)and Double Gloucester (575 lbs/ 13.7 psi). The Maasdam guidelines called for 4.3-8.8 psi. If there is a true Cheddar in my cheese-making future, I will no doubt put some weight on for that pressing.
So the question might be: what cheese styles do you intend to focus on? If you concentrate on blues, you probably won't need a lot of pressing power. Still, if you wire it up, it could make a fine lamp table for the corner...and maybe add a planter. ;)
-Boofer-
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Boofer, thanks for the strait in yer face answer :) love it, I was thinkin lava lamp hangin from the arm and an orange juicer under the press ;D
my focus has been Stilton type blues and will continue, they are my favorite, well any of the blues, just want to get these down to what I like,
but I want to try Alpine types, Swiss style, and get into the cheddar's,
what I have been reading they only use 25# for the overnight or 24 hour pressing period or less, if that is all I need then maybe a grapefruit will work for the hanging weight :)
now that brings to mind another question, as in the pictures you can see my mold in the press and there is the full 11 to 12 lbs of pressure on the follower, it aint movein I even pressed on the lever and after quite allot of down pressure it did move, wont this friction cause an effect on my PSI? should I sand the follower down to relieve this?
should I sand it down even further to allow for the cheese cloth? :-\
these are thing I loose sleep over :o and need to find out before I go spend $30. to $40. on milk
I dont want to through it out. (of course that aint gonna happen I will just invent some kind of cheese ???)
O.K. I'll quit for now. thanks for your comments and input,
H-K-J
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The follower should move smoothly and not restrict the pressing at all. I would sand it until it slides nicely throught the mold. It would be bad if you thought you were pressing and it was just stuck. I like to round out the edges so if they get tweaked they don't hangup. I had one I bought from a local vendor that hung badly and had to sand it. After you sand you can hit it QUICKLY with flame to smooth it out - but QUICKLY or it will melt.
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I cut my follower down to almost an eighth inch smaller than my mold because I found it hanging up now and again if it wasn't perfectly straight. Now I get a little ridge on my finished cheese, very small. I wait until after brining and slice it off with a paring knife or cheese plane so I get to taste the cheese.
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Thank you ^-^ I have read somewhere in the forum (I believe it was Sailor) has a problem with a ridge from his mold, his fix was to place the follower on top of the curd pulling the cheese cloth up and over the follower, that apparently solved the little ridge problem.
But I kinduh like the prospect of trimmin it and havin a little taste ;D
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I was doing it that way, but sometimes my follower sticks; it's made from a wooden cutting board. So now I carefully pull on corner of the cloth over the cheese and put the follower on top, and usually just get the little ridge on the far side.
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When you have little ridges in some molds you can just flip the cheese and they go away - like the tome molds but snacks are always good!