My New (slightly industrial looking) cheese press

[mikey687]

Just wanted to share my new cheese press I just made.

I went for a compression spring approach and wanted to be able to put high pressure on if I ever manage to make a big cheddar so went a bit overkill on the welding.

The compression springs are rated so that I can put on 800kg of weight / 1800 odd lbs.

To help me manage a constant pressure I created tube guides that fit around the springs, sized for a particular mold and psi, so in it's first outing I'm putting 4psi on a 7 1/2 inch diameter Gruyere. Theoretically, all I have to do is make sure the wing nuts are touching the tops of the tubes whenever I walk past and I should have a steady(ish) pressure.

I also created a special draining table that collects all the whey through integrated drainage channels and then drops it down into a central hole. The table comes apart for easy cleaning of the holes and channels.

Really pleased with how the Gruyere looked after 24 hours, now happily being brined.

[Kern]

Nice workmanship!  Have a cheese on me for your efforts.     I see that you remember the drawback when using springs so that you can compensate for it:  As the when drains, the curd compresses and the pressure exerted on the cheese drops accordingly.   

[mikey687]

Thank you for the cheese!

Yes, it took a lot of regular attention to make sure the pressure was kept up but I'd managed to achieve most of the compaction before the night time so it kept on pressing it nicely overnight. That was lucky, I need to remember to not make cheese late if I'm using this thing.

[John@PC]

The compression springs are rated so that I can put on 800kg of weight / 1800 odd lbs.

Boy, I could have used that press with my last "hard to mend" cheddars .  Seriously that is one beautiful and elegant press (well, maybe except for the roasting drain pan which may not take too kindly to the low whey pH).  I've not seen the guide tubes used before but that is brilliant and worth a cheese!  Kern is right about the time required for a spring press esp. in the early stages but the tubes solve the problem with knowing how much pressure is being exerted.  But what you have is simple, compact and very well constructed.  Your drain tray is beautiful too and I assume you have access to a CNC router to make that work of art.  From looking at it I'm guessing it's a 1" HDPE base routed with the grooves and 1/4" polycarbonate (or acrylic) drilled for drainage holes?   Add the Polycarb mold it's truly an impressive design.  Two thumbs up! 

[mikey687]

Thanks John 

Almost bang on about the CNC except it's Laser engraved Acrylic. I've got an Epilog Mini Laser for my business and it seemed obvious to use it to create the base plate. Took some engraving though, 10 hours on full power to do a 4-5mm depth on the channels.

I ermed and ah'd about using acrylic for the moulds but couldn't find anything online that suggested it would be dangerous (maybe not as ideal as polypropylene but that does not engrave well) and some things that suggest it is reasonably food safe.

The stainless steel roasting tin is so far holding up!