Dual Press. Does this work?

[Thewitt]

I have a Sturdy Press and was considering ways to press more than one cheese at a time. I have a 6" mold I love, but I cannot stack 2 of them under m press. Though I might simply modify the press to raise it up, I saw this and wondered if I could easily make a "yoke" to press 2 cheeses side by side.

Does this type of thing actually work?  I would think the weight would become unbalanced pretty easily if the two cheeses were not identical in all ways.

Thoughts?

[River Bottom Farm]

I think it should work but I would add a pivot point between the press and the yoke (large ball bearing) to allow the yoke to pivot a bit and equalize the load. You would have to increase the weight on the press though to accommodate the extra load bearing surface area of another cheese though.

[Dorchestercheese]

What happens if the two cheeses are different heights?

[Thewitt]

I think it should work but I would add a pivot point between the press and the yoke (large ball bearing) to allow the yoke to pivot a bit and equalize the load. You would have to increase the weight on the press though to accommodate the extra load bearing surface area of another cheese though.

Yes, a central pivot would be needed to keep things balanced for sure.

With the Sturdy Press design, there is a 9x multiplier position so I can get quite a bit of down pressure from a single gallon of water.  Increasing the load would not be an issue - though I still wonder if different height cheeses would result in different down pressures as well.

Some experimentation is in order I think.

[Thewitt]

What happens if the two cheeses are different heights?

I suspect you would need different length down-arms.  Today the Sturdy Press down arm is adjustable to the starting position and there are a couple of "quick install" blocks to slide under the arm for the first pressing when a cheese might compress a long distance so you don't have to reset the press itself. Something similar would likely have to be done to support a dual press design so that a 4" high cheese and a 6" high cheese can press together.

I would think the goal would be to create two equal sizes for most cheeses though, so you would have the same cheese type, same compression results, same weights at each step in the process.

I've never liked stacking cheeses as the top cheese always compresses more than the bottom cheese. Growing up we would stack 4 cheese hoops and end up having to switch the cheeses around and change their order under a hinge-press in the first couple of hours to get a balanced pressing.

[panamamike]

Hi Thewitt,
Sorry it took so long to answer. For some odd reason my Show unread posts don't always show all of the unread posts. Was looking for some answers and just came across this.
The press that you show in the pic is the one I have. I have hung three 33lb containers on it to find out if it would hold it, and yes it did. It will press with a pressing presser of 190lbs.
It did make a bit of noise but held together fine. I didn't try that weight with the two cheese cross member though. Only the main down arm. When pressing only one cheese I put
a piece of plastic wrap and a piece of aluminum foil under the draining tray. The tray will not extend over the edge of the pressing table. I hope I'm not to late with this info.

[GortKlaatu]

If you place them side by side you need to be sure that they are both of the same diameter or they will not receive the same pounds per square inch of pressure.
And then, most importantly, you will have to DOUBLE the weight as it will be split between the two of them.  (That is not necessary when they are stacked on upon the other.)

[panamamike]

Mike, If you stack and are not the same diameter they still will not have the same PSI on each mold.

[GortKlaatu]

Mike, If you stack and are not the same diameter they still will not have the same PSI on each mold.

That's true, because it's a function of surface area; I was focusing on the side by side issue, because many folks don't realize your are cutting the downward force in half.