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modifying fruit press

Started by Rev Lovejoy, February 04, 2010, 03:32:14 PM

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Rev Lovejoy

Hi folks - I'm brand new here - great forum. I'm a new hobbyist. I have tons of equipment from other hobbies, and I was wondering if it's possible to modify a fruit press (for winemaking) to be a workable small scale home cheese press. I read a thread here where a bathroom scale was used to measure pressure. I would love to try this with my fruit press. Anyone ever do something like this?

FarmerJd

Welcome to the forum. Yes, you can use a fruit press with scales to measure the weight produced. The catch is that as the whey leaves the cheese, the pressure decreases quickly. In other words it is hard to maintain a constant pressure. It will work but it will require constant attention especially at first.


Lennie

My press has a threaded shaft down the middle, I don't know how it'd work on a cheese.

DeejayDebi

Many of the expensive beginners presses sold work with a threaded rod and a spring. The pressure reduces as the curds loose whey and shrink/compress under the pressure

Lennie

Those are outside the cheese though.  My fruit presses have the single rod unning down the middle.  I guess you make a wheel of cheese with a hole through the middle.

DeejayDebi

Most actually have the pressure rod going down the middle pressing on a flat plate like this: