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Humble, in commercial practice they use stainless steel plates and lay them on top of the curd in the whey. Then when the curd consolidates into one mass they cut into blocks that they lay into hoops for normal pressing. You could accomplish the same thing as Dixon (and scubagirl  ) suggests.


By the way, why are my quotes carrying the formating markers? What am I doing wrong? It has started doing that lately. Anybody know?

Quote from: scubagirlwonder on April 13, 2010, 11:04:52 PM
Peter Dixon suggests using a wire mesh atop the curds (which are in cheesecloth beneath whey) and pressing using a bucket filled with the appropriate weight...

Quote from: FarmerJd on April 14, 2010, 02:13:10 PM
Humble, in commercial practice they use stainless steel plates and lay them on top of the curd in the whey. Then when the curd consolidates into one mass they cut into blocks that they lay into hoops for normal pressing. You could accomplish the same thing as Dixon (and scubagirl  ) suggests.


By the way, why are my quotes carrying the formating markers? What am I doing wrong? It has started doing that lately. Anybody know?

ah.. gotcha. thanks a bunch!

I hope my experience can help you. What do you mean by "pressing under the whey"?

Here is what I did; I have Dutch Gouda kit intended for hobby users, with two 500g (aprox 1 pound) cheese form (mold), with cloth.

I fill the mold (the cloth actually) with curd and place the top (directly translated from Dutch this is called the follower). It is then turned upside down and rested on the follower for 10 minutes. (the cheese is now being pressed by its own weight). Next it is pressed with "half weight" for 30 minutes. Half weight, being half of full weight, which is 3x the cheese weight. So for the 500 g cheese, half weight is 0,5x3x500gram = 750 gram.
Next it is pressed for 3,5 hours at full weight, being 3x500gram = 1500 gram.

Summary
10 mins upside down own weight
30 mins half weight
3,5 hrs full weight

when transferring from own weight to half weight I take out the cheese and turn it in the mold.
same thing for transfer from half weight to full weight. this really improves the form and shape of the cheese.

This helped me make a great shaped cheese the last time, I hope it helps you. Don't know if you can directly translate this to PSI and I am not sure if this is specific for this particular mold.

I put my mould in the pot and fill it with the curds then place a weight on top. I general do the final pressing in  a large plastic bucket like container if posible. The residual heat helps bind the curds. I guess this is similar to what Sailor does but he uses a pot.

Sailor:

  Let me get this right (since I'm going to try my first gouda this weekend...)

  I have an 8" round mould... 4**2*pi=50.24 sq. in.

  You mentioned that you're pressing at 3 psi...  That would be (approximately) 150 lbs of weight!

  Do I have this right?

-Michael

I am not sailor but yes you got it. 

So basically I just need to get my two kids to stand on top of it for a few hours without moving...

Cool.. :-)

Methinks I need to set up some means of leverage...

-Michael

An 8" mold has a lot more surface area than a 4" or 6", so it takes a lot more weight to acheive the same pressure.

I think I need to set up a quicky lever press in my garage with a doubling pulley...Maybe even a 4x pulley? That should let me use some leverage arm "help" AND lighter physical weight to achieve the kind of pressing weights that will be required. 

So my idea of a leverage arm brings up another question...

If I have an arm that is 5' long "tethered" (or hinged) to swing vertically on a  fixed post at the 0' mark on one end, with the cheese mould at the 1' mark, what formula would I use to calculate the force applied at the 1' mark if I put a weight (say, 20lbs) at the 2' mark... 3' mark?  4' mark?

You get the idea...

Thanx...

-Michael
not a math whiz...

I used a large postal scale to actually measure and calibrate mine. Just put a 10 pound weight somewhere on the lever arm and the scale under the ramrod (piston). If the scale reads 30 pounds, then you have a 3:1 advantage at that location. I have my lever arm marked for 2:1, 3:1, 4:1 and 5:1.

My thought is that 1) I have the leverage arm which could give 4:1 or more...  THEN I add a doubling pulley...  Theoretically I could get a 150lb force (provding the 3 psi in an 8" mould I'm after) using a 25 lb weight (or less) by attaching the doubling pulley at the appropriate spot on the lever arm...

Prowling around on the web gives me the formula f1xd1=f2xd2 for simple leverage advantage... This is (I believe) a class 1 lever situation..

So from my example above:

    |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|  <-My lever arm

   ^ (0')                  1'                 2'               3'             4'              5'
Attached to
wall at this pt.

1' is where the downward force is applied to the cheese hoop.

Roughly speaking, if f1d1=f2d2, at 3', I could put 150lbs and get a doubling action, @ 4' I would get a tripling, and at 5' a quadrupling.

So, if I attached a doubling pulley at 4' and apply a 50lb weight, I'll get 300 lbs @ the 1' mark...

Or am I way off base?

-Michael
Trying to make things more complicated than they really are.

The mechanical advantage of a machine is how much it multiplies your force. In your lever setup (without pulley) you can determine the mechanical advantage (MA) by simply dividing the length from the wall to the weight by the length from the wall to the follower. In your case that's easy since the bottom number is always 1. So your MA at each point is simply 2 at 2 feet, 3 at 3 feet, etc. When you put a weight at 3 feet off the wall, just multiply by 3 and that's your weight on the cheese. If you add a pulley that is positioned at the 4 foot mark (with one end of the rope attached to the floor and the weight on the other end,) then you double the MA to 8. If you add it at the 5 foot mark, the MA is 10.

QuoteSo, if I attached a doubling pulley at 4' and apply a 50lb weight, I'll get 300 lbs @ the 1' mark.

No, 400 lbs at the cheese. If that doesn't make sense let me know. i don't want to get to technical but I also don't want to insult.

Thanx... That makes perfect sense and corrects my miscalculation/misunderstanding...

Which also lets me know that if I take the cheese and put it at 6", I can double the MA ... :-)

This should be fun.. I scoped out how I'm going to build a quickie press that doesn't have to stay "set up" all the time..

-Michael