homemade wine press

Don,

There's many a house "in the old neighborhood" that has just such an arrangement in the cellar. It works perfectly well, is simple and cheap to boot.

Consider using a hydraulic jack rather than a scissor jack. With a scissor jack you apply force in a circular manner, across your wobbly braces, but a little pump hydraulic jack lets you push up & down along the braces. It should be a lot easier & safer.

Also, consider using a board & bungee straps to hold the jack up toward the joist. I would anchor the upper brace to the joist as well.

HTH, Mike MTM

D> Another idea dawned on me while considering that the problem

For pictures of a press that uses a car jack go to:

Some very nice photos of other processes here as well. HTH

Nice setup. I think it would make more sense to have the jack underneath and have a solid 4x4 attached directly to the platen. That setup has just got to be dirt simple. A drilled square basket made from 12" or larger boards, the juice catcher, the hydraulic jack and the platen/pillar setup. I just checked the price at an online auto parts place and a 2 ton hydraulic jack is $20 Cdn.

Trouble is that a hydraulic jack doesn't have anywhere near the range of motion of a sissor jack. If placed underneath the sissor jack wouldn't have a wobble problem either.

I'm going to consider this for next fall.

Don

There are other hydraulic jacks out there with longer motion. I saw on e-bay the other day some 8 ton jacks with 18.5 in range. Bill

It's a little hard to see but the jack _is_ underneath. If you look closely you can see the jack handle protruding in the second and third photos. HTH

Thanks to everyone that gave me feedback. I think I have what can be a working design. Now I just need the time to build it. Like they say, work is the curse of the drinking class.

Thanks again, Don