I was about to start in on making a square press basket out of 3/4" x 3" boards but stopped in a local Home Depot by the Sono Tubes. These are the tubes that are used as concrete forms for pilings. I was thinking that if a tube was varnished as the wood would be then it may make construction alot simpler. However I don't think the Sono Tube is optimal since it's made of cardboard.
Can anyone think of a another perfectly cylindrical object that could be used? A white plastic pail like a secondary is conical so it's out. The only other item I could think of was a plastic pipe like they use for city water mains but I think they may be difficult to find. I'm wondering if anyone can think of something else?
Yes Lum .....that certainly looks like a good poorman's press.....I use something similar but more crude even.Basically a plastic fermentation bucket set in a frame that accepts a tire jack ,etc. It works OK but can't press grapes very dry or the wooden frame might break. Any plans for the one shown on your site?....looks easy enough to build .....but just wondering...is the screw jack attatched to the bottom pan?....is it stainless steel?.....details would be great....I'm a licensed carpenter by trade so it's workable for me....thanks Andy Jones....N.B.,Canada.......
That was my first pass as well but I can't find a source other than a distributor that sells 13' lengths. I'd need to find a part of the city being developed and try to ask the workman for a piece of waste (as I believe you did for yours?).
Sorry Andy, I never got around to drowing up plans.
The bottom of the press is made from four circles cut from 3/4 inch plywood laminated togather. The upper surface of the bottom is covered with a layer of fiberglass and the rim is made from 4-invh fiberglass tape. The "screw" is a length of stainless "all thread." It goes completely through the bottom of the press and is retained by nuts and washers on the top and bottom surfaces.
If you don't want to use fiberglass, just wrap a piece of sheet metal around the bottom to make the pan, then caulk and paint. You should have little trouble with the construction.
Andy, I'm considering making a press, and using the old fashioned type car jack. Remember those that hooked onto the bumper? Did you use that type? I think it might work great, especially since it retracts so easily. Ken
Hi Ken....actually I used a "scissor" jack....too hard to explain how I set the blasted thing in the frame.Suffice to say it did serve the purpose though it was very akward......I've actually thought of making a homemade bladder press using a basket ball....hey stop laughing.....i've got one of those small compressors you keep in the car for emergencies ...powered by the cigarette lighter outlet.....got the drawings worked out for the press itself....now working how to get the car in my basement....anyone?......andy j.
Poly is short for polyethylene, a high-density plastic. They aren't conical and may be rigid enough for a press application. Here is a link to a major manufacurer of poly drums:
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Also, have you considered trying to make a bladder (hydro) press? Such a setup might be possible if you get a small poly drum (open head or with top removed) and drill hundreds of tiny holes in the side and bottom and place the drum inside of a keg bucket. There are several home wine distributors that just sell replacement bladders for about $80 - $100 USD, but you might be able to transform a new truck inner-tube into a bladder. You might also need a pressure relief valve so that the tube doesn't explode with too much water pressure. Here is a link to the schematics of an actual water press:
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I've never tried this before, but I think the drum should be able to handle the pressure. A stainless cook pot might work for a smaller press.
Some of those drums from the link would be perfect but I would think they would be just as hard to find as the sewer pipe that I mentioned previously. The bladder idea is fine but the price puts it right at the same point as buying a small press. I decided to try pressing but only for a minimal outlay, there's too many other items on the plate for warrant $200+ Cdn.
So I'm going to go for the homemade square wooden press, ~2 1/2" vertical slats, perhaps two or three 1 1/2" reinforcement rings. Square platen hooked to a 2x4 connected to the house joists in the basement. Press will be with a sissor jack from the bottom. Something like this if the formatting sticks with the posting:
Joist ------------ | | | | | | | | | |-------| Press (moves upward | | against platten) |-----------| / --- / x Sissor Jack Tube / --- to Carboy /
Don, Here is a link to a large PVC pipe manufacturer in PA; they go up to
24" diameters.
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I used pipe similar to this to make a small wind tunnel a few years back but I needed a whole length; maybe you can find a local supplier that sells odd cut pieces. It's not cheap, I'm pretty sure I paid around $300 for 20 feet of either 12" or 18".
I'm missing the point on the pails. I use three pails stacked with no problems, they could be clean white drywall pails but I used 6 gallon food grade pails since I have them. It does not look like they should stand the pressure, but I press slow, it's never been an issue.
The base pail is the catch basin. I place about a 4" stand off in the pail and follow it with another pail with 1/8" holes in the base and about 4 to 6" up the sides as the press basket. Fill that with grapes and follow it with another pail as the pressure plate. It's not elegant but I get a dry press cake by stirring the cake as you would in a real press.
The only problem I see with SS all-thread is it will take a lot of turns to get it going, try to get the coarsest thread you can. SS is not cheap, Acme threads would be much better but a waste of good money, at that point just buy a used press and fix it up...
You could build a 4 x 4 box frame with a double 3/4" plywood base and top plate and use a bottle jack on top of this to apply the pressure. If you made it from doubled up scrap 2 x 4's" it would cost next to nothing. My pails are 18" high so if I did this the inner dimmension would be about 4.5 to 5 feet. The bottom pail is not needed, I use it to keep the splatter down. I usually do around 200 pounds of must per cycle in this press, I get around 12 to 14 gallons (US) of free run as I load it, a few more gallons of press wine from this. If you used squatter buckets or built a wooden ram for the pressure plate you could keep the hieght down.
The trouble with putting the jack on top of the press is as you mentioned, you need to build a 4x4 frame. If you want to use it outside or somewhere else then you need to do something like that. What I plan to do is to anchor a platen to a 2x4 or 4x4 attached to a floor joist in my basement. I'll then put a jack underneath it to push the whole press up against the platen and the base will have a clear plastic tube running to the carboy or pail. Hopefully that will work but I can always switch to the frame if it doesn't.
If you build the "platen anchor" like this you can always move the pins to shorten or lengthen it:
What you propose will work, but it will be inherently unstable from a balance point of view. Because the basket is resting above the wiggly, moving jack, it will be very apt to shift sideways & topple. Big mess. You would need some sort of guides to keep it going up and not over. It's doable, but awkward.
Why not use the floor joist & platen exactly as you plan, but set the basket on the basement floor, with the jack on top of the platen and pushing up on the adjustable post? [see diagram] That way you can't have a catastrophic tipping of the basket, as its sitting firmly on the floor( or solid base). I've been in quite a few basements in "The Old Neighborhood" where they had this kind of setup. You can stack a few blocks under the jack as lower the height of the presscake, and do away with the need for adjustable pins in the ceiling post as well.
You really don't want to put all your grapes in one basket & then try to balance them in midair. ;-)
You could be right, luckily it can be adapted either way, jack below or jack above. A few more commutes to work and back should solve it in my mind, best press planning time in the world.
I haven't used the jack idea up till now. I used a 6 gallon pail of water which works out to about 50 pounds total, then I put another 6 gallon pail on top and fill it with water. Another option (which I would not recommend by the way) is to stand in the top bucket. Either way works, one is just faster. I would say this is just about the dumbest way to do it though, both times I did this I was in a bind time-wise and had to improvise with whatever was near at hand.
It might be possible to use ratcheting tie down staps to apply the pressure by wrapping them around the whole assembly, that eliminates a frame if it works.
This is pretty much what I did last year to press around 200# of grapes, renting a press would have been another option.
Joe - It amazes me that you can get 200 pounds of crushed grapes in a 6 gallon pail. I would never have believed it. Quite a few years ago I bought the smallest basket press. I have to fill the press many times and it's a pain.
Bill, I should qualify that, apologies. I ferment that in 6 gallon pails, about 3 or 4 depending on what I end up with volume wise. I use a SS pot to scoop out most of the free run and just run that into a screened funnel directly into the carboys. My volume to press does not fill up the 6 gallon pail if I ferment on the skins for several days. If I do a blush, those grapes have not given much must up and I have to cycle through a few pails worth.
I can usually get close to 2 lugs in one 6 gallon container once they are crushed and destemmed (leaving about 6 inches for the cap to rise, I learned how dumb it is to overfill a while back...)
That make me feel better about a choice I made the other day. I decide to add another board to each side of the square press I'm building. It's be about 13" a side and 24" high.
I built a nice round press (18" inside diameter with maple slats etc) using a new 8000 lb. tongue jack to supply the pressure. The amount of cranking is greatly reduced by being able to pull a pin and drop the foot on top of the follower (or top plate) . After the wine is made, the basket comes out, and
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