Seabry Sider Press

[Will_D]

The monster is here:

Its driven by a 13 ton jack that in theory should press my 18" diameter basket at 100 psi!

The press is almost finished! I just need to finish some SS Welds in the morning and then we are ready for the first squeeze!

First Squeeze? What is that terminology?

Well, new astronomical telescopes celebrate "first light" when theyget the very first image, so for a press "first squeeze"??

Attatched are some photos and a word doc with the drawing.

Also pictured the scratter from HBW. The Hitacci drill matches the colour scheme perfectly. Just keep fingers out!

[Tom]

Drool! So is that all pine, then?

[brenmurph]

jazus Will I thought u were drunk and spoofin when u were tellin me about ur press down in tipp.....

dats a fine piece of enginneerin....so how many of Una's flowerbeds did u have to dig up to house that then

[Ciderhead]

Drool! So is that all pine, then?

Oak for contact with juice and strength in apple juice presses, Will where is the dining room table?
You NCB'ers are spoilt

[imark]

Tis like a medieval seige weapon. Very impressive indeed. Orchardinator! Good luck with the first squeeze.

[Will_D]

The structure is pine as I was given it free .

This is a prototype! .

The press plates and baskets are the real deal:  White oak and stainles steel. (new and expensive)

The dial gauge at the top is to measure distortion and deflection when I start to press with up to 13 tons pressure.

If the pine can take the strain then it will be kept as is.

If not the basic structure will be done in structural steel sections!

I have some 4 x 2 channel section already and the rugby club has some great steel fence posts!

Nearly finished the welding of the Juice pan. So tomorrow if you hear a sound like a plane breaking the sound barrier or a high velocity rifle then you you will know I've had a structural failure!

[Garry]

Tis like a medieval seige weapon. Very impressive indeed. Orchardinator! Good luck with the first squeeze.

There's something medieval about it alright. With a couple of mods you could convert it to a guillotine when the apple harvest is over?

Well done Will 

[Hop Bomb]

Looks awesome! I made a smaller version of that back in 2010. I had an old floor tom drum to hold the pulp & a turkey tray underneath with a notch cut so the juice could fall to the bucket below. Timber frame like that with a bottle jack. It worked great! Cider tasted like ass though. The apples tasted horrible to begin with. Dunno what I was thinking.

[alealex]

Hats off for the engineer

[Will_D]

So after a day of chasing leaks with the TIG we now have a water proof juice pan.

So lets try and squish something cheap!

Like alu tins.

It crushed a large bin bag full down to about 1/3 volume. After Pic 1, it was crushed down about 50% and rest of cans added. Bottle jack was nearly maxed out (ie. using the supplied two tubes I was exerting nearly max force) and upper beam deflection was only 2mm. Some creaks and groans but so far so good.

Tomorrow it will meet some apples!

[Jacob]

That looks impressive Will 

[Will_D]

Today was the real deal - apples met the press!

I have labelled the photos according to "The Stations of the Press":

Some thoughts:

The first batch of apples were Brambly, less than a week old and not overly ripe;m 50 kg only gave about 10L of juice.

Second batch was based on some small unknown eaters. Also a bit unripe. Have been stored at 2C for 3 weeks and very little deterioration - ok a few had the overall bron colour with the muticoloured spots.

These were also not fully ripe - so again only got about 10 l from 50kg

Moral of the tale: Apples need to be allowed to ripen fully ( anything from 2 to 4 weeks ). Yes some will go bad but the juice yield will be higher.

This is known as "Tumping"

Good news is that the press worked really well!

So the juice collected was 50/50 Bramley/Sweet Desert

Stats: OG: 1052,  pH; 3.3

Process so far:

Added 5 Campden tabs, Amylase, Wine yeast & Nutrients, Sachet of Oak chips.

More to follow:

Note that in pic 4, the apples on the left are as to be expected, the middle pair are so heavily bruised that its probably a waste of time! As for the two on the right: Unless you like "Codling Moth Surprise" bin them!

[Eoin]

That's an impressive cheese. Have you ever had a go at keeving Will? I'd be into keeving some cider instead of back sweetening and the like. It'd be a technical challenge if nowt else.

Sent using a complex system of semaphore and ninjas.

[Will_D]

Was drinking a keeved cider at the Applefest last saturday. Very impressive it was too.

Keeving is a technical challenge so I suppose I will be up for it soon

[Eoin]

Keep me up to date Will, I think the world of homebrew needs someone to spread the knowledge and I'd say there's no better man than yourself to demystify it for the average homebrewer.

Sent using a complex system of semaphore and ninjas.