Making an apple press

[Olivier]

Hi,

I made this last year, I thought some people might be interested in this.
Frame:
I used old construction beams I salvaged from a building site for the big frame. I was just lying there and wasn't safe for useage anymore so the lads were happy to give it away.
Bucket:
A simple open ended bucket I made with pallet wood and some bracings I had leftover.
Collecting tray:
I used a bit of ply as a base and two old canvas frames around. Drilled a whole in a corner and passed a bit of garden hose to collect the juice.
I also have an apple crusher (not pictured, I'll post a picture some other time) in order to crush the apples to mush and collect it in a pillow cover, which then goes into the bucket.

For the pressing part I use a simple car jack and cuts of construction beams to even out the hight and pressure.

Hope this helps.
Olivier Longuet

[intransit]

Simple and effective, I like it, could you just explain the canvas bit to me, as in what it does?

[Olivier]

Simple and effective, I like it, could you just explain the canvas bit to me, as in what it does?

I don't use the canvas, just the frame :
I had some old study paintings on stretched canvas, so I ripped of the canvas and kept the frame. I stacked three (not two as said earlier) frames on top of each other, then used some plywood to make a bottom of the tray.

[sparkwell]

Very inventive Olivier is it for cider or apple juice?
From your name I would say there is a French connection? I have a ring binder of DIY magazines in French that were issued as a collection from when we lived there years ago that you might be interested in. I can weigh it and let you know postage costs - let me know if you are interested before I offer it on JT.

[Gormal]

Very impressive.

[Mandolin]

This is very impressive, and easy to see the construction - wouldn't it be handy for squeezing water out of newpaper briquettes as well, without the armstrain. Thanks!

[KPP]

Great looking press just might be worth placing the bottle jack in a container to collect any leaking oil as its very bad for your health or maybe replacing the oil with a vegitable based variety. Regards Kieran.

[andy61]

Great idea would love to see apple crush

[Mandolin]

Delighted to see this again. We built a similar press (not as snazzy), spent an entire day pressing apples, left too much air in our fermentation vessel, and ended up with apple cider. Not the nice kind either, the scuzzy smelly kind... Next time we'll fill the vessel (or get a smaller one).

[charliebunny]

nice job must have a go at this

[melissabell]

ok I'm really impressed but please dumb this down for me, what do you make with it cider? and can you use the crushed apple leftovers for something?
As for the whole process fair play to you!!!! it's a bit above my head ;)