# Cheese Press, Redux



## Julia (Jan 29, 2003)

I was having trouble describing my lever cheese press in a recent post, and by serendipity this morning I ran across a drawing that may help folks understand. It's on an old time farm website that someone else posted, but on this page, about three-quarters of the way down, there is an illustration of a lever press.

http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/device/devices3a.html

He's got the proportions wrong (the arm doesn't need to be more than three feet long!) and he has it on the floor instead of the countertop, like I do, but it shows the cleat on the wall that I was unable to describe, and gives a general idea of the machine. 

For what it's worth...


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## Liese (Dec 12, 2005)

Thanks Julia.


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## Jillis (Sep 11, 2005)

That's a really cool website! I put it in my favorites folder. 
Thanks! Jill~


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## peter_g (Mar 18, 2005)

I made this for my cheese press, it will fit 2 6" molds and presses 50 lbs either side... I don't currently have 2 6" molds and have made due with two SS boy scout popcorn cans... they don't seem to be very durable though. lol Especially when pressing 50 lbs. It cost me about $30 to build.. Had a very lucky garage sale find with the cutting board I used as the base...


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## Riverdale (Jan 20, 2008)

Julia said:


> I was having trouble describing my lever cheese press in a recent post, and by serendipity this morning I ran across a drawing that may help folks understand. It's on an old time farm website that someone else posted, but on this page, about three-quarters of the way down, there is an illustration of a lever press.
> 
> http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/device/devices3a.html
> 
> ...



Thanks for that site!


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## woodsrunner (Nov 28, 2003)

peter_g said:


> I made this for my cheese press, it will fit 2 6" molds and presses 50 lbs either side... I don't currently have 2 6" molds and have made due with two SS boy scout popcorn cans... they don't seem to be very durable though. lol Especially when pressing 50 lbs. It cost me about $30 to build.. Had a very lucky garage sale find with the cutting board I used as the base...



I use a canister from Walmart with the bottom cut off. The are stainless steel and cost about $6.00-$7.00. Being seamless unlike most cans they are pretty durable. Only 5" diameter though.


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## Liese (Dec 12, 2005)

Woodrunner, How do you know how much pressure you're applying with that press?


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## woodsrunner (Nov 28, 2003)

It's a matter of experience. The secret is actually the opposite of what most people think. The problem with a screw press is not that the cheese pulls away from the press. This guy uses big rubber bands in his press and he's about as expert as anybody.

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese.html

A rubber band exerts less pressure as it's stretched less. The problem with a screw type press is it's too easy to over press. Trust me, In the begining we made a couple batches that we grated right out of the press because they were so hard. You don't realize that the screw magnifies your 5 or 10 lbs of torque into easily a hundred pounds of pressure or more. We've had plenty of other failures, but, none of them were from the press. Mostly from poor cultures, or cultures that we rushed.


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## peter_g (Mar 18, 2005)

Woodsrunner, he's actually using a tarp strap which exerts FAR more pressure than a rubber band would. You could probably get varying pressures if you use a bungie versus a tarp strap. 

Otherwise, thanks for the great idea for a mold! I'm considering reworking my press to be a screw type and then use the spring to judge how much pressure I'm exerting. You can get decent springs from the hardware store you just have to call the manufacturer to find out what their lbs/inch is. that's what I ended up doing and I found a couple of springs that would work. I just have to remember which ones I used. I do know that fully compressed I get 50 lbs of pressure, but I don't think it's quite that good. When springs are in parallel the amount of pounds per inch add; if in series it halves. Weird I know, but how it works. lol I'm an electrical engineer, and know that resistors are the exact opposite. So I recall how much I get now... no big deal. I get 30 lbs/inch with the two in parallel, but that only works until compression. I have about an 1.5 inches of travel before full compression so I actually get about 45 lbs when fully compressed. So the long of the short of it is that you can use a spring to judge how much pressure you're using. Like this guy is doing.

http://schmidling.com/press.htm

He states from full compression of the spring you can calculate your pressure from how many turns you make on the screw. I have no idea how to do that calculation. As for his statement about there being "no room for wood" in a chess press, that's modern medical talk. They used wood and not nearly as good sanitation practices as what we use today. I've found that with pasteurized milk you do need good sanitation because it's an open book. Raw milk is harder because it has good bacteria to prevent much of the problems so long it is produced correctly. You also need to use it within 48 hours, best if fresh out of the animal. If 100% grassfed, it gets to be even MORE fun because their diet makes a huge difference in the flavor of each individual cheese. If pastured and still grained, what the animal grazes doesn't affect flavor as much but still can if a really strong weed or something. Spring versus Summer/Fall fodder can make a difference as well as how hot it is outside. So it comes down to spring is the best cheese making time for 100% grassfed raw milk. This one is from experience.  Your cheese flavors get much more variable after that. Of course, you also have your highest milk production then, generally, which is helpful if you want to make A LOT of cheese.


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## deaconjim (Oct 31, 2005)

I've been thinking about building a press like the one at http://schmidling.com/press.htm as well. I think a combination of that and the one Woodsrunner posted would work well. Thanks for posting.


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## peter_g (Mar 18, 2005)

Woodsrunner, is that follower made of wax?? I bought some wood followers but they don't fit well, I'd really like one that fits well. I'm assuming you have another follower for it so you're not screwing into the wax (if that's wax).. Food grade plastic??

Thanks!


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## peter_g (Mar 18, 2005)

peter_g said:


> http://schmidling.com/press.htm
> 
> He states from full compression of the spring you can calculate your pressure from how many turns you make on the screw. I have no idea how to do that calculation...


So I was looking over my old post, and maybe I didn't state this right. Wouldn't surprise me. lol But you can read his website and he states it correctly. He gets 50lbs of pressure when the spring is fully compressed, then you use the number of turns to calculate pressure after that, so if you want 60 lbs of pressure you'd have to calculate how many turns you'd need past full spring compression. Hopefully that makes better sense!


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## woodsrunner (Nov 28, 2003)

peter_g said:


> Woodsrunner, is that follower made of wax?? I bought some wood followers but they don't fit well, I'd really like one that fits well. I'm assuming you have another follower for it so you're not screwing into the wax (if that's wax).. Food grade plastic??
> 
> Thanks!


Actually that follower is cut from a 3/4" thick comercial cutting board, the kind used in restaurants. (yes, food grade plastic) I sometimes make the base and top bar from the same cutting board. When I can make the trip to fastenal, I get stainless threaded rod and fasteners too. The last press I made could be thrown right in a dishwasher when you were finished with it. Thanks for the spring idea. I actually work in a hardware store and never thought about using a compression spring to control pressure. I look at the things every day and it never even crossed my mind.


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## peter_g (Mar 18, 2005)

Woodsrunner,
How did you cut the bottom off the stainless steel can?? Which I found some via the internet here: http://www.acemart.com/kitchen-supplies/food-storage-accessories/bain-marie/c230-c814-c827.html

They are fairly cheap and a little closer to the 6" diameter mark. You can also get cutting boards pretty cheap as well.


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