Monday, October 22, 2012

A new cheese press

I admit it I BROKE my other cheese press.  It was a dinky one I had bought off of eBay when I first started making cheese.  I wanted a really nice one but hey $300 just was not in my budget.    Cheddar cheese has to be pressed at very heavy weights because the curds are so tough.  The dinky one just could not do it. So I looked really hard at the expensive one and thought "I could make something similiar to that" I searched around and found springs which I had to buy online and they had a $50 minimum order...  I went to Lowes and bought red oak boards and the hardware.  Then I got busy.  Sawing and bolting.  I still have to fashion a handle right now I am using just a nut that I am turning with a wrench to tighten it down.

This is the end result of my engineering:
I made it big enough so that:
A. I could fit my bathroom scale under it to determine the pressure it exerts and
B so that I could get a bigger piece of PVC and make 10" rounds

I put my scale under it and finger tightened the nuts down.  Then with 3 full turns on each side I had 20lbs, 6 turns =40lbs and 9 turns = almost 60lbs just what I needed for cheddar as easy as can be...

And here is the first round of cheddar I made with it:
The curd is nice and tight and I made it for a fraction of what I could buy it for!!!

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