# home made juice press



## stuartashers (17/6/14)

The cylinder and piston are parts of a gas hot water service. The piston had the outer part of the tank weld ground off. The bottom of tank and flat of piston are steel from another hot water service that I cut down the seam and straightened. the tank is 655mm high and 390mm dia. the frame is heavy steel c section the in side is 1310mm high x 400mm wide the over all hight with feet and brace is 1840mm. if I had my choice I would most likley use a larger tank and an electric hws as getting the mounts welded to piston would be much easier not to mention easier to get the ends off. the 3 ton long ram was out of my engine crane but think an 8 ton would be better. I modified a rover electric mulcher ie cut the slot out of the top to make a larger hole and took the frame off. As was second hand I had to dismantle it and clean it . all up stearaliseing it the tank and all the bits washing all the bits sorting and weighing all the different apples pulping and pressing and final wash down took 3 hours. 48 kgs got 27 liters but ram was at full capacity. I need to extend the tube to the mulcher as a few chunks did fly back out. It had no problem with 4 grany smiths dumped in at once or hand fulls of small apples. Any how here are some photos


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## RelaxedBrewer (18/6/14)

That looks great!!! Pretty jealous. I gave been thinking about making a press my self but don't think I could make anything as fancy as that.


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## stuartashers (19/6/14)

Not fancy just scrap had laying round used muslin cloth to hold pulp filtered quiet nice the mulcher i got off gumtree for $14


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## Not For Horses (19/6/14)

Great return on your apples too! I just did 200kg and got 70L.


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## stuartashers (19/6/14)

One thing i dont know if i put more pulp in i may loose juice because of the size of it. That is a worry of mine. the pulp could be squeezed by hand and get more juice out. I was going to cut pulp in half and try again but was happy enough the press worked


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## stuartashers (19/6/14)

Not for horses did you turn theme in to pulp first ?


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## stuartashers (19/6/14)

I got around 12 liters of juice before assembling the press piston to the tank dont know why youd get 70l total


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## Not For Horses (19/6/14)

Yeah we had a hand operated scratter and a press. 3kg per litre is average for our method. Yours is awesome though!


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## stuartashers (19/6/14)

Thanks I worked in a apple juice factory. no longer in opperation  they had a hydrolic rotary press and we put rice hulls in to help cut the pulp while pressing. spose it also created pockets to let juice out the next time ill try to get some and see if I get a better result.


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## stuartashers (19/6/14)

oh and paint hides a multitude of sins lol


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## toncils (20/6/14)

What kind of mulcher did you get? Seems pretty decent for $15


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## stuartashers (20/6/14)

The mulcher is a rover was only lucky most ive seen or tried to get were $50 to 100 + it had surface rust and corrosion on the body but it cleaned up ok. Was looking at a new mulcher but couldnt find one that wouldnt require huge modifications to take whole apples so turned to e bay and gumtree missed out on a few but the rover has a single tube and is perfect.


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## stuartashers (20/6/14)

The good thing about gumtree is you dont get silly people pushing up the price


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## toncils (21/6/14)

Right, so it's a tree mulcher! Brilliant.


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## stuartashers (23/6/14)

yes I figure a petrol one is a tad heavy to mount and i dont want to climb a ladder to drop in the apples. The other thing was simplicity as complex things require time to wash


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## Greg.L (24/6/14)

I don't know how much of your kit is mild steel but if it can be welded it probably isn't stainless. The problem is that apple juice is acidic and some iron will dissolve in the juice. It is easily fixed by painting with polyurethane paint or something similar, all the parts that come in contact with the juice. You should take apart the garden shredder and paint the inside bits, there is likely to be plenty of bare steel inside. I use an ordinary garden shredder and paint the insides every year.
If iron gets in the cider it will turn black when exposed to oxygen, and may affect the taste if there is too much iron. Your cider shouldn't be exposed to air until you drink it, so it isn't so bad, it will tell you if your cider is getting oxidised, I have seen photos of cider with blackening and have had it happen myself. Winequip have a SS apple mill for $700 I think.


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## stuartashers (24/6/14)

Yeah i know. the hammers at the juice factory i worked in were steal though ptity much everything else was s/s and some those hand presses are steal as well the hot water service i used was coated in enamel so there shouldnt be much contact there plus i used muslin cloth also as a barrier so far its been good no black but have kept air away as fast as i can


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## Greg.L (25/6/14)

The muslin cloth isn't much help, it is meant to let the juice through. The blackening comes during storage or if you leave a bottle open, make sure it is stored in a full container with no airspace and good seals (or drink it soon). You can't do much this time but you should paint everything next time, it will improve your cider.


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## stuartashers (26/6/14)

good tips thanks


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