I found this one and figured I’d share for those inclined to try it themselves… If you already have a hydraulic jack this could be done pretty easily. I have lots of left over wood from various projects and possibly some HDPE scrap from work I might be able to re-purpose.
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Good timing. I was looking yesterday for a DIY wine press. Instead of a hydraulic jack, a manual car jack works too…and is cheaper.
Ready made screw presses are damn expensive.
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I’ve been searching my neck of the woods for free roadside apples to make cider and this seems like a good solution.
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thanks for this Ryan. ive wanted one for a long time to use for pressing all these wild apples i forage.
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You’re welcome! I didn’t make one yet but I figured it’d be the season for many. I have about 20 trees I’ve located to grab from along the route to my current job site. Definitely worth the effort in my book when a gallon of cider at the local orchard costs $11. It’s good stuff, but I think I can do better than that once I work out the kinks. Not necessarily to sell, but for personal consumption, it will be very gratifying to do it myself.
Edit-
I am considering setting mine up so I can adjust the jack height by punching a few different holes in the vertical supports. That way I can put different amounts in the bucket and still keep it useful.
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once my 3 acre orchard starts producing ill probably need to upscale to something more durable but this will work fine for the amount of apples i can forage. hey there free so why not. my brother has huge walk in freezers that barely has anything in them from oct to late aug. so i can store any excess in there.
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That’s perfect timing for cider making! You could even barter/sell frozen gallons if you know you have extra.
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This is the one I plan to build next summer. I milled up some hard maple for it and once it’s air-dried hope to get it kiln dried before constructing it. Cremona has two video’s on his YouTube channel on this press plan, one using it and one building it. Apple Press Plans – Matt Cremona
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That is a beautiful piece of hardware.
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I need some ideas on how to grind the apples for pressing.
There are threads of using a garbage disposal for the job. If they aren’t on this forum they’d be on the old Houzz forum. I almost never go there any more, but you might find it useful.
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A garbage disposal does work great. I built a stand with an old cast iron sink and cutting board combo,
I figure with cleaning up fruit under trees to compost, then picking, cleaning, grinding and pressing, I have ninety to a hundred dollar a gallon juice.
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I’m in the middle of building something based on Claude Jolicoeur’s apple grinder, but you could always try what this fellow did: bucket, lid, lawnmower blade, threaded rod and some nuts, drill (presumably corded is the best option so you don’t burn up a battery), and vroom. This last one is my favorite implementation.
