| Project by falatocpa | posted 09-24-2014 02:25 AM | 2087 views | 4 times favorited | 6 comments |  |
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My house is blessed with the remains of a 100+ year old apple orchard and a few vines of productive labrusca grapes. So I decided to put them to use.
The press is a modification of a design from the back of a cider making book. It’s notched 4×4 construction with threaded rods and carriage bolts for the main structure. The basket is made from leftover red oak scraps, and the tray, from 1x pine scraps (the original design called for cheesecloth sacks between marine grade plywood pressing boards). Crushing comes from a 6 Ton bottle jack. Here’s it’s in use on about 25 lbs of lubrusca grapes.
The apple grinder is a simple 2×4 stand with a plywood hopper supporting a re-purposed in-sink garbage disposal. Put a bucket underneath, flip the switch and feed it apples. Or so I hope. I have mostly Baldwin trees and this was the off year in the bi-annual cycle, so it hasn’t been tested yet. The disposal in this unit was new, but everything else was either scrap or leftover from other projects (wiring included).
6 comments so far
wseand
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#1 posted 09-24-2014 02:58 AM
Never would have thought of a Disposal used that way. I’m sure you will enjoy the wine and cider.
BILL
deon
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#2 posted 09-24-2014 05:15 AM
Great idea
-- Dreaming patterns
falatocpa
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#3 posted 09-24-2014 10:59 AM
Bill, I wish I could claim the idea was my own, but there are actually a lot of people who’ve done it. I went looking for an apple crusher last year and found hand crank models beginning at about $175-250 (with reviews saying don’t bother with them), good hand crank models at my brew supply store around $500, and powered models going up from there. So, I started looking into homemade ones. I have a design in the same cider making book that re-purposes an old hand crank laundry strainer (the kind with wooden rollers), but those things are asking a premium as antiques. Another fellow took one of the $175-250 models, added bearings to the main shaft and hooked up an old table saw motor (that thing was sweet), but that was more machine shop work than I have the tools or skill for. Then I found a bunch of people who did the garbage disposal method. It was way cheaper (the only thing I bought was an $85 disposal) and within my skill set. Look up “garbage disposal apple grinder” on YouTube and you’ll find a bunch of them.
drewpy
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#4 posted 09-24-2014 07:49 PM
Cool!
-- Drew -- "The greatest wealth is health".
hoss12992
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#5 posted 09-25-2014 02:44 AM
That is really cool. Great job
-- The Old Rednek Workshop https://www.facebook.com/theoldrednekworkshoptn
falatocpa
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62 posts in 2636 days
#6 posted 10-16-2014 02:13 AM
Thanks Hoss & Drewpy.
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