Fruit press

[Tony]

Does anyone know anything about fruit presses for making juice (reducing fruit to a pulp etc) There was one on machine mart the other day and i've been thinking about one for ages as we get loads of apples around here as well as other fruit.

This is the one from machine mart - http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/heavy-duty-fruit-press/brand/clarke

Shelly said she thought it looked a bit flimsy and I of course argued that it would be fine etc etc, but it did get me thinking ,If I do get one it's worth asking you knowledgeable souls in case i can get a better one or you know something i don't about that....which is very likely

So, is this good? are there better? and what should i look out for...

 

[gregorach]

That looks very much like the one that the owner of my local homebrew shop rents out. His is donkey's years old and gets heavily used. I don't imagine that the fundamental design has changed in centuries.

 

[Tony]

Yeah, there seems to be these spindle types and then the bar (beam) types that have the threaded screw come through then and bear down, like these:

This does about 12 lt of apples which is approx 8 pints of juice

This one is about £285 so way out of my budget....

 

[Tony]

there's a little vid here http://www.vigopresses.co.uk/store/product_info.php?products_id=387

 

[gregorach]

Hang on a minute - that second one looks more like the one that Davie rents out... I would expect either one to do the job just fine, TBH.

 

[Tadpole]

Yeah, there seems to be these spindle types and then the bar (beam) types that have the threaded screw come through then and bear down, like these:

This does about 12 lt of apples which is approx 8 pints of juice

This one is about £285 so way out of my budget....

this one is press my local Home-brew shop (keynsham) and looks well made (if a tad heavy)
there is a few metal ones on ebay (5.6ltr) for £90 plus postage

 

[verloc]

Ive got a shot of the mother in laws (and bags of apples and pears) - its this one here. I have not used it yet but if I get the spare room (or rather the nursery) finished painted tonight then I shall have a play tomorrow

I am actually quite excited about squashing fruit - is that odd?

 

[spamel]

The first one looks lik he one Addo has lent to me for a bit of cider making this year, it is robut as hell. You'll not have any issues with it at all.

 

[Tony]

the one in my first post?

 

[durulz]

How much fruit do you need to press?
It all depends on volume, of course, but you can easily make your own with two pieces of wood to act as the press with four G clamps - one in each corner - to squeeze it all together.
I've done it that way before, but not for large volumes - a couple of buckets of apples is about as much as you'd want to do this way.
But it does work. Not the most efficient way, to be honest, but does well enough if all you're doing is experimenting to see how you get on before shelling out loads on a decent press.

 

[Tony]

well last year we were given about 20 bags full of apples and there's loads more around here that never get eaten, we've just been told that the lady down the road lets hers fall and rot and wants someone to have them so really we can get loads and loads. At the moment we eat them, make crumble, apple sauce, stewed apple, apple turnovers etc etc but i've always fancied a press, the only issue is cost.

 

[spamel]

the one in my first post?

Yup! Addo said that he had to do quite a few presses though, there are holes at the bottom of the legs to screw the whole thing down onto something (The wives' kitchen table, for instance! ) so you get quite a good press.

 

[Tony]

quite a few presses as in press down, move the pulp about and press again? or just loads of stuff to press?

 

[spamel]

Yeah, basically push it all down then put more wood under the press to get a greater depth of press. The screw thread doesn't go to the bottom of the chamber, so you have to put more dods of wood under the pressing plate to push it all down further.

 

[addo]

Apples are do-able but quite hard work in these.

Chop them up, then pulp them as much as possible before going into the press. For pulping a cheap electric garden shredder is supposed to be a good way, but must take some cleaning up after. Theres a bucket you can get too from home brew places with a blade in the bottom that you connect to a power drill.

 

[BigShot]

Tony, I've seen one like the Clark one in use before, you crank it down, back it off to add more wood and then down again, repeating until you've pressed the apples as much as you can manage.

Not going to be as quick as the ones with the beam across the top but it'll do the job.

Have you thought about making one? Or getting a wreck from a car boot or an auction or something and putting some nice fresh wood on it?



RE: Pulping, a quick blast in a MagiMix should do the job too. It's be slower than putting it through a shredder but I can't see why it wouldn't work.

 

[Tony]

yeah, i've thought about trying to get an old one but i've never seen one, I event thought about making one from scratch but it would just be another unfinished project getting a second hand one would be good, keep your eyes peeled folks

 

[Stanleythecat]

I wanted to try to make one too. We were hoping to hold an apple day in the country park. Does anyone have a good design?

Leo

 

[gregorach]

I seem to recall that Match made a fairly serviceable press from a rectangular wooden frame and a car jack. You don't need to get particularly sophisticated about it.

 

[British Red]

Tony,

I can go into quite a long diatribe as to the pros and cons of each type (screw vs jack) and materials (steel vs wood). Screw ones MUST be bolted down on a bench or you cannot get enough torque to juice (the whole press spins). The bottle jack variety do not suffer from this as much and are easier to use free standing.

The stainless varieties (that I use) tend to be smaller but easier to keep clean and are also suitable for use as a cheese press which is nice

The last thing is for big batches you need a pulper. This breaks the fruit down to a "mush" suitable for squuezing. These can be as simple as a spinning blade in a sealed bucket, through a clean cheap garden shredder to a specialised bit oh equipment. The press won't work well without it though

Shout if I can help

Red