# Homemade wine press I made



## wood1954 (Sep 4, 2020)

I spent The last couple days making this press, hope it works. The basket is black locust.


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## Rice_Guy (Sep 4, 2020)

Very pretty craftsmanship
I would consider taking a screw style bar clamp from the Floor to the lever arm for the purpose of holding a constant pressure. Pulling juice out is in part a time function. The crank on a screw will do incremental force.. and hold there so you can grab a snack.

From the look of it, it will work. I have done a home built press too, ,,, 


Rice_Guy said:


> This press is basically threaded rod and a bar clamp. The basket is PVC pipe, circles and a nylon straining bag. Have wanted to try a pneumatic cylinder on it but haven’t gotten around to this.
> View attachment 58327
> 
> 
> ...


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## Ajmassa (Sep 4, 2020)

This is the kind of shit that makes home winemakers the absolute best!

well done @wood1954. Love that hinged lever arm idea. Looks like it was fun designing and making.
(you too @Rice_Guy. Same tool. Different approach,material & style)


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## wood1954 (Sep 5, 2020)

Rice_Guy said:


> Very pretty craftsmanship
> I would consider taking a screw style bar clamp from the Floor to the lever arm for the purpose of holding a constant pressure. Pulling juice out is in part a time function. The crank on a screw will do incremental force.. and hold there so you can grab a snack.
> 
> From the look of it, it will work. I have done a home built press too, ,,,


I hadn’t thought about how much time I would need on each press. I could use a Bessey clamp from the base to the lever.


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## Johnd (Sep 5, 2020)

That really looks nice!! Very well thought out and should be a breeze to load, operate and clean, nice job! Looks like you can get pretty good press force on the must with the length of the lever/handle, and as others have said, holding the pressure on mechanically would probably be beneficial. 
One question, the back end of your handle attaches to a 2x4 sized vertical member, which will be in uplift force, how is that member attached to the unit? It’s hard to tell if it penetrates the table top and is fastened below to the frame, or just has L brackets holding it in place. If it’s the latter, that connection may be suspect.
Very nice workmanship, really like the looks of it!


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## DPCellars (Sep 5, 2020)

wood1954 said:


> I spent The last couple days making this press, hope it works. The basket is black locust.View attachment 65610
> View attachment 65609



Very impressive. I'm always jealous when I see someone craft something like this. Would love the specs to see if I could create something like this for next season. Well done!


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## topkeg (Sep 5, 2020)

Wow, lots of hours and patience in that press! I made my own to start with and what is usually underestimated is the amount of force it take to efficiently press grapes. Especially white. Lots of force in your lever arm design, but you still might need more! This year a friend gave me an Italian made #40. Nice to be able to press 200 pounds in a pass!


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## sour_grapes (Sep 5, 2020)

Johnd said:


> One question, the back end of your handle attaches to a 2x4 sized vertical member, which will be in uplift force, how is that member attached to the unit? It’s hard to tell if it penetrates the table top and is fastened below to the frame, or just has L brackets holding it in place. If it’s the latter, that connection may be suspect.



I don't disagree with your concerns. Looks to me like he has some pocket-hole screws in addition to the brackets, which may do the trick.


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## David Violante (Sep 6, 2020)

Very nice job! Great craftsmanship too... well done!


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## mainshipfred (Sep 6, 2020)

Some of the design concerns are legit but very very nice craftsmanship.


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## Jal5 (Sep 6, 2020)

I like both designs! Good work guys. I may try to duplicate the bar clamp one for pressing pears later in the fall.


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## Johnd (Sep 6, 2020)

sour_grapes said:


> I don't disagree with your concerns. Looks to me like he has some pocket-hole screws in addition to the brackets, which may do the trick.



Couldn’t decide if that was a screw hole or a knot in the wood. Either way, if that joint isn’t cross bolted or cross screwed to a horizontal framing member below the top top, I doubt it’ll last long.


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## David Violante (Sep 6, 2020)

Here’s one I made last year out of scrap that was laying around. Well, organized scrap... LOL. The most expensive parts were the new buckets. Less than $10 total. I have to add more holes to the outer bucket and go much higher up, spacing them further apart for continued strength. There are zip tie straps to the inner bucket to help pull it apart from the outer one. Maybe next year I’ll splurge for metal... it looks quite medieval but it works! Oh I used an Aluminum baking tray underneath to catch the juice.


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## sour_grapes (Sep 6, 2020)

I use an aluminum baking tray, too! (I baked mine at high heat to oxidize it to minimize Al leaching into the acidic must. Not sure if that was necessary or not.)


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## wood1954 (Sep 6, 2020)

Actually there won’t be a lot of uplift on the back post, the spacing from the post to the basket isn’t as effective as I had hoped. I think four brackets ,pocket hole screws and glue should hold it. Maybe I should put a couple lag bolts in thru the bottom.


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## David Violante (Sep 6, 2020)

sour_grapes said:


> I use an aluminum baking tray, too! (I baked mine at high heat to oxidize it to minimize Al leaching into the acidic must. Not sure if that was necessary or not.)


Ahhh great idea. I’ll have to do that. I had an old boy scouts canteen that they wouldn’t let me make ‘bug juice’ in for the same reason. Huh... grape juice in scouts, wine later on... seeing a trend here...


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## sour_grapes (Sep 6, 2020)

wood1954 said:


> Actually there won’t be a lot of uplift on the back post, the spacing from the post to the basket isn’t as effective as I had hoped. I think four brackets ,pocket hole screws and glue should hold it. Maybe I should put a couple lag bolts in thru the bottom.



If it were mine, I would put a piece of wood (maybe only a 1x) along the the back edge of the vertical post, and screw it to boh the vertical post and the horizontal pieces that form the "rim" of the table.


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## Steve Wargo (Sep 7, 2020)

Your wine press looks great. My area is full of black locust trees. I cut a very large black locust tree down and placed an ad in the local craigslist listing free black locust wood. It was gone in about a week.


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## Mike - Next Level Oak (Sep 7, 2020)

That is awesome! I also like all the wine in the background


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## wood1954 (Sep 7, 2020)

Steve Wargo said:


> Your wine press looks great. My area is full of black locust trees. I cut a very large black locust tree down and placed an ad in the local craigslist listing free black locust wood. It was gone in about a week.


My neighbors have lots of locust, I hope to get a dozen post size for my vineyard, I’ve made furniture out of it as well it takes stain really well.


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## wood1954 (Sep 7, 2020)

David Violante said:


> Here’s one I made last year out of scrap that was laying around. Well, organized scrap... LOL. The most expensive parts were the new buckets. Less than $10 total. I have to add more holes to the outer bucket and go much higher up, spacing them further apart for continued strength. There are zip tie straps to the inner bucket to help pull it apart from the outer one. Maybe next year I’ll splurge for metal... it looks quite medieval but it works! Oh I used an Aluminum baking tray underneath to catch the juice.
> 
> View attachment 65661
> View attachment 65662


Looks effective lot less work than mine


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## Rice_Guy (Sep 7, 2020)

Fun project, everyone needs a press!
I would use a Teflon coated aluminum tray BUT not bare metal. As @wood1954 did there are lots of plastics as dish washing tray/ cafeteria tray/ polyethylene buckets (I use) and stainless restaurant grade so why use a low redox potential metal?


David Violante said:


> Here’s one I made last year out of scrap that was laying around. Well, organized scrap... LOL. The most expensive parts were the new buckets. Less than $10 total. I have to add more holes to the outer bucket and go much higher up, spacing them further apart for continued strength. There are zip tie straps to the inner bucket to help pull it apart from the outer one. Maybe next year I’ll splurge for metal... it looks quite medieval but it works! Oh I used an Aluminum baking tray underneath to catch the juice.
> 
> View attachment 65661
> View attachment 65662


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## Djshotokan (Sep 7, 2020)

Absolutely Brilliant. Is this your first one?? Where did you get the plans and ideas for it or is this staight from sight?? Id love plans like these! Wait, are there any do it yourself plans in our group??


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## David Violante (Sep 7, 2020)

wood1954 said:


> Looks effective lot less work than mine


Very effective... but it does not look nearly as polished or finished. I should also mount the jack so that I don’t have to keep putting it in place each time. Have you tried yours yet? The lever idea is very good~


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## David Violante (Sep 7, 2020)

Rice_Guy said:


> Fun project, everyone needs a press!
> I would use a Teflon coated aluminum tray BUT not bare metal. As @wood1954 did there are lots of plastics as dish washing tray/ cafeteria tray/ polyethylene buckets (I use) and stainless restaurant grade so why use a low redox potential metal?


The Mrs. was not happy about me eyeing the serving tray. I’ll have to look out for something at a yard sale.... I was thinking of a stainless pasta setup to which I could add a spigot.


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## wood1954 (Sep 8, 2020)

My must started fermentation Sunday So I’ll be trying it out in a few days


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## David Violante (Sep 8, 2020)

wood1954 said:


> My must started fermentation Sunday So I’ll be trying it out in a few days


Cool - Can't wait to see how it works!


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## David Violante (Sep 8, 2020)

@wood1954 I was just looking at the design of the opening on your press where the juice will flow out from the black container into a catchment bucket. Is there a lip of some kind underneath so that the juice doesn't make it's way all around on the underside of the black plastic container? It may do that if the hole is flush. It may be easy enough to cement a very short PVC tube in place or thread a small bulkhead fitting or drain plug into the opening. I looked for an example online and Lowe's has a 20" plastic water heater pan with drain plug. Maybe use a drain plug idea like that in the bottom of yours? I think I may pick up one of those pans for my press...


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## Steve Wargo (Sep 8, 2020)

wood1954 said:


> My neighbors have lots of locust, I hope to get a dozen post size for my vineyard, I’ve made furniture out of it as well it takes stain really well.


Wow that's great, making furniture. A few of the people that took some of the black locust wood were going to use it for furniture. I read that some farmers will grow a row along their property line and once they reach a certain size will cut/top them for posts. They grow like weeds. I've made a few cool looking walking sticks, dense wood. Maybe I'll let some grow thick enough to make posts out of them.


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## wood1954 (Sep 8, 2020)

David Violante said:


> @wood1954 I was just looking at the design of the opening on your press where the juice will flow out from the black container into a catchment bucket. Is there a lip of some kind underneath so that the juice doesn't make it's way all around on the underside of the black plastic container? It may do that if the hole is flush. It may be easy enough to cement a very short PVC tube in place or thread a small bulkhead fitting or drain plug into the opening. I looked for an example online and Lowe's has a 20" plastic water heater pan with drain plug. Maybe use a drain plug idea like that in the bottom of yours? I think I may pick up one of those pans for my press...
> 
> View attachment 65772


That is a concern I’m still thinking about, probably fasten a part of a funnel or something I find at the hardware store


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## crushday (Sep 8, 2020)

Johnd said:


> That really looks nice!! Very well thought out and should be a breeze to load, operate and clean, nice job! Looks like you can get pretty good press force on the must with the length of the lever/handle, and as others have said, holding the pressure on mechanically would probably be beneficial.
> One question, the back end of your handle attaches to a 2x4 sized vertical member, which will be in uplift force, how is that member attached to the unit? It’s hard to tell if it penetrates the table top and is fastened below to the frame, or just has L brackets holding it in place. If it’s the latter, that connection may be suspect.
> Very nice workmanship, really like the looks of it!


John, this was one of the first things I noticed upon first look. Still waiting for the answer...


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## sour_grapes (Sep 8, 2020)

crushday said:


> John, this was one of the first things I noticed upon first look. Still waiting for the answer...



See post #15.


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## crushday (Sep 9, 2020)

sour_grapes said:


> See post #15.


Ok. I actually read that but didn’t connect it with John’s question. Thanks!!


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## Michael Roberts (Sep 9, 2020)

Yup, I've made one like that too! There are several plans available for such presses on youtube.


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## Rice_Guy (Sep 9, 2020)

wood1954 said:


> That is a concern I’m still thinking about, probably fasten a part of a funnel or something I find at the hardware store


you can limit the problem by slopping the press to that spot
I have a nylon 1/8 NPT barb fitting with a rubber washer, nylon nut and tubing on mine, this means I created a void volume which is fixed by periodically tipping forward. The tubing also acts as a simple valve, raise=off / down=open. 
,


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## wood1954 (Sep 9, 2020)

That setup looks very effective


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## Rice_Guy (Sep 9, 2020)

Well, ,,,, It has evolved every year, ,,, as the rubber bands holding big paper clips for holding the press bag up for filling or last year I put a plastic sheet (poly cutting pears) with holes under the press basket or using several diameters of tube as a press basket or the first try was a horizontal design


wood1954 said:


> That setup looks very effective


but then I have a traditional wooden one to use if a modification is bad, ,,,,have wanted to start replacing parts on it with stainless.


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## wood1954 (Sep 10, 2020)

Pressed my wine today. The press worked great. I used a coarse mesh bag in the basket and a paint strainer bag below. Got a fairly dry press cake, much better than the yellow bucket. I should have made the bed longer it wanted to tip if I put too much pressure on the lever.


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## David Violante (Sep 10, 2020)

Looks great nice job!


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## E-man (Oct 14, 2020)

Just finished and used my homemade press and it worked like a champ. You can’t see from the pictures but in the outer bucket is a 5 gallon with many holes Drilled into it and a clean paint straining bag folded over over the skins under the press plate. Also there’s adjustable feet under the legs to allow angling for the just to run towards the valve on the rubbermaid. This creates Lots of pressure from the jack between the top and section so if you make one use lots of reinforcement strappings, L brackets, gussets, etc. between to joints so they don’t flex/separate, learned that after the first use.


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## wood1954 (Oct 14, 2020)

Looks great


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## Steve Wargo (Oct 14, 2020)

E-man said:


> Just finished and used my homemade press and it worked like a champ. You can’t see from the pictures but in the outer bucket is a 5 gallon with many holes Drilled into it and a clean paint straining bag folded over over the skins under the press plate. Also there’s adjustable feet under the legs to allow angling for the just to run towards the valve on the rubbermaid. This creates Lots of pressure from the jack between the top and section so if you make one use lots of reinforcement strappings, L brackets, gussets, etc. between to joints so they don’t flex/separate, learned that after the first use.
> View attachment 67032


 Very cool.


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## winojoe (Oct 15, 2020)

Necessity is the mother of invention!


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## gerryd (Oct 15, 2020)

very impressive..

did you just happen to have an 8 ton jack?
do you think a smaller unit would work?


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## E-man (Oct 15, 2020)

I didn't have a bottle jack yet for auto projects so I got a larger one that would serve a more dual purpose role. I'm pretty certain a smaller one (2 ton) would work just fine for the press though. One area I think could use improvement is to either make or get a true basket for pressing vs the bucket which is tapered and bulges quite a bit when under pressure.


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## David Violante (Oct 15, 2020)

My bucket does the same thing. I was considering a stainless steel one, but it keeps going back into shape. I'm going to add a stainless pot with a spigot to mine, that the strainer bucket sits in. I keep getting these small streams going out everywhere. I also like that yours has the ability to lean or angle forward so the juice gathers at the front instead of pooling in the pan. I'm teased a bit about the car jack on mine being from a Subaru... I'm going to have to find an emblem now for it... Nice job on yours again~ Good luck!


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## ttaje16 (Oct 15, 2020)

I know a bit off topic, but does anyone have a DIY crusher / Destemmer they care to share pics of? I am currently using a milk crate and a potato masher and it is really too much work, but not about to pay the price for a new one.


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## balatonwine (Oct 20, 2020)

You may not want to use black locust wood for contact with food, as all parts of the plant contains toxic compounds that may leach into your wine upon contact:

More on black locust toxicity

Better basket material: Oak, or Beech wood


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## wood1954 (Oct 20, 2020)

Actually the staves are thoroughly coated with polyurethane, I don’t think there will be a problem for as little time the juice is in contact with the wood.


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## jackl (Oct 20, 2020)

Here is a dual purpose apple/wine press I made around 8 years ago. I have a lot of apple trees as well as a small vineyard. The device consists of a stainless steel sink, new garbage disposal and a press with a basket I made from red oak. The cut up apples are placed in the sink. The disposal macerates the apples which are then deposited in the basket lined with a nylon fruit press bag. I then slide the basket forward and use a hydraulic jack to press the juice from the apples. Then I take the pomace and use it as fertilizer in my garden. For grapes, I run them through my crusher,remove the stems and then put them in the nylon bag for pressing. Works like a charm! I always clean and sanitize everything with Starsan.


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## wood1954 (Oct 21, 2020)

Very cool, looks like it works great


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## kmk (Oct 21, 2020)

jackl said:


> Here is a dual purpose apple/wine press I made around 8 years ago. I have a lot of apple trees as well as a small vineyard. The device consists of a stainless steel sink, new garbage disposal and a press with a basket I made from red oak. The cut up apples are placed in the sink. The disposal macerates the apples which are then deposited in the basket lined with a nylon fruit press bag. I then slide the basket forward and use a hydraulic jack to press the juice from the apples. Then I take the pomace and use it as fertilizer in my garden. For grapes, I run them through my crusher,remove the stems and then put them in the nylon bag for pressing. Works like a charm! I always clean and sanitize everything with Starsan.
> View attachment 67236
> 
> View attachment 67237
> ...


Wow, looks great. Thanks for sharing. Good job!


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## balatonwine (Nov 2, 2020)

wood1954 said:


> Actually the staves are thoroughly coated with polyurethane, I don’t think there will be a problem for as little time the juice is in contact with the wood.



Polyurethane does indeed "solve" the issue.

But I was considering more a traditional press design, which would not need any wood preservatives on the staves. To each their own.


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