The monster press works!!

[winointraining]

We press the grapes today and the press worked great! I forget who brought up the front leg but, your right , I need to trim it back a little more . the sides were 3/4 " strips and they were fine. The press worked great ! All in all it was uneventful.

 

[spaniel]

This thread is useless without pictures...

 

[winointraining]

heres the pic of the press.

 

[spaniel]

Looks like a super sized version of the jack from my old car. What did you use for a pressing basket and press plate?

 

[winointraining]

I used a 5 gal bucket with holes drilled into it. For the plate I took 2 2x6 and cut a 10 " circle and had a split plate with a solid crosspiece on top. the whole thing worked like a charm. For about 60$ it was a good deal.

 

[LoveTheWine]

Glad it worked out for you.
Better then trying to squeeze those grapes by hand!

 

[spaniel]

I used a 5 gal bucket with holes drilled into it. For the plate I took 2 2x6 and cut a 10 " circle and had a split plate with a solid crosspiece on top. the whole thing worked like a charm. For about 60$ it was a good deal.

Outstanding. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[Rocky]

Great job on the press. I was wondering why you used a scissor jack rather than a bottle jack but I think it was a good choice. No sense in having hydraulic fluid in the wine!

 

[winointraining]

To be honest I couldn't find my bottle jack and had to go buy one. While we were pressing my granddau goes by me with the bottle jack and sets it on the shelf.

 

[Rocky]

I know of people who use a bottle jack and hung it upside down just as you did with the scissor jack. As the jack ages and the seals age, hydraulic fluid can run out and into the wine. In use, they have to keep an eye on the jack and wipe it periodically. I have seen others with the bottle jack mounted right side up on top of the pressure plate. Not a bad design but harder to use. The benefit of the bottle jack is the high lifting capacity.

 

[LoveTheWine]

I know of people who use a bottle jack and hung it upside down just as you did with the scissor jack. As the jack ages and the seals age, hydraulic fluid can run out and into the wine. In use, they have to keep an eye on the jack and wipe it periodically. I have seen others with the bottle jack mounted right side up on top of the pressure plate. Not a bad design but harder to use. The benefit of the bottle jack is the high lifting capacity.

I think the scissor Jack is probably more than fine for grapes as you don't want a ridicules amount of pressure causing bitter tannins to flow into your wine.
If one wants to press Apples however, you might like the added pressure of a bigger bottle jack.

I use a bottle jack unmounted and store it inside while not in use. Then again my press is 50+ LBS without it

 

[winointraining]

The sissor jack will go to 2 1/2 ton which is plenty enough to press any thing I want to press.