Basket Press conversion to Rack and Cloth

[Will Cox]

Has anyone ever converted a ‘screw type’ basket press into a rack and cloth? I have two basket presses but want to try and improve efficiency. I was thinking of building a rack and cloth press using a bottle jack as a replacement to the basket type. However, I’m now thinking about building some circular ‘racks’ to go in the basket. The idea would be to use a mesh bag as I am now, and build a 6” layer of apple pommace in the basket, then put in a rack, build another layer of apple and so on. From my understanding part of the issue with the lower efficiency with the basket is that all the juice has to be pushed outwards or down through a thick layer of pommace. If I made solid circular racks with wood or plastic that had grooves, it would let the juice escape to the sides easier through much thinner layers. Any thoughts? It’ll be a pain to take the pressed stuff out but it might save me building a new press.

[James Turner]

Will,

Have a look at Herrick Kimball’s website and videos.

http://whizbangcider2.blogspot.com/

JT

On Sun, Aug 25, 2024 at 6:58 AM Will Cox <willcox...@gmail.com> wrote:

Has anyone ever converted a ‘screw type’ basket press into a rack and cloth? I have two basket presses but want to try and improve efficiency. I was thinking of building a rack and cloth press using a bottle jack as a replacement to the basket type. However, I’m now thinking about building some circular ‘racks’ to go in the basket. The idea would be to use a mesh bag as I am now, and build a 6” layer of apple pommace in the basket, then put in a rack, build another layer of apple and so on. From my understanding part of the issue with the lower efficiency with the basket is that all the juice has to be pushed outwards or down through a thick layer of pommace. If I made solid circular racks with wood or plastic that had grooves, it would let the juice escape to the sides easier through much thinner layers. Any thoughts? It’ll be a pain to take the pressed stuff out but it might save me building a new press.

--
--
Visit our website: http://www.ciderworkshop.com
 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "Cider Workshop" Google Group.
By joining the Cider Workshop, you agree to abide by our principles. Please see http://www.ciderworkshop.com/resources_principles.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cider Workshop" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cider-worksho...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cider-workshop/f60d3d71-4d92-4d83-acfd-e164baf391a5n%40googlegroups.com.

[T Bell]

I bought a well made basket press from Latvia that uses a hydraulic jack instead of a screw and ratchet.  I also bought some round plywood disks that are 1/2" thick to create a rack and cheese system. I sealed the disks with epoxy resin. The system works far better than my old screw style basket press with a single press bag. 

[Claude Jolicoeur]

It depends on the press model you have... You might not need to keep the basket itself.

Some years ago, I went from this :

to this :

Note I still used the screw for the beginning of the pressing, as it went faster. The hydraulic jacks mostly permitted to extract more juice at the end of the presing.

[terryc...@gmail.com]

Hi Will

I have done what you are suggesting, but on a fairly small scale. My press is a second hand wine/grape press which has a perforated stainless steel round basket and screw mechanism. The screw was simply a 3/4" BSW thread which soon started to bind up due to the pressure I was applying to the apple pommace which is much higher than needed for the easier to press grapes.

The "fix" has been to use several bags of pommace with 250mm PTFE discs layered between the bags. The discs are made from a PTFE chopping board about 20 mm thick with deep and wide saw cuts across them on the top and bottom. Pressure is by a hydraulic jack and the juice flows out through the saw cuts. 

The the yield is about the same as the basket setup but is much quicker and easier. The whole setup works much better than the original screw type basket press.