Cider press design, rack and cloth modified

[valley...@hotmail.com]

Hi folks, I've just discovered this group and it is very informative and educating.

I have a few questions regarding press design.  I have attached a picture that I found which lead me to some thinking and I would like your opinions and comments.  

This old press has a "basket" made as a box shape with wooden strips along the sides to act as channels for the cider to flow down to the catching tray beneath.  Much different than the traditional barrel type basket.  Can anyone see a benefit to using this basket box design in combination with a rack and cloth style press or even traditional basket pressing?  My thought is this.  You build the layers inside this box as you would a normal rack and cloth pressing except, you do not use a form to create the cheese.  The box basket acts as the form.  What I see with all the rack and cloth presses is that there is still space between the racks that the cheese does not fill to the edges.  This leads me to think that you can get a little more pomace in each cheese as now you would have the box basket being the form.  Is this a feasible way to get a little more out of each pressing or am I over thinking this whole thing?

Thanks!

     

[Thomas Fehige]

There's always the trade-off between pressure per square cm and the area of the cheese. Smaller frames = higher pressure = more litres of juice per kg of pomace. The actual size of the racks is of secondary importance.

The square basket for a basket press as shown in the picture is not an advantage imo, because the friction area is increased, compared to a round basket of the same volume.

Thomas

[nfcider]

We had 2 box presses working last week-end at our event,on both ,the ornate design of cast frame and screw handle lead us to believe that originally they were built as a cheese press for smallholders and the box was an additional add-on.
Barry