Any of you guys built one for doing cider, the grand babies wanted to do it last fall, so I was thinking about building something to make cider with them. Yeah you tube has some good ideas but i was wondering about some one thats been there done that thing
Apple grinder and press
- Thread starter skeets
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In the late "70s I saw a set of plans for a cider press in the Canadian Harrowsmith magazine.
They used hard wood possibly oak to build the cylinder that the mash would fall into.
I basically copied the plans but used stainless steel to build most of it.
The frame is made out of welded 4" steel channel. We have a front suspension out of a VW Karmann Ghia to make it mobile.
We built a stainless funnel that we pour a 20L / 5 gallon bucket of apples in at a time.
I have a 4X12” apple wood cylinder that we turned on a lathe then screwed many stainless screws in with 1/2" sticking out for the chopper.
The spinning chopper has a 1” steel shaft through the middle and pillow block bearing on each end.
The chopper is powered by a 120 vac 1 hp electric motor with a 3 to 1 belt drive.
The apples press against the spinning stainless screws and are chopped up and falls into the stainless cylinder- the cylinder holds 9 or 10 buckets of apples each pressing. It takes less than 20 minutes to do a pressing.
We made a heavy duty pressure board made out of many 2x6x30" apple wood boards that is the diameter of the 30 inches stainless cylinder and 5 inches thick. Stainless steel bolts and nuts hold it together. This is used to press the mash using a 4 ton Jackall jack - it has lots of stroke and the pulp comes out damp.
We get 15+ gallons per pressing depending on the apple. Gravenstein apples around here are the juiciest.
When dumping the dry mash into the wheelbarrow to be dumped in the compost pile, we have to pound the pressure board out after each pressing.
We get our apples from a lot of the old homesteads in our little valley, the people just want the apples gone before the bears come around.
After picking the apples we wash then put them into plastic buckets.
It takes two or more people to do the pressing .
I do the pressing and my pal keeps the buckets coming. We freeze our share of the juice and my pal's family process theirs.
500 gallons per year with 1600 gallons on our best year.
We call the machine the Immaculate Contraception
cheers
Hank
They used hard wood possibly oak to build the cylinder that the mash would fall into.
I basically copied the plans but used stainless steel to build most of it.
The frame is made out of welded 4" steel channel. We have a front suspension out of a VW Karmann Ghia to make it mobile.
We built a stainless funnel that we pour a 20L / 5 gallon bucket of apples in at a time.
I have a 4X12” apple wood cylinder that we turned on a lathe then screwed many stainless screws in with 1/2" sticking out for the chopper.
The spinning chopper has a 1” steel shaft through the middle and pillow block bearing on each end.
The chopper is powered by a 120 vac 1 hp electric motor with a 3 to 1 belt drive.
The apples press against the spinning stainless screws and are chopped up and falls into the stainless cylinder- the cylinder holds 9 or 10 buckets of apples each pressing. It takes less than 20 minutes to do a pressing.
We made a heavy duty pressure board made out of many 2x6x30" apple wood boards that is the diameter of the 30 inches stainless cylinder and 5 inches thick. Stainless steel bolts and nuts hold it together. This is used to press the mash using a 4 ton Jackall jack - it has lots of stroke and the pulp comes out damp.
We get 15+ gallons per pressing depending on the apple. Gravenstein apples around here are the juiciest.
When dumping the dry mash into the wheelbarrow to be dumped in the compost pile, we have to pound the pressure board out after each pressing.
We get our apples from a lot of the old homesteads in our little valley, the people just want the apples gone before the bears come around.
After picking the apples we wash then put them into plastic buckets.
It takes two or more people to do the pressing .
I do the pressing and my pal keeps the buckets coming. We freeze our share of the juice and my pal's family process theirs.
500 gallons per year with 1600 gallons on our best year.
We call the machine the Immaculate Contraception
cheers
Hank
Skeets,
In the top picture on the right side of the SS hopper there is a hunk of wood that I use to press the apples against the shredder. It doesn't self feed.
A friend in U.K. uses a brand new electric brush chopper to grind his apples dropping one apple at a time, works for him but our method works for us.
Hank
In the top picture on the right side of the SS hopper there is a hunk of wood that I use to press the apples against the shredder. It doesn't self feed.
A friend in U.K. uses a brand new electric brush chopper to grind his apples dropping one apple at a time, works for him but our method works for us.
Hank
Lil Foot
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Equipment
1979 B7100DT Gear, Nissan Hanix N150-2 Excavator
Thanks guys
I should have added that drilling the 1,000 + 1/8" holes in the 316 stainless steel apple tub was the most work building it. Slow and steady pressure on the drill. Lots of 1/8" double ended bit later.
We used a drill press and a log bolted to the drill table to support the SS tub and so we could drill through into the wood.
Tray underneath collects the juice that fill the white buckets.
cheers
Hank
I should have added that drilling the 1,000 + 1/8" holes in the 316 stainless steel apple tub was the most work building it. Slow and steady pressure on the drill. Lots of 1/8" double ended bit later.
We used a drill press and a log bolted to the drill table to support the SS tub and so we could drill through into the wood.
Tray underneath collects the juice that fill the white buckets.
cheers
Hank
Funny apple story, there was a piece of property not far from here,40 or so apple trees.not the apples like that, crabapples that like to grow in this climate. Property was bought and subdivided and the trees became part of a public right of way. Well in the fall, apples would fall to the ground and ferment. Imagine 12 drunk black bears laying on the ground, gurgling and drooling. I imagine there were a few generations of bears that did this.
Was quite a sight to see. The trees stopped producing fruit as they were quite old -50 years or more, so they were removed. And the bears are no longer a problem.
One tree did survive, probably planted by a bear in my front yard in the treeline.
Never tried apple cider,as in the fresh man made stuff. Will put that on my bucket list.
Was quite a sight to see. The trees stopped producing fruit as they were quite old -50 years or more, so they were removed. And the bears are no longer a problem.
One tree did survive, probably planted by a bear in my front yard in the treeline.
Never tried apple cider,as in the fresh man made stuff. Will put that on my bucket list.
Quote-How did you attach the chopper drum to the shaft so it turns?
We used flange mounted pipe fittings with 4 SS screws in each end then drilled the shaft and used a nail to pin it to the shaft.
you can see the head of the nail in the picture of the chopper.
When I first built the machine I used a new 5 Ton hydraulic bottle jack to press the mash. We did something very wrong and blew the seal in the jack and got nasty oil over everything. After cleaning the mess we went to the Jack All and have been happy with it.
Hank
We used flange mounted pipe fittings with 4 SS screws in each end then drilled the shaft and used a nail to pin it to the shaft.
you can see the head of the nail in the picture of the chopper.
When I first built the machine I used a new 5 Ton hydraulic bottle jack to press the mash. We did something very wrong and blew the seal in the jack and got nasty oil over everything. After cleaning the mess we went to the Jack All and have been happy with it.
Hank