What's a Good Cider Press

How many of you have an Apple Cider Press? Where did you get it and what's a good one to get? Just one for occassional use is all I want one for. I'm considering building one myself and making a square basket instead of a round one.

John! I have been googleing them and don't want to pay their prices, to only use it once a year. Also thinking of building a square one, and squeezing it with my porta power cylinder. The apple grinder will be the most challenging, to design, and build.

Ralph I've been looking at an apple grinder in ebay for $199. Just haven't made up my mind yet.

You can buy the basic metal parts for the Press, then make your own wood (Maple) parts for the rest of the press.
The "Grinder" on most are very basic..a 5-Ply wood box with a Maple wood rotating drum, with good Hard non-rusting metal strips, to abuse the fruit..
The weak part I have had to watch are the bolts in the metal Bands on the pressing Basket, and NOT to use Cheese Cloth..(I use Wine-Making Bags that will not split open and are re-useable)..
Mine was a Kit and will do about 1/3 Bu per pressing (about 2 Gallons, maybe).
I like to have as many different apple varieties as I can get, Ripe Pears and crab Apples (and it makes Great Wine, too!)..
Ron.

John, the cider press I have is the one Dad had, he got it from his Uncle, and so forth down the line. My press is suppose to have been in the family for 100+ years, and yes I still use it.

I built my own apple grinder from a 6" diameter x9" long cylinder of ash wood from the firewood pile which I turned on a lathe and put stainless steel screws in with the heads sticking out about 1/16" or so. I mounted the cylinder on a 5/8 shaft I had around from an auction and got flange bearings at the hardware store and made a box out of hickory to fit the cylinder. I drive it with a belt and a 1/3 hp motor, and I made a wood hopper for the top so it feeds itself and doesn't shoot the apples back out the top. There are lots of photos online of things like this, it only took about 3 hours to put together and it is pretty fast by my standards, it will finely grind enough apples to make about 2 gallons of cider in 10 minutes or less. You want to grind the apples as small as possible for maximum cider yield. I got an old press and grinder for $150 at a yard sale last fall, the grinder was worn out but the press is still working fine.
Zach

We have 2. First one is the one we use. Second is one I will rebuild one of these days. I'm going to make it out of oak cribbing. I finally have the sand blaster, welder, and knowledge to rebuild it, just lacking time. It'll be heavy but I will add some wheels and make it mobile.

Even commercial fruit growers cannot afford the new stuff and no old ones to be found. If you do find what is being sold as a cider press it is not, just a juisy fruit like cherries press. Will not work for apples. Friend asked me a few years if I could find hin a big double tub model but none have been avaible except the new ones that are way too high and he has a produce farm along with a lot of his neighbors. They have to be hand powered tho. If I could find a way to make them reasonable I could sell several. A good grinder and press screw are the problems and it has to be the press screw and not a hydrolic powered unit.

Check out happy valley ranch. They sell complete kits to build one. They are expensive but of good quality. My dad built one 20 years ago.

I really like the thought of building one like Zach did.
Cider presses

I have similar to that BUT I think if it has a grinder on the top it is a cider press and, if no, a wine press. Mine has a big grinder on the top with a crank and flywheel. Makes short work of any apples you put into it. My only complaint is that it grinds too coarse so a lot of waste. I should look to see if there is an adjustment. I line the wood tray on the bottom with plastic. The thing is 100 years old and LOTS of things have been on that tray over the years plus I don't want any woody flavors in my cider. Works good. I used it at the elementary school one fall to make cider for my dottirs class.

sounds almost like the grinder my dad built 30 years ago. Still in use.

He built his own press. Used several oak 6x6 beams to make a frame. Bottom had a formica table with edges (SS would have been better) that caught the juice.

He took thin oak slats and may several 16x16 square "plates" out of them. he would put one down, put a 12x12x4" wood frame on top of that. line the frame with burlap square that was probably 36x36ish (don't really know) and filled the frame with ground apples. then folded the burlap over, took the frame off then put another slat/plate on top of it then the frame again, burlap and fill.

THen he had a large wood block (2x2ft) that sat on the top slats and would put a hydraulic bottle jack on the wood block and would jack against the frame and woosh would come the cider. Just about maxed out the jack. He would let it sit for a while and drip then repeat.

caught the juice in a large wash tub and then put it thru a Surge bulk tank milk strainer into a bucket and then from the bucket into the 1 gallon milk jugs then to the freezer.
wish i had a picture but i don't.

we often made 100 + gallons a year.

Here's mine . I bought an old cider press with rotted wood at an auction for $25. Took it apart . My SIL works for Baille Lumber and he got me a few hardwood 2X8" and with some other wood I had laying around I built this. We use a Half inch drill to run the grinder. The grinder is built like Z Hoyt described. We grind into one bucket while pressing the other. This is about the 4th one I have built. I went to the feedstore and the owner gave me 4 never used Burlap/ Plastic bags. Bag has to be bigger than the bucket or it rips.

Square basket will bow out on the sides and you will not get a good even squeeze and lose juice as the pulp will soak it back up. In fact if you look around, you will never find an old press with square baskets, They knew better. Our old family press is a big two man cranker made around the 1880s. It has a chopper roller and then another set of rollers that crush the chopped apples. A lot of juice runs out as it chops and runs through the rollers. The press gets the rest and the pulp is pretty dry after we squeeze it.

I never liked a cider press.
I found a a washing machine on the spin cycle did
a quicker job and I had higher yields.
Chas.

harbor freight 20 ton shop press. Just make sure you wash all the oil and grease off first!

so much easier to press.

made ours 8 inch pipe welded to a plate some holes near centre another plate turned to fit inside put in 20ton shop press pulp comes out dry grind apples first they tell me best grinder is to use a chipper shreder