Dave Sherburne, NY
Member
Man, there are a lot of apples this year.. wife and I and 3 granddaughters picked apples from a friends 6 trees.
Then I called a family from the church and asked them to come make some cider with us. They have 3 adopted kids and 2 of their own. Well anyway we got out the cider press set it up and these kids thought it was fascinating.
I made this cider press about 3 years ago and this is the first time we've really had enough apples to use it. The grinder is a 5" diameter laminated piece of wood that I rough cut on the table saw, them mounted it on the press and turned it round and built the box around it. We load it thru a 4" hole in a board on the top which keeps the apples from jumping back out when it's spinning. I use a 1/2" drill to turn the drum, it's 40 years old so it doesn't over heat. Ernie at the feed mill gave me 3 new 50lb. bags that we put in the drums to contain the pumice. The drums have metal bands that came around bundles of lumber to hold them together. After grinding the apples the 2" thick disk goes on the apples with some 2" blocking spacers then turn the screw and really get on it.We get about 3 gallons from each press. I started with just the 1/2" spout but soon found out it wasn't enough. The channel iron frame and screw came from a cider press I bought at an auction. The wooden frame on that one was well rotted.
Then I called a family from the church and asked them to come make some cider with us. They have 3 adopted kids and 2 of their own. Well anyway we got out the cider press set it up and these kids thought it was fascinating.
I made this cider press about 3 years ago and this is the first time we've really had enough apples to use it. The grinder is a 5" diameter laminated piece of wood that I rough cut on the table saw, them mounted it on the press and turned it round and built the box around it. We load it thru a 4" hole in a board on the top which keeps the apples from jumping back out when it's spinning. I use a 1/2" drill to turn the drum, it's 40 years old so it doesn't over heat. Ernie at the feed mill gave me 3 new 50lb. bags that we put in the drums to contain the pumice. The drums have metal bands that came around bundles of lumber to hold them together. After grinding the apples the 2" thick disk goes on the apples with some 2" blocking spacers then turn the screw and really get on it.We get about 3 gallons from each press. I started with just the 1/2" spout but soon found out it wasn't enough. The channel iron frame and screw came from a cider press I bought at an auction. The wooden frame on that one was well rotted.
