Several
years ago I built a press based on the design of
a flower or leaf press. The base was an 18x18" piece
of pine with four threaded rods, attached, one in
each corner. The top plate was a similar sized piece
of pine but with slots cut for the metal rods rather
than holes. It was set up in a very similar way
to a traditional cider press: an old unpatterned
tea towel was placed on the base board and a couple
of jug fulls of crushed apple (liquidiser.....very
slow!) placed on top. The edges of the tea towel
were then folded over and the whole mass patted
down to give a squarish pudding affair. A 15x15"
(approx) piece of ply wood was then placed on top
followed by another tea towel and more apple pulp.
This was repeated to give about four layers. The
top plate was then put in place and a nut placed
on each of the threaded corner posts. It was then
a case of gradually tightening each one with a spanner
until all the juice was extracted. It was incredibly
efficient. Each layer of apple could be peeled from
the teatowel in one piece and was the consistency
of damp cardboard.
Mark
Tobin
M.J.Tobin@dl.ac.uk
![[diagram of press]](images/ciderpress2.gif)

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