Homemade Cider Press in Action

This press is just as easy to operate as it was to make. Here are the simple steps for how it works. FIRST

 Gets some apples

 Chop them up and put the pieces into cheese cloth or muslin cloth.

 If you can process or crush the apples it works even better. I have read many article that a handed cranked meat grinder works great for this. Well my meat grinder didn't work so good to crush the apples. But It also didn't work so good for meat either so it wasn't a surprise when it didn't work for apples either. (Next time I'm BUYING AMERICAN MADE!!)

 Make pucks (or cheeses as some people call them) by wrapping the apple pieces/mush up in the cloth.

Stack a few pucks on the press, cover with left over high density acrylic, and add a few boards. Than set the scissor jack in place.  

 Slowly add press with the jack. Take your time here, the quicker you add pressure with the jack the quicker you will stress the press. Making cider should be fun so take your time and enjoy the process.

One nice feature about this press is that it doesn't have an even stand. If you look that the side view pictures in the last post you can see the whole thing only stands on the 4x4 post. This allows the press to rock back and forth. Rock it forward and the juice flows to the collect shoot. Rock it back wards and you can stop it from spilling if you need to switch out buckets.

Finally all that is left is to enjoy the fruits of your labor!

(Guinness Glass not required but you look cooler with it!)