DIY apple press

If you do not have a juicer on the farm, and at the dacha every year there is a large crop of apples from which you need to make juice, then you need a mechanical press. A similar situation arises among wine lovers who do not want to manually knead juicy berries or trample them. Home craftsmen offer to make a press with their own hands for fruit processing. In this article we will look at how to make an apple press with your own hands.

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Types and principles of operation of juicer presses

Devices that are designed for the production of juice are divided into several types:

• mechanical devices;
• hydraulic units;
• electrohydraulic devices;
• pneumatic mechanisms.

Mechanical

The most common option is a mechanical screw press. At first glance, you can understand the principle of operation of such an aggregate. Grapes, crushed fruits or berries are poured into the container of a device having holes. After that, by rotating the handle, a screw is actuated that lowers the flat piston. Thus, the juice is squeezed out and flows through the openings in the casing into the pallet, after which it enters the prepared cans or other containers.

Important! For the production of the casing, stainless steel is used or solid beech wood is used, from which a drainage version of the grate is made. The product consists of two halves, which are interconnected by metal hoops.

Hydraulic

A modernized version of the mechanical unit is a manual hydraulic press for processing apples and grapes. There is no perforated container for separating juice. Instead, it uses several drainage frames made of wood, between which lay bags with crushed raw materials in them.

The manual version of the hydraulic jack is capable of developing a great effort, corresponding to from 1 to 5 tons, due to which 70% of the juice from the volume of the originally laid fruit is obtained.

Important! The hydraulic press of Grifon (Griffin) possesses an original way of squeezing. It does not have a hydraulic jack. The developers have introduced a powerful membrane "barrel". The pressure of tap water is 1.5-2 atm. expands the membrane, due to which squeezing the juice through the wall of the casing, which is perforated.

Pneumatic

The pneumatic press functions in exactly the same way. The fruit extrusion membrane is filled with compressed air from the compressor, not water.

Important! All juice presses work in conjunction with grinders. The simplest mechanism is a steel drum-grater, which is placed in a casing having a loading neck. When the handle is rotated, the chopper operates, in which the fruits turn into very small crumb pulp.

Electro-hydraulic

A more advanced option is the electric drive mechanism. This device is characterized by a minimum of physical effort and a maximum of productivity.

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Which press to choose?

Mechanical presses have a small capacity, which corresponds to 10-30 liters per hour.For the processing of berries, fruits and grapes grown in summer cottages, such equipment is quite enough, so you can safely make such a press for squeezing juice with your own hands.

To increase the quantity of juice produced and its quality, you can use two methods:

• the use of bag containers for chopped fruits;
• use of wooden drainage gratings or “pancakes” made of stainless steel.

Important! Both options contribute to improving the drainage of juice from the middle of the volume, which is compressed. The lack of drainage leads to the fact that the middle part of the crushed fruit is squeezed much worse compared to the upper and lower layers. An additional positive point from the use of bags is the possibility of releasing the juice from the pulp.

With a large number of berries or fruits that need to be processed, an electric drive is used. In this case, two types of equipment are used:

• traditional screw device, which is driven by a combination of "electric motor-hydraulic jack";
• screw press, which operates on the principle of a meat grinder.

The screw press juicer with an electric motor connected to it is used as a processing device for processing grapes, berries and tomatoes. The screw unit pushes the crushed raw material through a sieve, resulting in the formation of juice with a large amount of pulp.

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DIY do-it-yourself grape press

Grape screw press includes:

• base, the so-called frame;
• basket;
• pressure device, the so-called jack or screw;
• pressing piston.

Important! There are other options for making the mechanism. In the manufacturing process of the device, you can use both pre-prepared sketches of the press, and independently prepare drawings.

Materials and tools for the manufacture of the press:

• Bulgarian;
• welding machine;
• 50 liter tank;
• drill;
• crane;
• metal channel with dimensions of 10-12 mm - 150 mm;
• jack;
• a metal corner having a size of 40-50 mm - 3200 mm;
• 50 x 25 x 25 x 400 mm oak battens;
• a piece of fabric about one meter;
• fishing line 2 mm about 3 m.

Consider the process of making a press for apples with your own hands.

Frame

The base is one of the important elements of the device, which should have strength properties and be a solid structure, since during operation the entire main load falls on the frame:

• For the side parts of the press we use metal corners with a height of 85 mm.
• The upper and lower parts of the base are made of a metal channel, which has a length of about 70 cm.

For strength, you can use additional reinforcement of the structure by welding between the corners and the channel of the scarf, while welding at the same time all the joints.

Important! In the case of applying the design of the screw press to the upper channel, we weld the screw nut. In addition to the metal frame, it is also possible to use wooden boards with a thickness of more than 5 cm. We fix the boards with 10-12 mm pins and tighten them with nuts. It is much easier to make a wooden device than a metal unit, but a wooden structure is not able to withstand heavy loads. This press is quite suitable for a small amount of raw materials. After manufacturing, the frame should be sanded, and then painted with a special metal paint.

Press tank:

• For this design we use a cooking tank made of stainless steel, up to 50 liters.
• We drill a hole in the lower part of the tank and install a stainless valve.

Important! In the absence of a tank, an ordinary pan of a suitable size is quite suitable.

• We insert a grate of oak battens into the boiler capacity.
• For workpieces we use an oak or parquet board, the height of which corresponds to the height of the pan.
• At the ends of the rails at the edges, we drill holes with a size of 2-3 mm, through which we stretch a stainless wire or fishing line.
• Connecting all the planks together, we get a design resembling a basket.

Important! During the manufacturing process, it is necessary to control that there is a gap of 2-3 mm between the rails, through which juice from prepared fruits will pass.

The design can be made without a pan:

• To do this, we connect the boards with galvanized steel boards and install the basket on the pallet, which serves to drain the squeezed liquid.
• You can also use a plastic tray for a large flower pot or a kitchen sink made of stainless steel as a tray in a juice press with your own hands.
• There is a design option in which the press for grapes is made as a frame in which there is no basket. Between the drainage gratings, cake from the used fruits is laid out in several layers of fabric and squeezes until juice forms.

Piston:

1. Using a compass, we draw a circle of the desired diameter and cut out the remaining oak boards folded crosswise with an electric jigsaw.
2. We twist the rails with stainless self-tapping screws or bind together with a stainless copper wire.

Important! You can also use the log, sawing off the circle of the required diameter and height.

Power mechanism

In the press for processing apples, a screw or jack is used as a pressure mechanism.

Important! In this design, you can also use a hydraulic car jack with a lifting capacity of 3 tons. For a better process, jacks are used that can create a force corresponding to 3 tons.

Each car enthusiast has a jack in the household, but it is not so easy to find a screw for the press. It is necessary to saw planks under the jack, which will be used during the juice extraction procedure.

Filter cloth

To filter the juice from the fruit of apples, you must use a strong cloth that can pass moisture. The easiest option is to use a nylon sugar bag.

Important! For the filtration process, you can also use such durable materials that can withstand heavy loads and not burst under pressure:

• lavsan;
• nylon;
• polyester;
• propylene;
• thick linen;
• durable cotton material.

The use of a homemade press

A hand-made press for processing fruits with our own hands is ready for operation, now we will consider how the process of squeezing juice out of prepared fruits occurs:

• We put the basket in the tank, inside we put the appropriate material for filtration.

Important! Soft berries, fruits and citrus fruits do not need pre-treatment before the crush procedure. Carrots, apples or other hard fruits require chopping on a grinder or using pulp from a juicer, and then they are loaded into a basket and covered with a lid.

• Install the jack.
• Substitute the receiving capacity.
• We open the crane.
• We begin to slowly push.

Important! No need to use force and try to squeeze out all the juice right away, as the filter cloth may break or the frame will be damaged. It is necessary to make 2-3 strokes, wait for a while, then again make 2-3 strokes, and so slowly squeezing juice out slowly.

If you use one bucket of apple cake from a juicer, the result will be about 3-4 liters of pure juice, in the case of crushed mass, a slightly higher yield of the finished product is obtained.

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Steel wine press

In order to make such a simple, at first glance, mechanism, you must have the skills of turning and plumbing and have a welding machine.

How to make a steel press for grapes with your own hands:

• From an unnecessary washing unit from a stainless steel tank, we independently cut two versions of cylindrical containers without a bottom, having a diameter of 23 cm and 29 cm.The height of the workpieces corresponds to 24 cm.
• In a smaller cylinder, we drill holes with a diameter of 8 mm in a checkerboard pattern.

Important! The inner container is a basket, used to load grapes, and the outer one is used for juice.

• Under the cylinders we place a rectangular stainless steel tray with dimensions of 30x50 cm, which has sides and a narrow bevel in the narrow part of the product.
• In the outer cylinder we make a cutout for draining the juice.
• A flange with a diameter of 21 cm plays the role of a punch, which in a rigid form is attached to the bottom of the shaft with a rectangular or trapezoidal thread. For this purpose, you can use the screw from the water valve. At the top of the flange we weld a head having an opening for the lever, due to which the stop mechanism will function.

Important! To reduce the pressure on the sides of the press, it is recommended to drill a stop flange with a 4 mm drill.

• The nut that is welded into the U-shaped frame works with the screw. The frame must be rigidly connected to the base, for this, with the help of screws, we attach it to the table or concrete on the floor.

Important! In order for the basket to be located in the central place of the outer container, the retaining rings must be welded at the top and bottom of the basket.

Consider the process of functioning of the press for the processing of grapes made by yourself:

1. We load grapes into the inner pan.
2. Turn the screw with the lever.
3. When the spinning process begins, we rotate the screw more slowly, while controlling the juice output.
4. We unscrew the screw in the opposite direction when the grape spin is over.

The made design can be used not only for processing grapes, but also for obtaining juice from apples and other fruits.

Important! To get the maximum amount of juice, prepared raw materials need to be crushed into crumbs or grind into a meat grinder. In wipes made of durable material, we wrap the prepared pulp, while the servings should not exceed 2 kg, the number of layers should be about three. They should be separated by drainage pads made of perforated stainless steel discs, which are welded in pairs and have a thickness of 2 mm. Between them there are thrust rings having a thickness of 4 mm.

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Wooden apple press

The previous model is a reliable option, but it has some disadvantages. So, it is very difficult to weld a thin stainless material. In addition, special equipment and electrodes are needed. You can simplify this design option by making a basket of boards yourself, and parquet floors may well come up.

In order to make a working mechanism with a capacity of 20 liters, you need to prepare 20 boards with dimensions of 320x50x15 mm.

How to make a fruit press with your own hands from a tree:

• Using self-tapping screws, the boards are attached to two stainless strips having 0.5-1 mm. The distance between the boards should be 10-12 mm.
• Then the strips are bent, their ends are connected with stainless bolts. The resulting basket has a diameter of 29 cm, a height of 32 cm.
• A wooden circle with a diameter of 27 cm serves as a punch.

Important! If the boards are placed under the screw, then it is not necessary to use the stop flange.

• In the lower part of the basket around the entire contour, a stock trough gasket is laid out to exit the juice.

Important! As a pallet, you can use an ordinary plastic bowl in which a hole is drilled into which a tube is inserted.

• Apples are cut into small pieces, wrapped in gauze and placed in a basket. During the work cycle, about 3.5-4 liters of juice is formed.

Important! In order to increase the pressure of the press at the time of lowering the press, boards are laid between the layers.

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Options and recommendations:

1. To make a homemade juicer, you can use a car jack instead of a screw, then you do not need to look for a nut.But in this case, you will have to provide a solid base structure, which rests on a device designed to lift the car.
2. The wood frame press can function without the use of a basket. Drainage lattices and a screw with a nut are the metal elements in this press, which are laid between packages of raw materials. In this case, the made pallet should have high sides so that there is no spraying of juice from grapes and other berries on all sides.
3. To reuse the bag wipes, rinse thoroughly in water. If there was a long break between processing processes, wipes need to be boiled.
4. Berries and pulp should only be wrapped in a damp cloth to prevent the formation of an unpleasant odor.
5. The resulting cake from pears and apples is thrown away, they do not have special value. Berry pomace can be used for making fruit drinks and jelly.
6. At the end of the preparation of juice from grapes, the wooden basket must be thoroughly washed with an ordinary dishwasher brush, and then scalded with boiling water.

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Stock footage

Now you are armed with several options and schemes to make a press for apples, grapes and other berries, fruits with your own hands. Choose the system for the manufacture of which you have all the necessary materials, skills, then no difficulties will arise, and you can process your crop with ease.