How to Build a Cider Press

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Next, you must construct a slotted drain, which will fit in the trough, for the basket to rest on. Here again, I prefer hardwood (although you can—if you choose—substitute kiln-dried fir or pine). You'll need to cut 14 drain slats, each measuring 5/8" x 1" x 15-1/2", but this time make a square cut, not beveled as with the basket slats. While you're at it, cut three extra slats 14-13/16" long.

Now lay the 14 long slats down side by side—spaced 1/16" apart—on a flat surface. Place the three 14-13/16" pieces on top of (and at right angles to) the first 14 pieces of wood and screw (or nail) them down. Then turn the finished drain right side up, place it in the trough, set the basket on the drain and you're ready for the next step.

THE SCREW ASSEMBLY

Begin by searching junkyards, flea markets, secondhand stores, etc., for an old-fashioned piano stool from which to salvage the screw for your cider press. Strictly speaking, the screw needn't come from a piano stool. (Mine didn't.) Any coarsely threaded rod approximately 22" long will work.

In any case, once you've managed to find a long, threaded shaft of some sort, you'll want to [1] affix one end of it to the press's squeezer board, [2] thread the other end through a nut which has—in turn—been mounted to the support frame, and [3] attach a handle to the screw's free end.

A good way to visualize the manner in which the screw is positioned in the cider press is to look at a piano stool upside down. In this context, the seat is analogous to the squeezer board, while the part that the seat screws into corresponds to the upper 4 x 4 framing member at the front of the press.

OK. The first thing you've got to do is find a way to mount the piano stool screw (or threaded rod) to the squeezer board in such a way that [A] the twisting shaft applies pressure evenly across the wooden squeezer plate and [B] the squeezer board itself remains stationary as the shaft turns. Luckily, the threaded rod I found at an industrial junk store happened to come with a ball-and-socket arrangement at one end (see photo) and, as a result, I had no trouble attaching the end of the shaft to the squeezer board in the manner described. Since most threaded rods don't come with a ball-and-socket like mine, however, you'll probably want to mount your piano stool screw (or whatever) to the squeezer board in one of the two ways depicted in Fig. 2.

List of Materials

BASKET
 
(1) 5/8" x 12" x 40" hardwood board (with grain running in the 12" direction)
(2) 3/16" x 1" x 38" metal straps
(64) 3/16" flathead bolts 1-1/4" long with lockwashers and nuts or (64) 1 "-long 3/16" countersunk rivets

SUPPORT FRAME

(4) 4" x 4" x 36" wood beams

(2) 4" x 4" x 24" wood beams

(4) 2" x 4" x 26" wood beams
(24) 16-penny (3-1/2") common nails
(16) 5/16" x 4" carriage bolts with flat washers, lockwashers and nuts

TROUGH AND DRAIN

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