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Great video and details

Get 1 hp

Thanks! I highly recommend you experiment with making your own cider. It's a spectacular drink, and it is exceedingly easy to make. Cheers.

Great idea! Thanks for the comment.

I started making this Skimack Press as I found it to be the best one amongst the dozen I looked at on KZfaq. Not familiar with polypro gunny sacks that malt grain come in. Initially thought that sounded great alternative plan but rethinking it. How do close the sack or fold up the sack to keep it from opening? Guess I would have to have a sack to visualize it. ET2020, did you or anyone actually try this suggestion?

Thanks James! Enjoy the festival, and good luck with your vinegar this year.

I've considered that this setup could work for olive oil with some minor modifications. Very cool idea!

I built one off his

Interested in apple juice making?kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oMCUjNOT3NTYlIk.html

Yeah, overheating the grinder is the main weakness of this system. The juice in the apples seems to provide some degree of cooling and I have had pretty good luck with the foot pedal system. In the four years I have been using this system, I've only overheated the grinder once and it kicked back on after a 15 minute cool down to reset the heat switch.

@@skimack I had a minute to think about it and I know you can't run water through it at the same time you're pulling (that's more accurate, pulping) but, if you had an appropriately large air fan directed at the base of the disposal and determin a duty cycle (like 40min /hr, total run time,, etc.) it may keep you from tripping the breaker and prolong the life of the machine. Every time the breaker trips in those things, there are thermistor and other do-dads that start to break down and stop protecting the motor. But, depending upon the quality of the unit and how much you try to shove through it at a time, it should last you a long time. (if you've done those things, I'm not trying to "tell you your job," just throw a suggestion your way). Good luck...

@@MtnBadger That's a good point. I've heard of people pulling all of the plastic off of the outside of the motor and either installing a fan to cool it or even setting it up with copper pipes with cold water or coolant to cool it. You can get as technical as you want depending on how hard you want to push the system and how handy you are.

@@skimack I actually thought about telling you that but it seems like you'd have gone that route if you'd really wanted. That's why I suggested simple... Air flow and establishing a duty cycle is effective and easy for the type of usage you seem to have. Sometimes, simpler is better. Me, too many years as an ASE mechanic/pneumatic repair tech/blacksmith and general cobbler of all things pieces-parts. I'm a techno-geek and the king of over kill. I'd have a circulatory cooler, robotic press... lol. But there's a time and placeforeverything. Keepit serviced, keep it cool and don'texceed the duty cycleand it shoulddo everything you need. Packing it with ice packs in a small cooler if you really need to push it and flush the system out fairly often just to give it room to "breath" and you could run it pretty consistently. It's the curse of the moonshine, were always coming up with solutions to problems that haven't even happened yet because, by the time an issue happens, it's too late. 😆

Hi Greg - thanks for the comment! I sized the base plywood board to match my juice collection tray keeping in mind that I would need a two inch overhang at the end to allow the spout to fit at the end. My juice tray is 26" long, and I think my base board is about 24" long. I would not do anything differently if I was rebuilding the press again today. The press and grinder are still working great, and I have not needed to replace any parts or items from the originals.

Sure Thing: Garbage disposal: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000DZGN7Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Aluminum funnel: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0030OVB6A/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Foot pedal: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LJNJOE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Shade cloth: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000P7JL0S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Juice collection tray: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0041P2B7A/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 "rack" trays to separate the layers in the press: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002XYGJBU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I think it's just a standard 12x20 pan.

Some seeds get ground up, but most seem to pass through the grinder without getting damaged. I do not think that the few seeds that get damaged by the grinder contribute to the cider's taste at all.

5mt transmission too! One of the unicorns.

Swap it out every 2yrs only 100 bucks the press will last to eternity

Thanks for the comment Robert. I have not had any overheating issues with my garbage disposal unit. That may be because of the foot pedal switch that lets me only run in when I need to, or because the 1 HP motor doesn't have to work as hard to crush the apples. You're correct that the very fine pulp generated by the garbage disposal grinder requires a fine mesh cloth bag to keep the pulp contained during pressing. The 90% shade cloth I use has worked great for that. I've also heard that people have good luck with strong curtain fabric from fabric stores.

I grind with a chipper/shredder that I bought at a garage sale. Works pretty well, but have encourage the apples to drop a lot like skimack does.

ET2020 what sort of chipper shredder have you gotten? Seems like it might handle more than the waste king did for us. Is it hard to collect the shredded apples as they come out?

The disposal is installed in the little structure I made exactly as it would be on a sink, so all gaskets and fastening parts are installed per the instructions however, I did not include the baffle in order to make it easier to drop apples in. Stems are fine for the disposal and they are filtered out by the press cloths when pressing.

The press is sold as a single unit. You can find it at Harbor Freight: www.harborfreight.com/12-ton-shop-press-33497.html

Thanks for the questions. 1. I have since moved on to commercial scale processing equipment for a small cider business, but I still use this press when I'm traveling and for small batches with friends. It continues to work great exactly as shown in this video. 2. The lunch trays are unaltered. You are correct that I just place them upside down. I use the cut up bread trays for the first two trays to give the lunch trays a bit more space to squeeze together before contacting the bottom of the press. 3. The pressing itself doesn't take very long. Most of the time is spent in the set-up. Once the stack has been completely compressed and the juice flow slows down noticeably, it's time to start the next run. 4. I'm still using the same disposal shown in this video. It overheated once while grinding some particularly dense and dry crabapples, but it turned on by re-setting the heat switch after letting it cool for about 15 minutes. I find that it doesn't overheat when I'm working by myself, but when I have help, I have to make sure not to run it too hard since all of the processes move faster with extra hands. 5. I generally stop adding layers to the stack when they fill the vertical space and the stack begins to become unwieldy. The disposal isn't the limiting factor there. 6. I wash the press cloth before I start with a pressure washer and then sanitize the press cloth with Starsan sanitizer. After I'm finished pressing, I pressure wash the cloth and hang it to dry.

Thanks for the inspiration and for sharing so much knowledge Al!

I have used the disposal and press for several years now. I have had no contamination/infection issues with the cider I make using this equipment, and I do not pasteurize or sulfite my juice before fermentation. The 2017 batch I pressed in this video is drinking great after 5 years, and I'm looking forward to aging it even further to continue to enjoy the evolution of the cider in the bottle. I have found that cider is quire resistant to infection as long as the acid and tannin content of your apples is adequate.

You could of course core the apples that you press, but it would be a monumental task if you were pressing anything more than a bushel or two of apples. The seeds are mostly not crushed by the garbage disposal ( The hundreds of seedling apple trees in my back yard growing from my composted pomace are proof of that). Furthermore, the seeds are left behind while pressing due to the filtering effect of the press cloths. I have never heard of a commercial cider facility coring their apples, so I think the amygdalin that passes into the juice from broken seeds is so minimal as to not be considered. The apples I use come from un-irrigated wild apple trees growing at 6,000 feet of elevation, so they are much more concentrated in both sugars and flavor than standard store-bought apples. I generally end up with a SG of approximately 1.065. The apples I use average 15 Brix with the resulting cider coming out around 8% ABV. Store-bought apples usually come in around 1.045 SG in my experience.

@@skimack good info to know. I haven't ground nor pressed apple juice. I'll look for the equipment. Many apple orchards in Michigan. Thanks again

Hello, if I recall, this press generates approximately 100psi over the pressing area. I've come across some research that shows that 100psi results in maximum juice output from the apple pulp. You can still get high yields, up to 60% with only 50psi, but the returns diminish as you generate more pressure beyond that. The handle on the pump is about 12 inches long. Each pump of the jack when the stack is fully compressed probably requires about 20lbs of force at the end of the handle. Hope that helps.

So, it seems the 12 ton is actually better than the 20 lb press. If u were to do this again would you still buy the 12 ton press?

100 psi is optimal. I use a 20 ton jack because my press area is larger, but it still works out to 100 psi.

I collect apples from wild trees that grow in the forest around the town I live in. I'm in the process of starting a small orchard, but until that develops, I've had good luck foraging fruit from wild trees and abandoned orchards in my area. If you don't have wild trees in your area, ask around to see if anyone you know has apple trees growing in their yard. A full size tree will produce over one hundred pounds of fruit on a good year, and people may be happy to share the bounty.

I'd estimate less than $300 total to put this setup together.

All of the collection tray and the rack trays on my press are food grade. The press cloths themselves are not "food grade" but polyethylene is non-reactive and safe for contact with food based on my research. Do your own research and make decisions that you're comfortable with for you and your family. It's the same situation for the garbage disposal components. The nice thing about setting up your own system like this is that you can source the materials you prefer based on your budget and your comfort level while you're setting it up.

I have not, but it would work just as well for pressing grapes. You could even fashion a basket to hold the grape pulp like a traditional wine press if you wanted.

This particular garbage disposal has all stainless steel grinding components. I definitely recommend that. I also ran a batch of apples and soapy water through the machine when I first purchased it to remove any residues or grime from the manufacturing process. I feel comfortable with that level of safety for myself and my family, but only you can determine what you consider safe.

@@skimack Thanks for the reply. I'm looking for an efficient way to grind and juice prickly pears. This whole process seems brilliant and definitely worth giving a shot.

I'm not sure. I wonder if the softer fruit would clog the press cloth.

That would probably work great. I built the wooden frame because I didn't have a sink, but if you have a sink and space to store a larger unit, that would be a good way to do it.

Is that what you use on your press? What weight of linen cloth do you use? At what point do you get diminishing returns on the thickness of the levels?

I use all foraged apples that are not pruned or sprayed, so codling moth is present in many of the trees. I will cut out any obvious damage I see to the apples, but you can't get them all. Since I ferment the juice, I don't worry about the odd bug hole that slips through - it doesn't seem to make a difference in the final product. The disposal has a stainless steel grinding components and a polymer housing. Stainless or polymer are fine, but the acid in the apples would react with any non-stainless steel or iron and could produce metallic flavors in the finished product. The racks are just lunch trays. You can find the ones I used here: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002XYGJBU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Compost always but I'm English so ya know....

I have since upgraded to a commercial setup with multiple hydro-presses and a purpose-built apple grinder made by Speidel. I still use this exact setup from time to time for small batches or for pressing in remote areas. The entire system fits in the back of my subaru with space to spare which has been great for press parties with friends who live far away. I don't yet have my own orchard, but I intend to purchase land and plant my orchard in the next few years.