Thread: New....1875 old apple press

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Friday I finally was able to find one of these locally. Every year we get way more apples than we can eat, so we make apple sauce, pie filling, butter....ect. This year I thought it might be nice ttry and make apple juice or maybe even hard cider vs. sauce, etc.
So while searching craiglist I found an old press/grinder for the right price locally and got it. We wanted to give it a test run, so we bought some gravenstien apples that were ripe(ours are still green) locally from an orchard. 40lbs yielded about 2.5 gallons of juice. It was fun and worked quite well!Here are some photos of the apparatus which is a cool piece of engineering(why I posted this).

And here is what we got

congrats on your find and the juice makes me thirsty

Isn't it something how things that were made 100 years or so ago are still working?

Nice find Steve.

Richard

YUM...Qt jars of hard cider.

Originally Posted by ford2custom

Isn't it something how things that were made 100 years or so ago are still working?

Nice find Steve.

Richard

yeah, kind of like Uncle Bob---oops, he don't work no mo!!!!!

Originally Posted by dave severson

yeah, kind of like uncle bob---oops, he don't work no mo!!!!!:lol::lol::lol:

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

Now I need to find either a food grade metal paint or sealant to keep the choper and grinders from getting rust into the juice. Also a sealant for the wood.

what about the glaze that they put on pottery for the metal. that should protect and not get into the food.

barb they also make epoxy enamels that are food grade, just hard to find. I did find a wine press supplier that sells Gondola enamel(brand name?) that will do the trick. Was just searching here to see if anyone might know of other brands of paint. I like the ceramic coat idea though! Probably powder coatong would work too! Maybe when I get richer, after the truck is done I could take it apart and get it ceramic coated!

thats neat .not sure if i would paint the insides .i would worry about getting good hook up on the paint and in time have it fall out in your product .i would think in you just painted the out side and blast it to get rust off .i think you could just coat the in side with a food grade oil in it ?

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

yeah, kind of like Uncle Bob---oops, he don't work no mo!!!!!

Hey!!!!....................you weren't supposed to tell!!


Okay Stevie.....I see a national advertising campaign............."Steve's Hard Cider for an organic high".

Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

thats neat .not sure if i would paint the insides .i would worry about getting good hook up on the paint and in time have it fall out in your product .i would think in you just painted the out side and blast it to get rust off .i think you could just coat the in side with a food grade oil in it ?

I agree with Pat, anything you put on the inside is going to fail over time and contaminate your apples. I would do an abrasive blast to clean everything, then coat all of the internals with something like olive oil or vegatable oil. I'm not sure that you're going to find a coating that will stand up to the wear on the external gears - that's why they were left unfinished originally. Clean them good, and oil them up with something you're willing to eat.

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Hey!!!!....................you weren't supposed to tell!!


Okay Stevie.....I see a national advertising campaign............."Steve's Hard Cider for an organic high".

Bob I think you have me confused with some of those crunchy hippies that live around here!
More like...for a cheap high!