homemade juice press

[delmar]

Building a homemade juice press out of a bottle jack from an old truck. I made the frame by layering a bunch of scrap plywood (OSB really) and plunge cut a hole in the middle. Then I cut the end out of a bread pan. The bread pan on my prototype is aluminum but I will replace it with stainless steel when I find one really cheap. I cut a piece of pine board to use as my top plate.

I grind up my veggies in a food processor. put the veggie pulp in the pan. put the top plate on the pulp, put the jack on the top plate and start turning the jack. I did a trail run last night, but I found a design flaw. The frame of my press is not wide enough to support the entire length of the pan, so the pan started to bend before the pulp was squeezed dry. So today I am going to cut more scrap wood to widen the base of the frame and make a base plate for the pan to sit on and it should work really well.

I will add photos to the thread as soon as I have the press working like I want it to. So far the cost of the project is $0 because I picked up the wood and the jack for free.

[DoxyDame]

wow. that's super rad. i would love to see photos! i am a pretty creative being however i'm not very good at building things. a juice press (or juice anything) would be really nice

[PansyLo]

I'd love to see photos too.

I'm not good at these things but my brother is great at pottering about and DIY. Maybe a DIY birthday juicer or dehydrator for me? :P

Shame I get get a DIY vitamix...

[delmar]

I'll get it finished today and get some photos up. I will also do a youtube video at some point, but not today.

[DebB]

Hi delmar ~ I bumped this post by Kias up. It might be of interest to you. Way to go on building your own juicer!!

[michigan roman]

ive gone thru 5 juicers and none of them have been anywhere near excellent , including champion and omega 8000 series .
all are inefficient / make a mess / froth juices

and paying 500 for a greenstar is ridiculous , then you go beyond that to 1000 angels and its just a messed up market

and ive been thinking like delmar and kias = grind stuff up then press it . ive been thinking food processor or food mill or food strainer to grind stuff ,
then press it in a nylon mesh paint filter bag . currently im thinking to press use a big stainless 4 gallon soup pot and this below tamper with steel handle , put some side grip handles on the tamper
handle though to get more power into it . ide cut the corners off tamper and make it round so it wouldnt mess pot up . link ;

http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CFQQ8wIwBA

[michigan roman]

delmar or anyone ever own the basic $100 simple kitchen aide food processor sold at meijers and others , ive been thinking about buying one but no experience with food processors .
but garage sale season is about ready to open up so im cooling my jets in effort to find an old good one for cheap

[delmar]

Here are the photos I promised.

OK I added the photos that are right side up.

[michigan roman]

what kind of dooms day machine have you created delmar

[Mary Kay]

Hey, thanks for posting the pics!

Mary Kay

[michigan roman]

delmar in case youve never seen these lever action types heres a vid , just in case your still looking to make more juicer types : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdL3ffr6YVc

[michigan roman]

ide like to take one of the dirt tamper heads and put it on a lever like the ito press design , with a big pot you put under the lever action tamper head , itd seriously crush some pulp with just one heavy crank down on lever . as opposed to cranking the bottle jack several times . plus having to fiddle around with keeping the bottle jack clean of juices . itd be easier to keep tamper head clean . just my 2 cents anyway because i want to design some home made juicers as the juicer companys dont know what theyre doing and keep turning out flawed junk

[delmar]

ive gone thru 5 juicers and none of them have been anywhere near excellent , including champion and omega 8000 series .
all are inefficient / make a mess / froth juices

and paying 500 for a greenstar is ridiculous , then you go beyond that to 1000 angels and its just a messed up market

and ive been thinking like delmar and kias = grind stuff up then press it . ive been thinking food processor or food mill or food strainer to grind stuff ,
then press it in a nylon mesh paint filter bag . currently im thinking to press use a big stainless 4 gallon soup pot and this below tamper with steel handle , put some side grip handles on the tamper
handle though to get more power into it . ide cut the corners off tamper and make it round so it wouldnt mess pot up . link ;

http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CFQQ8wIwBA

You could put that tamper head on a pogo stick and jump up and down on it

[michigan roman]

if you built a frame the pogo stick sits in making it unmovable so you just step up on it with all body weight the thing would be great , you could juice huge amounts in seconds with body weight .
the frame sits outside , and the tamper head and juicing vessel are removable so can bring in home and wash

[michigan roman]

pour a 6'x6' concrete slab + put four post at corners to support a roof to keep out rain / snow + put pogo'izer under roof + call it a ' juice shack '

yes the POGO'IZER is money in the bank ;-)