Cheese Press16 In Natural Oak

I made my first rounds of cheddar using the press. I used the moulds that came with the press. It all worked perfectly!

I needed a good cheese press to take my cheese making to a higher level. It was easy to assemble and even easier to use. It doesn’t take up a lot of space, which was essential in my tiny house. The weight gauge is only effective on the higher amounts. If you’re making a cheese that requires lower weights, you’ll have to either 1: guess, or 2: use hand weights for a bit more accuracy. When I’m making a farm house cheddar, for example, I put the cheese in the mold and then put 10lb weights on top of the press, then tighten the wing nuts. Seems to work well.The construction is solid and it has held up well. I put mine in a baking sheet to catch the whey runoff. This press is also quite simple to clean. For the money, this has been a great find.

Not easy to turn those butterfly nuts but it is very sturdy and does the job.

It was very easy to put together no problem at all

I saw good reviews and a great price compared to all the options online that cost much more. It was not until I returned to process a claim that I noticed everyone who reviewed it had been given a free one.Bad news: the springs are all different sizes. They can not give an exact measured pressure like the gauge says when you might use different size springs that start applying pressure at different heights. I tried to just get new springs but I had to process a return for the whole item just to get new springs. The new springs were not uniform either.More unpleasantry: I found that when using all four springs, by the time you get to the second bump of the measuring stick, it is only about 5 pounds pressure off, I did this by putting dumbells on it of certain weights but could only measure to the 110 pound mark, and I ran out of things to put on it. When using two springs, they were only able to hold up about half of what the measuring stick markings say.Good news: You can calibrate the measuring stick using dumbells [or cases of vegetables or whatever, weigh it on a scale, then put it on the press to see how much it holds to hit the markers]With two springs, well, I had two sets of measures using my shortest two and longest two springs. The short springs hit the measures at 15, 25, 45, 80, 100 [not 30, 60, 90, 115, 140]. Using my two longest springs, I hit the markers at 20, 40, 50, 75, 110 [not 30, 60, 90, 115, 140].Once pressure was applied, with four springs each full revolution of the wing nuts added pretty close to 10 pounds. With two springs about 3.5 rotations gave 20 pounds.All that said, the measures are off but it did the job.Oh! and it is not 'set it and forget it' ... when you get to the 40 pound or so pressure, the whey starts losing moisture and then it can get lopsided quickly, so you need to watch it for an hour or so after each adjustment. This is more a nature of the product than a defect.I enjoyed using it, just wish it worked more as designed

It works, but is to to complicated to use. It has 4 screws that you have to adjust separately, for even pressure. The pressure gauge is useless, I had to get softer springs to reduce the pressure range, and make my own screw on gauge, then calibrate using a postal scale. I built my own single mold press using a single center screw and 3 different spring tensions, which is plenty of adjustment for most homemade hard cheese.

Works as advertised. Way to use too.

The press works just wish they would use higher end screws to lock down the pressure panel. Very awkward to use.

So far so good, assembled easily - no issues with the wing nuts as mentioned elsewhere. Good solid wood. Like that it is made in Ukraine not USA. Fits my largest cheese moulds with room to spare, no more messing around with 5-gallon buckets filled with sand. Will do what I need it to - wish it came with a draining board but will 3-d print something or buy the oak one..