I've had this 150 year old cider press for a few years now. (PP MAST and Co BUCKEYE JUNIOR improved 1866) After about 4 years of getting into woodworking and restoring my own tools I gained enough skills to take on this restoration. I've been working on it on and off ,not consistently, since October of 2019. I've taken it all apart and am remaking the wooden parts in White Oak. Reusing the old hardware. All the joinery is marked with a knife and square lines cut by chisel and mallet BUT I often remove most of the waste with power tools on the dados or mortises on this project. I've still got a lot to do but this is where it's at right now. I've restored and painted some of the cast iron parts. I am trying to get all the wood parts done before tackling all the rest of the hardware. Most of the gearing and shafts are wedged together so it will prove difficult to clean. I've re-designed some of the press to maximize wood to wood contact so as not to rely only on fasteners to hold it together.
I'm currently working on the tray the barrels sit on I've laminated some oak for the bottom and now I'll make a rim around it and dove tail the corners. I milled up some stock for this today, letting it rest before planing to 3/4".
Some parts of the press that won't contact the cider will be sand blasted and restored with real japanning. (asphaltum, boiled linseed oil, turpentine). I'll have some questions coming up about a few things here soon so I hope y'all on the forum can help me out. This was pretty much completely inspired by Wranglerstar's youtube series about the same thing. I pretty much got into woodworking thanks to Wranglerstar.
Thanks for reading. Jacob
I'm currently working on the tray the barrels sit on I've laminated some oak for the bottom and now I'll make a rim around it and dove tail the corners. I milled up some stock for this today, letting it rest before planing to 3/4".
Some parts of the press that won't contact the cider will be sand blasted and restored with real japanning. (asphaltum, boiled linseed oil, turpentine). I'll have some questions coming up about a few things here soon so I hope y'all on the forum can help me out. This was pretty much completely inspired by Wranglerstar's youtube series about the same thing. I pretty much got into woodworking thanks to Wranglerstar.
Thanks for reading. Jacob