“When life gives you lemons you make lemonade; when your neighbor gives you several bushels of apples, duh, make cider!
However in my case, I didn’t exactly have a cider press sitting around waiting to be used, so I built this little jig over the weekend.
The frame is made out of some scrap 4x4s and 2x4s, the plunger out of 1″ pine board and plywood (just because I ran out of pine), and the screw is from a bench vise. To attach the plunger head, I drilled and tapped a 1/4″ hole in the end of the screw vise, and bolted it on.
After some use, I’ve found that it’s best if you cut the bolt that holds the plunger on so that it bottoms out in the hole, that way you can tighten it without sinking the bolt head or washer into the soft pine board when you start pressing cider…”
