If you have extra milk from your goats, cows, etc… making cheese is a great way to use it. Making cheese is an art and you can get really creative in making hard or soft cheese in an endless variety of savory, sweet and spicy flavors and if you wax hard cheese they can be kept for ages! My dear hubs made me a cheese press and I love it. One of my favorite things about this press is that I can dismantle it and throw it in the dishwasher after I use it. Here’s the directions he wrote out on how he made my press.

Cheese Press

I started with the following items:

A flat plastic sheet approx 12” x 12” with holes ( I used an old wall board for hanging tools).

An 8” round PVC pipe approx 8” tall

(3) 3/8” all thread rods, 24” tall

(18) 3/8” fender washers

(10) 3/8 nuts

(3) 3/8 wing nuts

(2) Springs

(1) piece of wood cut into 7 ¾” circle (sanded)

(2) pieces of wood 1”x2” approx 12” wide.

I used a drill and drilled 4 rows of 1/8” holes spaced evenly around the PVC from the bottom up to just below center.

I centered the 8” PVC on 12×12 sheet.

I drilled holes for the 2 outer 3/8” all thread rods on both sides of the PVC approx 1” distance from PVC.

I used a nut and washer on both sides of the sheet to secure the all -thread rods to sheet.

I then measured the all thread distance (all-thread to all-thread) and distance to center of PVC to drill the 3 holes in each of the (2) 1”x2”x12” pieces of wood.

I drilled a hole in the center of the 7 ¾” round board (follower). I used nut and washer on both sides to secure to bottom of 3rd piece of all-thread. I made sure to get the nut on the end of the all thread as you do not want it going deep in the cheese.

I used nuts and washers to attach the all-thread rod to the lower board that spans the PVC between the side rods. This is adjustable and allows you to move the 7 3//4” follower up and down for different amount of cheese to be pressed. To start with I adjusted it so the follower is approx 1 in above the bottom of PVC. To adjust all you need to do is loosen the nuts and slide center rod up or down depending on desired thickness.

I then put washer on the wood on each side and slid springs into place. The springs are approx 6” compression springs bought at the local hardware store. I then place washers on top of the springs and put the upper board in place. I used washers and wing nuts to allow you to adjust the compression placed on the cheese.

You can adjust the amount of pressure on the cheese by turning the outer two wing nuts clockwise which will push down on the lower board and compress the cheese. *Please note that the center wing nut is only in place to keep the wood evenly spaced and does not apply pressure to the cheese.

Wa-laa you have a cheese press!

You can see when you use this press you need to keep a tray underneath the press to catch the whey that is pressed out and here is the final product!