Don,

I know that a hydraulic bladder press operates at about 30psi, so if you
have a 10" diameter basket, that's about 78 sq in. Times 30, that's
over 2300 lbs of weight on a one-to-one lever system. Note that as drawn
your press has an effort arm (pivot to weight) about three times the
length of the resistance arm (pivot to basket). This gives you a
mechanical advantage of 3:1, so you would only need 1/3 the weight
calculated. With a long enough lever arm, you could probably get the
weight down to something manageable, but be sure to build stoutly.

I actually know of an antique press of this design, probably from the
1800's. At a farm museum kinda place in Beemerville, NJ. It had a basket
dia. of maybe 8", so it would need only about 2/3 the weight mentioned
above. It had its two back legs close together with the lever pivoting
between their top ends, and I think there was some kind of simple rope
turnbuckle to pull down on the far end of the lever. Perhaps a small
hydraulic jack could be used to push _down_ on the lever from above?
Just an idea.

HTH, Mike MTM



Don S wrote:


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