When the Apple Cider Press arrived it was a mess, it had been neglected for many years it was left covering for a estimate of years and was deteriorating. The metal parts were rusting away and determined parts were of no use to its functionality anymore. At some point the front legs were supplanted with fence posts fairly recently because they were pressure treated 4X4's.
The press was wholly torn down; all metal parts photographed and numbered then sent out for sandblasting and powder coated.
Drill Press
We wanted to rebuild the Apple Cider Press as close to former as possible. This turned out to be a challenge indeed; we could not find a photo of what it was supposed to look like when it was originally made. We had the date and the build but sadly could not find anyone that was even close to our Apple Cider Press. We did any way have the wooden parts that it came in with imagining that whoever supplanted the broken or worn out parts hopefully made them as close as possible. We also had the owner who remembered it from his childhood days which he recalled his Grandfather using it to make Apple Cider.
So we began rebuilding it from scratch out of solid quarter sawn White Oak ranging in thickness from 2/4 - 8/4. I built the two front legs out of 6/4 with the cross member out of 8/4 through Mortised and Tenoned together. The platform in which the actual press would sit was made out of 6/4 and blind Mortised and Tenoned into the front cross member. The rear legs are also 6/4 full dado on to the platform to which the press sits.
The apple shoot was constructed out of 8/4 and the inner slats were hand routed out of the thickness. This was by far the hardest part of the entire build. 6/4 boards were ripped down and made into a skirt so the apples would be trapped. It's hard to see in the photo's but the front is also scooped out.
Next I had to build a bucket worthy of our new press not to hard I ripped some stock down to 1 1/4 set my table saw's blade to an angle and ran them all through. Next I set up the drill press centered a hole and drilled them all. We had a practice piece of copper made for the straps 1/4 X 1 Drilled a hole centering all the slats and put our bucket together.
We finally got our newly powder coated parts back and assembled our press to all of its glory as seen in these photo's (Click Link). A dinky gold leaf to make the writing on the press stand out and it's done.
1880's aged Apple Cider Press rehabilitation