[dangolding]

I am looking at making my own cheese press having had a cheese making lesson from a nearby neighbour.

From the book I've read I know that hard cheeses require certain levels of pressure.

Now, the question I've got is how do I measure how much pressure I've applied - I know that if I put a 50lb weight on, then I'm applying 50lb of pressure, but I don't have a 50lb weight

From my dim and distant physics o level days, I vaguely remember that weight times distance equals force applied but to be honest, I only got a 'c' grade and am not sure if I'm right.

I've tried googling but to no avail so I'm assuming that my formula is wrong.

You see, rather than putting a weight directly on top of the cheese, I want to put a pivot arm on that applies the pressure but I hang the wieght off the other end of the arm (it's a dutch cheese press I want to make).

I'm sure that somehow there is a method of putting a 10 lb weight on a long piece of wood at the right distance will apply the 50lb of pressure I want on top of the cheese.

Does this make sense and can anyone help?

Cheers

Dan

[SalJ1980]

HI Dan

I'm sure you're right with the "weight x distance = force" equation...but I'm not sure what unit you would need to measure the distance in if your weight is pounds, I imagine it'd be either yards or feet

 :?:

[Porcia]

Its called Mechanical advantage although for a cheese press you may need to push not pull. take a look here it explains it

LINK Mechanical advantage

[poultrygeist]

I think, if you have the fulcrum at one end and the pressure point is distance x along the lever, then if you pull down at a distance of 10x from the pressure point, you'd gain a 10x advantage. I think.

We used to do it all in Newtons and metres and went into beding moments and moments of inertia and other dark magic. 23 years since I left college so I'm sure they've invented wheels and things since.  :shock:

Rob  

[Bignij]

From a different perspective.
Pressure = Force / Area. So decrease the area to up the pressure, remember the old  'stilleto and elephants foot' analogy. :shock:

[dangolding]

thanks for all the feedback - my nephew is here at the moment and once he's finished helping me build a smoker and extended rabbit run, then we'll crack on with the cheese press.

I'll let you know how it all works out - cheers :-)