In August 2010 I happened upon an old press that was destined for the auction at Honiton Hill Rally, the owner agreed a price with me and it was quickly loaded and taken back to the yard, I thought it would make a nice portable press as it was not too big.
Upon inspection I very quickly noticed the reason for the failure of the press, the timbers used had not been cut correctly leaving it structurally weak an inefficient, the cure was quite obvious so it was covered with a Tarpaulin until I could find the time to sort it out.
At the beginning of August 2011 I sat down and drew up the plans and cutting list, armed with the list off I went to the yard and selected out some Douglas Fir core wood for the frame and some slow grown, partially seasoned Oak for the dish and hatch, the easy bit over the machining began, to cut a very long story short the following image is the finished article, I celebrated with a glass of Dabinett for myself and one for the press.
All in all I am very pleased with the way things worked out, now begins the next project, I purchased two sets of large screws and nuts at the auction at Honiton Hill Rally on August Bank Holiday Monday just gone, both sets are almost complete so just a matter of cutting some hefty pieces of Oak to suit, my Wife is still asking me “Why?”, who knows.
