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Build your own oil press, yields oil and dry nut meal. Oh, wind powered too!

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posted 11 years ago

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I've been looking for an oil press that is either affordable or that I could build myself. Not entirely sure *I* can build this one but I am sure I know metal workers who could!
http://www.davehakkens.nl/work/wind_oil/

Sunflower and pumpkin seeds, I can grow those in Canada. Hazelnuts grow wild here too.

Take a look and say what you think. The rest of his designs are pretty cool too, the non-disposable customizable blok cell phone is what brought me to his site. Pretty awesome stuff.

Landon Sunrich

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Well that's neat (!)

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David Livingston

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Damn what a great idea but now the link does not work !
Anyone save it ?

David

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David Livingston

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I found a you tube clip And Will link to it later but does anyone see why I could not just replace the blade type windmill with a smaller one of these
http://m.instructables.com/id/55-Gallon-Drum-Turbine/

Next question how big would I néed to make them I was thinking two tin cans attached to a bicycle wheel driving the device without the need for rotating the drive through 90degrees
OR
Should I use a system straight from a bike complete with gears?

David

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Johan Thorbecke

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posted 11 years ago

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If you're looking for an affordable oil press I can recommend the Piteba:

http://www.piteba.com/eng/index_eng.html
I have one and I love it, except for olives it can press virtually anything that contains oil.

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Yes I have seen this device the problem for me is I dont fancy using the oil heater ( the not natural blue liquid in the above picture , it seems a faff and maybe a bit dangerous ) and if I do I cannot claim to have cold pressed oil . Cold pressed oil attracts a premium if you want to make a little cash selling the stuff .

David

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Johan Thorbecke

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The oil heater is almost never necessary, the only time I had to use it was when the environmental and seed temperature were near freezing point.

R Scott

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The oil lamp under the piteba will still count as cold-pressed, it just warms the press before friction and pressure take over for the heating.

My issue with the piteba is the scale--it is too small for production, but the next size up is thousands of dollars and takes big power to run. A homestead-scale oil press would be awesome, especially if alternatively powered.

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David Livingston

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I came across a french site selling a larger oil press for 450 €
Www.Pressoirs-a-fruits.com

David

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Landon Sunrich

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Well that's a bummer. I wonder what happened to it. (?) I think is was a 'prairy farm style' wind turbine which transferred motion 90 degrees via a set of gears to a deeply grooved drill bit in a hollow pipe. It looked like it was meant for small use - like you couldn't put unchopped walnuts into it (but sunflower seeds or nettle seed?). That dutch beast looks built, I can speak for experience in saying that a good hand crank can get a whole bunch done (I'm talking about cider here people... sheesh) Someone mentioned the VAWT. Anyone know about this one? Looks like a waste of a good aquaponics system to me!

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Noah Jackson

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posted 11 years ago

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We have the Piteba and it works well. It's Danish made and all food-grade materials. It was designed for small farmers in Africa and if you tweak it for what you are processing, it works well. It's worth the $100 investment. There is at least one company (US) that I know that makes plans for larger scale, ram presses that are manufactured in East Africa. Contact me if you'd like details. With that said, there are various US-companies that make screw presses powered by a motor. I've looked into them and found them for about $2K - in both the midwest and the west. These are a good value if you are selling oil. The Piteba, though is great. We use ours a few times a year and have it out at parties. Good luck in your search.

R Scott wrote:The oil lamp under the piteba will still count as cold-pressed, it just warms the press before friction and pressure take over for the heating.

My issue with the piteba is the scale--it is too small for production, but the next size up is thousands of dollars and takes big power to run. A homestead-scale oil press would be awesome, especially if alternatively powered.

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Johan Thorbecke

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Actually they are from the Netherlands.

Anne Murphy

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posted 11 years ago

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Neat.. I want one..
Your link didn't work so i googled it.. http://www.davehakkens.nl/work_windoil.html
now i have a new entry to my Todo list. Thank you for posting it!

I love my Piteba.. its too small for the job i need it to do.. and when i looked into a commercial oil press, the price knocked my socks off ($10,000)

David Livingston

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The French model I mentioned above seems a good compremise on Price and size and is less than $1000
As for the inventor of the wind powered press it looks like he will be busy for some time as he is the same chap who came up with the idea of the mobile phone you buy in parts like lego and clip all the parts togther. According to the papers he is in talks with google over a multi million £$€ deal .

David

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Thekla McDaniels

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posted 11 years ago

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I just looked at the French press, and it looks like a hand turned press like a cider press. I just wonder if you would have to grind up the seeds, or nuts or what ever you want to extract oil from before you put them in.

There is a company in Oregon-- Horizon Herbs-- that sells a 1/2 gallon tincture press. They use a bottle jack to do the pressing. It doesn't seem much different than the French one (unless I did not get the full idea of the French press). If you are going to have to grind the oil producing stuff anyway, the one with the 6 ton hydraulic jack seems easier to work with. It costs $780.00.

link to horizon herbs tincture press:

https://www.horizonherbs.com/product.asp?specific=680

I've wanted a tincture press AND an oil press for a good many years.

Thekla

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Peter Ellis

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posted 10 years ago

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Odd, Thekla, your link did not work for me. Took me to their site but no tincture press. Searching there I found items for use with the tincture press, but not the press. Seems strange.

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Peter Ellis

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posted 10 years ago

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I think this thread deserves to be bumped. The idea of a very simple wind powered oil press seems like something that is completely in line with permaculture and of really significant potential value to many of us. It does not seem to have had as much attention as I think it deserves.

The designer who built the prototype seems to be one of those creative geniuses who just keeps pouring out ideas and this particular one seems to have lost his attention, or at least he does not seem to have very much about it on his website that I could find.

So, how scalable is this design? Is it capable of producing enough to be worth the time and effort to make it? Which time and effort does not look to be all that much, honestly... How fast is it producing one of those bottles of oil he shows in his video?

Yeah, I kind of think I want one. Even if it needs a hand crank because I cannot rely on wind that much... but I do not grok the workings well enough to try building one yet.

Any thoughts on just what is going on with his design? Is that just a drill bit being used as the actual pressing device?

Thekla McDaniels

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Yeah, Peter, Do we just add flags? I just checked the horizon herbs site, and also did not see the tincture press. I looked around for their most recent catalogue, tis the season, and I know I did not toss it, but could not find it. I emailed Horizon Herbs to ask about the tincture press...

I think it's a worthy topic, and though I like the wind powered self built design, it's beyond MY skills. Maybe someone else here on this great permie neighborhood knows a lot more about oil presses and will come to our rescue!

I'm going to try to add the flags, it might not work for me, and maybe if someone else thinks it's not flag worthy , they can take them off.

Thekla

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Thekla McDaniels

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Hi Peter - and others.

Re the link I posted for a tincture press, a frame and a bottle jack and some stainless steel vessels for that which is to be pressed, which looked like a very practical press and could be modified for small oil production, if the seeds were ground or shelled, or whatever.

I emailed horizon herbs, the vendor, and they said they had quit selling them because the cost of production had gone so high, but have had so many requests and inquiries that they've ordered some more. The big concern for them was whether to have them manufactured over seas - I think he said China, or to have them made here in the USA. They're going to be made here, giving us a chance to support some small enterprise.

He said he expected them in 3 months. I'll remember that by Cinco de Mayo to memorial Day.

I think they'll notify me, at which time I hope to remember to post the link again, even if only for reference for all you oil press builders out there.

Thekla

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John Master

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posted 9 years ago

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this looks like a good use for pedal power if one wanted to do a non electric screw press and not have to rely on wind or building a windmill. used pedal bikes are all over, you would just need to figure out the auger part of it which looks like a wood cutting drill bit.

Thekla McDaniels

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Well, here I am, finding old posts of mine because I followed a link in the daily-ish. I had forgotten all about this thread. Compounded maturation is such an adventure!

Anyway, since I posted above, the company I mentioned above has changed their name and got some tincture presses in. I don't know if they would work for oil presses, but it's kind of a neat idea, using the jack...

here is a link

https://www.strictlymedicinalseeds.com/product.asp?specific=680

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Peter Ellis

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Stunned by the price on that bottle jack press. Have a look at Northern Tools to understand why I am stunned.

Sarah Joubert

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I'm so glas this thread has been revived! I remember looking at it and researching the various models on the market but I must have left off before the bottle jack press was added. I would love someone to come up with an easy DIY design for a mechanical multitool. I don't want shelves of gadgets standing around doing nothing for 90% of the time and representing a considerable investment too. Wouldn't it be cool if someone could develop something that could press oil, cheese, make sausage, juice and maybe a few other things I can't think of right now. Even if you needed a two step processing for some stuff- like using a meat grinder to mill fruit, nuts etc before pressing. And that's another thing, what about something that can mill grains as well as mince meat, fruit etc? Maybe a simple changing of blades for stones or something-I'm not very good with the practicalities! I understand this wouldn't necessarily work for someone who is looking for a medium sized apparatus but I think there are a lot of folk who would love to go self sufficient but use less time/energy/investment.

Changing one thing, no matter how tiny, is still change

Sarah Joubert

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While looking at the youtube video of Dave's wind turbine I clicked on another link at the end showing someone using a corona hand mill to grind up sunflower and then squeeze through muslin. Mill is pretty cool and does a really nice job of releasing the oil. I recon you could press that better using a home made jack press if you had the know how to cobble one together. Unfortunately, I can't get a corona in the UK! I think an inexpensive compromise and you could use the mill for flours still and the jack, well as a jack!

Changing one thing, no matter how tiny, is still change

Bethany Dutch

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I did a pretty detailed review on the Piteba back in 2010 - http://uncledutchfarms.com/2010/01/piteba-oil-expeller-making-hand-pressed-pumpkin-seed-and-sunflower-oil/

I did pumpkin seed and sunflower seed oil.

I ended up using shelled pumpkin seeds (pepitas) from the store bulk bin. I also tried unshelled sunflower seeds but I didn't have the right kind, and so then I did shelled and the sunflower oil was incredible.

I also tried flax but it didn't quite work. I emailed with the maker and he suggested adding a bit of water to the flax because the shells can be so hard they make it impossible to press the seeds by hand, but I never had a chance to try it out.

Life has gone through some changes, and I was never able to test it on anything homegrown but this year I finally have a big enough garden where I can put in a decent number of oilseed pumpkins so I'll probably do a new review when I'm pressing those sometime next winter. I'm also going to grow some of the oilseed sunflowers to try out but my plan is to grow lots of pumpkin seeds. I had made a facial oil from it last time and it was fantastic, I was not happy when I ran out and I look forward to having some homegrown.

I can also grow hazel here and so I will probably eventually try that also.

OH and for those of you in tropical climates - I was also able to press pieces of dried coconut, I bought one for the purpose. Cut it into chunks and let it dry thoroughly, and then pressed it. Probably not the most efficient way to press coconut but it still worked.

I will agree that the Piteba is perhaps a little small for a homestead size. Having said that, I think if someone was ingenious enough to rig it up to a bike or something, and build a larger funnel cone for it, that would make a big difference production wise. The machine itself I think would have no problem, you'd just have to have a more efficient energy source than hand cranking for hours at a time, and of course, more seeds going in so you don't have to refill so often, and you'd have to build some funnel or something for the finished oil to go into a bigger container than what would fit under the press.

Just me and my kids, off griddin' it - follow along our shenanigans at our YouTube Uncle Dutch Farms.

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If you don't want the expense of a separate unit for pressing oil but you have a flour mill, meat/sausage grinder. or an auger type juicer you can process oil seeds into an oil past and then press the oil out using a cloth bag. An arbor can be built from bed frame angle iron to hold a small bottle jack. The screw adjustment for the jack can be clamped between the top pair of angle irons so that the bottom of the jack is pressing down on the oil past a ring and plunger could be used for more control.

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Kevin Mace

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posted 9 years ago

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Great thread! Essential oils multi-level businesses are growing like crazy but they are waaaaay over priced.
Are they really worth the high price like they claim? And can you really make essential oils at home with some device?
What's the difference between essential oils and oils?
Thanks.

David Livingston

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Essential oils are a different kettle of fish . Oil for eating/ fuel come from seeds usually with a high natural oil content usually over 30 % and usually got out at least at first by pressing
Essential oils come from plants that contain less than 5% oil ( usually ) and are extracted by distillation .
That's why they cost so much . You need over ten times as much raw material plus heat energy plus lots more kit .

David

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john mcginnis

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$800! for that?

$200 -- Harbor Freight floor press -- http://www.harborfreight.com/20-ton-shop-press-32879.html
$6 -- Bain Marie Pot 1.25qt pot -- https://www.stylesandstainless.com/proddetail.asp?prod=FP01-01L
$5 -- Muslin 1yrd -- Walmart
$10 -- Wood turned Oak follower block -- Your local tech HS, Add price of a pizza if your wish.
$0 -- A hole in pot -- priceless.

The other $579 USD I will fold in half and double my money if you please.

This is a permaculture site not a road to poverty.

Michael Kalbow

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john mcginnis wrote:$800! for that?

$200 -- Harbor Freight floor press -- http://www.harborfreight.com/20-ton-shop-press-32879.html
$6 -- Bain Marie Pot 1.25qt pot -- https://www.stylesandstainless.com/proddetail.asp?prod=FP01-01L
$5 -- Muslin 1yrd -- Walmart
$10 -- Wood turned Oak follower block -- Your local tech HS, Add price of a pizza if your wish.
$0 -- A hole in pot -- priceless.

The other $579 USD I will fold in half and double my money if you please.

This is a permaculture site not a road to poverty.

Perhaps I'm dense, but I have no idea what you are saying... I can follow the links you listed, but what is an Oak follower block an what do I do with it? Why would I need a hole in a pot?

Hans Quistorff

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Hans Quistorff wrote:If you don't want the expense of a separate unit for pressing oil but you have a flour mill, meat/sausage grinder. or an auger type juicer you can process oil seeds into an oil paste and then press the oil out using a cloth bag. An arbor can be built from bed frame angle iron to hold a small bottle jack. The screw adjustment for the jack can be clamped between the top pair of angle irons so that the bottom of the jack is pressing down on the oil paste a ring and plunger could be used for more control.

Image of what the conversation was about. Possible to make one inexpensively.

Hans Albert Quistorff, LMT projects on permies Hans Massage Qberry Farm magnet therapy gmail hquistorff

john mcginnis

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Michael Kalbow wrote:

john mcginnis wrote:$800! for that?

$200 -- Harbor Freight floor press -- http://www.harborfreight.com/20-ton-shop-press-32879.html
$6 -- Bain Marie Pot 1.25qt pot -- https://www.stylesandstainless.com/proddetail.asp?prod=FP01-01L
$5 -- Muslin 1yrd -- Walmart
$10 -- Wood turned Oak follower block -- Your local tech HS, Add price of a pizza if your wish.
$0 -- A hole in pot -- priceless.

The other $579 USD I will fold in half and double my money if you please.

This is a permaculture site not a road to poverty.

Perhaps I'm dense, but I have no idea what you are saying... I can follow the links you listed, but what is an Oak follower block an what do I do with it? Why would I need a hole in a pot?

The Oak follower block is a piece of wood turn to slightly smaller than the inside dimensions of the pot. Preferably with the end grain following the same direction as the direction of force. The hole in the post is to let the oil out. You will note that there is a tube coming out of the pot that is demonstrated by the vendor, hence a hole in the pot.

The Oak block, placed inside the pot, becomes the piston assembly that crushes the nut that produces the oil. The hole obviously is to permit the oil to drain out of the pot. The muslin contains the nut, and its pieces during the pressing.

The idea is permaculture 101, stacking functions. In this case I press oils one day, press out bearings from honda civics the next. All done on the same floor press. Saved serious money in the bargain.

wayne fajkus

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The piteba doesn't list pecans. This thread has me interested. Looks like expelling oil needs two things to happen. Compress the nuts, but use heat so it flows better. Plenty of 100 degree days where I live.

I've been buying pecan oil and find it superior to olive oil. Seems to not smoke as easy at hi tempetatures. Plenty of native pecans around. Getting a 5 gallon bucket of them is easy.

If it took 2 hours to get a 1/4 cup, it would be worthwhile. Especially if it's laid back time (like cream in a mason jar to make butter). Do it while I'm watching tv.

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Michael Kalbow

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posted 9 years ago

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Yea, I was wondering about Pecans also. What about Almonds? I'm assuming that if it can hold a walnut it would handle pecans or almonds.

Ed Mayhew

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posted 8 years ago

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I would be willing to make a hardware store screw press, with instructions and photos, were enough people to be interested.

Hi I'm ed by the way

Mike Haasl

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posted 8 years ago

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That bottle jack unit looks suspiciously like a small cider press. How about designing it so that you can add that as a stacked function. Oil from hazelnuts one day, cider from apples the next, honda civic wheel bearing after that

Oh, and having the jack under the food is probably a good feature in case it leaks a drop of hydraulic fluid.

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Su Ba

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I use a piteba for processing macadamia nuts into a nice cooking oil. Works just fine. Easy to set up, use, and clean up afterward. I put the oil into pint mason jars and store in the freezer. The jar that's in use is stored in the frig.

I used to set up the piteba at the farmers market and press nuts. It drew a crowd in. I'd even got bystanders wanting to work the press, so I took advantage of the free labor. It freed me up to tend to other customers, plus invariably the person bought the oil that they pressed, or someone else who was watching them did. I'm not doing the market right now, but plan to return because it was a decent source of income for the homestead. At least the macnut oil was a surefire sale.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Jason Padvorac

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Here are some resources I've found...

First, there is a whole book available as a free PDF about small scale oil production: Small Scale Vegetable Oil Extraction. It is also available in html form here: http://www.appropedia.org/Original:Small_Scale_Vegetable_Oil_Extraction

Back in the 80s, Carl Bielenberg designed an appropriate-tech oilpress for deployment in Africa:

It can produce about 3 liters of oil an hour, from 10kg of an oilseed crop. The oil extraction efficiency is not as high as an industrial press, but it looks inexpensive to construct. It also ought to be a lot less work to process homestead-scale oil with than a hand-cranked unit of some kind. There is a lengthy transcript of a conference or meeting discussion this press available here: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABT869.pdf. I've also attached a copy of the pdf in case that page goes dead.

There are two books or documents published about this press - a set of engineering drawings, and a book about maintenance and operation. Here are links to the Amazon pages that have info about authors/publishers/dates, in case anyone wants to track them down:
https://www.amazon.com/Bielenberg-oilpress-information-operation-maintenance/dp/B000734TTI
https://www.amazon.com/Bielenberg-oilpress-Engineering-drawing-set/dp/B000734TT8

A group called KickStart (not Kickstarter, mind) has made the design more ergonomic / efficient. I can't find plans or anything, but I've attached a few pictures.

oil-press-2.jpg

oil-press-banner.jpg

Filename: bielenberg-oil-press.pdf

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Permaculture market farming, plant breeding and perennial grains: http://jasonpadvorac.com

Jason Padvorac

Posts: 106

Location: Northeast of Seattle, zone 8: temperate with rainy winters and dry summers.

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posted 8 years ago

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After some more research, there may be more appropriate ways to get oil on a homestead scale than building a press. There are a couple processes that can get decent quantities of oil with just regular kitchen supplies, no high pressure or fancy machines needed.

The first, and apparently most common in traditional indigenous cultures, was to pound or grind the oilseeds, then boil for 30-40 minutes. This would cause the oil to float to the top of the water, after which it was skimmed off, and heated a while longer to ensure that there was no water remaining in it. I'd rather have my oil processed cool, though.

The second method is to grind the oilseeds, add about 10% water, then kneed them by hand. After a while, the mixture darkens and an emulsion starts to seep out of the mixture, at which point it can be squeezed by hand. For homestead production, I'd imagine kneeding in a bucket, and then wrapping the meal in muslin and twisting to tighten it and squeeze out the oil. Or use some a potato ricer with muslin, or just dump in warm water and let the oil rise to the surface for skimming.

In Ghana, groundnuts are processed in this way, and the resulting meal is fried in oil and eaten as a popular snack. I really, really like the idea of maintaining the resulting meal cake as an edible, even delicious human food! More info at this link: Small Scale Vegetable Oil Extraction, Chapter 4, Groundnuts.

Here are a couple videos of the kneeding method:

I suspect that if the second method was used, it would also be necessary to dry the oil with heat if it wasn't going to be used immediately.

Permaculture market farming, plant breeding and perennial grains: http://jasonpadvorac.com

Joy Oasis

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posted 8 years ago

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It looks like kneading would produce very little oil for the time involved plus it uses water, which can cause spoilage issues.

Of course, I found a very beautiful couch. Definitely. And this tiny ad:

Free Seed Starting ebook!

https://permies.com/t/274152/Orta-Guide-Seed-Starting-Free