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Well I can share a couple tips... Since hydraulics are needed to drive the cylinder you need a pump. Piston pumps hold their pressure when the input shaft is no longer turning... most other pump types suffer from "blow back" or pressure loss, so they are not suitable. I found a Williams brand pump which included a reservoir for the fluid, pump, and valve all in one unit. Check out Williams for your pump. Cylinders are cheap... got an import 4" for this press. I used plywood and stud construction until I got the bike and pump working good then welded up dimensional steel for the final version. Pretty easy for a novice welder and lots of fun (use a MIG welder for this). Make sure your table leaves more then enough room for the pressing tubs. Two tubs work out will since you can grind while running up the press at the same time My grinder works great but I'm always interested in new ideas (non-electric... no garbage disposals). I went out and purchased a super heavy stainless solid cylinder at a scrap metal shop. I played with the blade size and the shape of the hopper until it worked well. I have other ideas that I think would be fun to try too. Stainless is expensive and hard to machine... use aluminum if you decide to go a similar route . You know the grinder that comes with the happy valley press works really well too, you may consider adapting that grinder to your press to save time. I bought happy valley pressing bag and tubs... You will find you need to join the shaft from the grinder to the input shaft on the pump. Use a LoveJoy brand torque coupler for this... its exactly what you need. I used a one piece crank shaft (google "ashtabula") buy extra bearings. You can google the dimensions required for that crank and order steel tubing on line for the assembly. The crank is kid sized, I wish I had full sized cranks but they seem to work fine in general. I did a moment of inertia study for the press for the frame and found that 1.5" x 3" x 1/8th" steel for the side rails and 3" x 3" x 1/8" for the top rails is more then strong enough for 20,000 pounds. I used an additional pressure plate to spread the load from the pump to the top rail out a bit... That frame does not deflect perceptible at all during a press. Have hydraulic hoses made up for you and use quick disconnect fittings to attach to the pump. The cylinder and pump are way to heave to have connected together during transport. Food grade hydraulic fluid of course :)

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Absolutely, Scratting the apples into a proper mash is the key, my 'Fruit Shark' electric scratter will yield when pressed 50% more juice than my 'Vigo classic mill' No matter how strong your press is, scratting is the critical step, however the manual mill is more sexy looking and more educational for children, who can see and interact with the moving parts.

I just used 5" stainless bar stock... knives were 1/8th inch stainless sheet metal... cut 8 grooves 3/4 inch deep evenly spread around the cylinder... play with the tooth pattern (I alternate between 2 patterns)... and no, I didn't use solid works otherwise I would be happy to share, just a sketch.

Nice :) I will comment however. For us speed is important. Each year we process about 2000 pounds of apples and we have lots of folks to involve in the process. 4 or so hours is about the max time span to keep people interested. Quartered apples just blow through the grinder so thats why we do it.

+moekanz Yes it is! The key is to use a "Piston Pump", the unit you can see on the press is typically used as a dump truck bed lifter. Use a torque coupler (Lovejoy makes these) between the grinder and the pump. The force you can generate using only peddle power is remarkable.

Wow. that is badass. May have to make me one of these. thanks for the info!

+jimboStar We do have some sketches but no formal plans since we had to try a few approaches to get the grinder working right. I'm happy to share dimensions if you wish (for the head).