The apple press restoration made some progress lately. Thanks to Miguel’s “wife” I was able to get some stock of stainless steel for making my knives. Miguel doesn’t have a wife, it’s a joke between he and I.
I used the old knives for dimensions and used a .250″ end mill to cut the slots you see on the three knives on the left. It’s a very simply machining operation, and it only burned up one end mill on the stainless. Luckily I had a spare.
After cutting the slots, it was time to cut the relief for the knives. The knife is spinning in an arc when the macerator is running, so the teeth have to have relief on the back side so they don’t drag on the apples. Little things like this are important, but more so when you are the power source for the machine. An electric motor might heat up a bit, you’ll quickly tire and give up if a hand powered machine isn’t running correct. Coincidentally, this was the first time I’ve had to nod the head on the mill. It was neat to get out of the normal square and 90 degree setup and see more of what the mill can do.
Here is a closer view of the knives being cut for relief.