Dutch Wooden Cheese Press - Cheese Making Kit (Wooden Cheese Press with Lever and 2 Cheese Molds 1.2L)-Cheese Press for Home Cheese Making pressure up to 200 lbs

This press is the best value I could find. I've only used it with a gallon of water, 8.33# at the outermost notch on the lever, and it was perfectly solid and stable. The finish and construction are very good.

We have used this press for over a year, and it has performed wonderfully. Growing up, my mother used the standard kind, and we always had to have a pile of bricks in the kitchen for her to stack on top of the press to get the proper weight. In this one, the lever amplifies the force, so we get enough weight with just a gallon jug full of water.We have had a few issues with the design.1. It's long and a little unweildy. We end up putting it over the kitchen sink, but that makes washing dishes hard while the cheese is pressing.2. There's no whey collection system. The whey seeps out of the pressing mechanism onto a flat plywood base. From there it goes wherever it can. We end up propping up the back on a wooden spoon so the whey runs forward into the sink.3. That wooden base I mentioned in issue 2. There have been no problems yet, but I'm sure liquid soaking into plywood over time will eventually affect the longevity of the device.So it could be a little better, but as I said above, it has performed perfectly to date with a few tweaks to our usage.

They did not include any instructions of any kind!!!!!I am above average person on assembling items. of this type, and this is not a horrible product to visualize, but there were absolutely no instructions for assembly of any kind! I had to assemble the press based on the photograph on the Amazon Listing. And there was at least one design change since the photo was taken! Shame on you!I would strongly recommend that anyone purchasing this device archive the listing as a pdf and download the two videos as this is the only instructions you get. After struggling to assemble mine without instructions, I discoverd that there is an instruction video on the Amazon listing. It would have been nice to have an instruction card included telling me this!Once again, with no instructions included, finding the ratios for the lever is a bit challenging. As I read it from the Amazon listing, the press exerts 6 lbs of pressure by itself. You then hang a weight from the arm. If I want 50 lbs of pressure on my cheese, I need to add 44 lbs of weight. Using Position 7 of the arm, I have a ratio of 8.2 meaning I need to add 5.2 lbs of weight to the arm. I am using a (new) paint can as my weight vessel or about 80 oz of water (a tad more than 2 qts). This is ignoring the tare of the bucket.The finish is not very thick, and I fear is not good enough to allow proper cleaning after use.Finally, the drainage of the whey is not well though out at all. They include a wooden diverter (not good for cleaning), and a plastic tub. The wooden diverter sits on the end grain of the sides of the press so it is not well supported. The plastic tub is too high to catch the runoff from the diverter. This is really bad design.

Arrived on time and in tact, as advertised. Was easy to assemble after a good amount of research I was able to figure out just how to use the weight stages (this was the one thing that could have been better explained and maybe a graph that showed the # of station equaled how many pounds for pressed weight), The two cheese forms and followers work quite well even to press. Hard cheese as well as soft or fresh farmer's cheese,

I did not want to leave a review until I used the heck out of it. And I have.. I’m happy overall with the cheese press. Just know that if you want to use really heavy weights the bottom board will bend and it does affect your pressure on the cheese. But overall I am really happy with this.

It would take too many pics to explain all of this...Box was not taped and hardware loose--missing 2 screws from package with ripped/open bottom of plastic bag and box not taped enough and they could have easily fallen out (1/2" gaps due to flimsy carboard). Legs that extend out were cut on wrong side, so to use it ,the cross leg would be on top versus bottom to hold in place. Missing 2 essential screws and difficult to get screws all the way in because they are soft/strip very easily. Pilot holes did not match or were too close to opening to make any support. Directions very poor and so small you need a magnifying glass! Can't imagine if it would work at all, because I couldn't finish putting it together, but it is so small and thinly laminated, that I would not trust it be very long lived.

This cheese press is designed so awkward. My advise is spend a little extra and get the one from Gavin cheese makers store. This one you can’t tell what weight your using, the drain isn’t built in and drains back and front. It’s built too long and gets off balance if you put weight on it.

I was happy with the quality of wood. Love that it had linseed oil finish on wood. First cheese I made was cheddar with it. To make it easy for me to clean up I placed a plastic square bowl on the bottom to catch the liquid. Then placed my cheese molds inside the plastic bowl. I used turkey baster to remove liquid. No mess and can be used multiple times. Received it fast. It is just beautiful to look at.