Hand Press (future)
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Hand Press (future) |
Presses For Extracting Honey From Honeycomb |
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Honey can be extracted from honeycomb that is packed in a filter cloth and squeezed under high pressure by means of a screw mechanism or other means of generating a large thrust.
Many different methods can be devised to achieve this by simple means and small or large scales as may be appropriate to the amount of honey that is to be extracted in this fashion.
Honey can be extracted by this method for two main reasons, as a means of dealing with thixotropic honeys like those derived from heather nectar, or any type of honey that is being extracted on a small scale.
The large scale requires a large and massively strong press, such as the example at Buckfast Abbey, where they mainly produce heather honey from nectar gathered on Dartmoor. The picture below was taken from an original photograph by Adam Leitch.
The principle of this pressing through a cloth can be incorporated at a smaller scale by using a wine press or by constructing a heavy duty frame and applying pressure by means of a car jack.
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The two types shown here, both have central threaded pillars, in the case of the white one this thread is wound down through a nut that is welded to the frame, but in the case of the red one the thread is fixed and the pressure is applied by winding a nut down it using a ratchet mechanism, the thrust being transferred by a tube around the lower part of the thread. |
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The press depicted in the next set of photos was made by Ben Harden for a demonstration that he gave at the Apimondia conference of 2005, the photos themselves were taken by Ettamarie Peterson.
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Written... 05 May and 07 June 2006,
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This sort of press depends on a sturdy frame and uses a car jack to apply the pressure to wooden plates that are placed either side of a straining cloth bag that contains the fragments of comb.
