Templeton-Stade honey/wax press uploaded to sketchup warehouse

[A. S. Templeton]

Since Warré beeks do not reuse comb, an efficient method for pressing honey and rendering wax must be found. Also many honey users disdain the abused honey flung from capped comb by centrifugal extractors. One solution to these issues employs the slow manual press known as the Stade (shtah-deh) press used since the skep era in Germany. If you go to youtube you can find some 30+-year old documentaries on heather honey beeking at the Klindworth apiary in the Saxony region of Germany. Stades are used for pressing the thick heather honey, and in hot-rendering wax.

For those wishing to buy such a press, the simple answer is that you can't. But for the aid of DIYers I have uploaded to the sketchup warehouse a model of an updated Stade called the Templeton-Stade press, reflecting some design updates. The design works well and I release it to the beekeeping public for the betterment of the community.

Go to "Templeton-Stade Honey & Wax Press" (http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehou...bf0eea2b154a39) to access the model. I believe the free version of sketchup can be used to view it.

The warehouse notes I added got format-mangled courtesy of google, but they're pasted below:

-- The press is intended to be used at an incline, i.e. back (crank) end elevated to allow natural drainage of honey & wax/water out front.
-- A sturdy pressing sack holding honey comb must be used.
-- A heavy grade of fine poly/cotton/linen fabric must be used for hot-water rendering of wax.
-- Keeping the pressing room warm (35C/95°F) is essential to keep honey flowing.
-- A bulldog/A-frame 1000-lbf. jack is used, disassembled, stripped, relubed with food-safe beeswax/mineral-oil (and kept coated externally with same).
-- It is inadvisable to use wood glues or epoxies in construction. All glues will fail during washing-up or hot-water application.
-- Food-grade stainless hardware only! Types 18/8 or 316 advisable. Zinc-plated or mild steel will corrode and taint your honey.
-- Prototype built of red oak and waterproof marine-grade plywood. Built like a brick sh!thouse and weighs a ton, but should hold up under use and not self-destruct.
-- Food-grade plastic mesh on the piston and platen grid facings may be beneficially used.

Refer to youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnu0UGxnJWA to see the press in action.

Good luck and happy pressing!

Alex Templeton

[Cacklewack]

Alex,

This is awesome! Thank you so much for doing this!

Best,
Matt

[woodguyrob]

Nice...I already spend too much time making bee stuff...and now I'll want to give this a go too, although for my skill level it'll be a long project!
Thanks for posting it.

Rob

[Zonker]

Alex

You're officially my hero. I need this press for a dozen different things. Way too cool

[Zonker]

Got the google sketch up and am turning it into plans. I'm going to make a small one first. I think it will be perfect for fruit as well as honey and wax. I'll post the plans once there done.

Also ... there is an amazing documentary on traditional German skep bee keeping. (http://youtu.be/upbONroWPic) They have a completely different approach. Stayed up late to watch the whole thing. It shows "the master bee keeper and his apprentices" using the stade press. One with a huge handle for pressing wax.

and ... does anyone know where some discussion/video of making a stade press is on the web? There are some tricky parts of the press I'd like to discuss with someone who has made one.

[odfrank]

[QUOTE= Also many honey users disdain the abused honey flung from capped comb by centrifugal extractors.Alex Templeton[/QUOTE]

I have been selling honey for 41+ years and all this time I have not had one customer nor myself, sophisticated enough to realize my abused, flung honey is inferior. Pressing is so much gentler and less abusive than flinging, for sure.

[A. S. Templeton]

... does anyone know where some discussion/video of making a stade press is on the web? There are some tricky parts of the press I'd like to discuss with someone who has made one.

Well, I'm the only one I've ever heard of who actually built one, hence my initial posting. Were there any questions you had about its manufacture? Basic woodworking and power tools skills are kinda the starting point here, but this forum seems as good a place as any for press-related topics. So list yer tricky parts and let's proceed...

/AST

[A. S. Templeton]

BTW I have uploaded a flyover of the Sketchup model. This might answer some questions (or give rise to more ).

See it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MnzWew5Awk

/AST

[Zonker]

I'm a engineer/cadd guy so I've dissected your drawing with great interest. I'm wondering was the screw drive fabricated or can you buy it somewhere?

Also is all the lumber 1" x material? It looks like you have some thin layers on the drive box.

and what is the plastic glide bushing made of?

[A. S. Templeton]

I'm a engineer/cadd guy so I've dissected your drawing with great interest. I'm wondering was the screw drive fabricated or can you buy it somewhere?... Also is all the lumber 1" x material? It looks like you have some thin layers on the drive box... and what is the plastic glide bushing made of?

If you're using sketchup, one can examine the Definition Name field of the Entity Info dialog for clues as you drill down into hierarchical components. Most parts have material descriptors.

No, most wood is not 1" except nominally. Much use is made of net 7/8" red maple and 5/8" marine ply. A lot of 1/2" maple facing was laid down for food-safe surfacing.

For the piston, base and side sliding members use 1/4" FDA HDPE for friction management. HDPE is also used for the pentagonal drip taper after the frontmost honey diverter, which shapes the honey flow into a narrow stream.

The side and platen grid assemblies interlock and are removable for cleaning. The piston assembly as-built featured HDPE skids instead of the solid underside as shown. I used more maple and less plastic than originally designed. Stainless screws and nails.

There is no glide bushing: metal does not slide over wood or anything during use. The entity "Jack Subassembly No Handle" again is a half-ton A-frame RV jack; I did not bother drafting the crank. Cheap and mass-produced, find at any RV supply. The real jack is entirely of mild steel, with a long-life acme screw fully enclosed in the inner sleeve. I had to completely disassemble, degrease, and paint-strip the jack. After a water-acetone wash, re-lube with 1:1 beeswax:mineral-oil, reassemble, and mount as shown. Keep that steel greased with more of the same lube to prevent rust. NB the piston frame acts to gravity-catch any metal bits that might fall from the jack pivot-foot during use.

The nested-sleeve jack is IMO an advantage over the old Stade predecessor: the screw is entirely enclosed and so is safer and keeps cleaner. The other added feature is side grids to allow faster egress of honey from the pressing sack. Stacked/crossed grids is new too. The piston may be detached from the jack by simply pulling up the pin joining the two. Critically, the press is sized to make it impossible to blow out the platen; the jack stops just so, leaving about 1/4" between piston and platen faces.

Improvements would be adding a large-radius handwheel crank for more-rapid advancement/retreat of the piston (not for higher pressures--too easy to rupture pressing sacks!); adding flow channels to stop honey backing up the inside during too-rapid pressing; for the lazy, moving to an electric jack; adding a few screws here & there and totally avoiding epoxies; tightening the pitch on the grids so additional mesh facing is not needed; a little extra height on the diverters to stop overflow. Live and learn.

Food-grade stainless on all hardware; yes, =$$ so deal. Pure tin plate over mild steel might work short-term, but cheap-o zinc or chromate coatings would be a bad idea.

All fer now.

/AST

[Zonker]

Been checking out the RV jacks. They seem pretty pricey (roughly $300 per pair) I'm thinking about just using threaded rod.

Wondering about why the box is so long. If the sliding box only travels one foot why make the box longer than 2 feet?

Also, where on earth did you find the plans for the old fashion press? Did it use wooden press screws?

[A. S. Templeton]

Been checking out the RV jacks. They seem pretty pricey (roughly $300 per pair) I'm thinking about just using threaded rod. ... Wondering about why the box is so long. If the sliding box only travels one foot why make the box longer than 2 feet? ...
Also, where on earth did you find the plans for the old fashion press? Did it use wooden press screws?

$300 per pair seems excessive. You can buy a 1000 lb. A-frame jack for <$30.

I don't recommend standard threaded rod or bolt, unless it's a good grade steel with acme threads.

I have no real machining capabilities, otherwise I'd have made my own custom jack, moving the mounting plate and cutting off half the drive. Buying and repurposing an off-the-shelf jack with no mods seemed like a good compromise for a one-off prototype. Actually the extra length comes in handy in cleaning and removing the piston.

Nope, no plans. Go to youtube and look for documentary films from the 1970s/1980s on heathland or heather beekeeping at the Klindworth apiary in Germany. The Stade presses are shown in use in the videos, and with a little eyeballing one could clone what they used.

Wooden screws might work for ornamental nutcrackers. For durable presses, not likely.