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All parts of this page are ©2007 By Charles L. Church

Preliminary Comments:

This page needs a little more information, and especially better pictures. When I get all the products put up on the new site here, I will have more time to perfect pages like this, so as to render them more useful. In the mean time I trust it will yet be a substantial help to those investigating the manufacture of their own tincture. Charles

Making a Small Tincture Press

We will here cover two plans for a small tincture press, both similar in method, differing only in construction.

Method #1
This Method requires no welding or special tools of any kind, and all the supplies can be purchased from typical vendors. I intend to provide pictures of this soon, but for now a verbal description will have to suffice. First, buy a large C-Clamp at a hardware store. A Taiwan made one should cost you anywhere from 6.00 to 10.00. Next buy a stainless steel canister (from the resturaunt supply store) that will fit between the jaws of the C-Clamp. Buy the C-Clamp first, and take it with you to the resturaunt supply store to make sure the canister will fit. Next get any peice of material, steel, plastic, whatever, that will support the base of the canister, as it sets upon the lower C-Clamp jaw, so that the canister won't cave in when you begin to clamp down on your tincture bag inside the canister. Next you will need a round disk, which will just fit inside the mouth of the canister, and may freely travel down the throat of the canister. A plumber's "flange" works well for this. (the flat metal device with the threaded whole in the middle, that you often see holding up the shower curtain rod) Lastly, you will need to make a cloth bag just big enough to fit inside the canister, yet long enough to fold over when full.
To make tincture, you simply put the bag into the canister, and pour your tincture mix into the little bag, fold the top of the bag over, and place the disk on top of the bag, and then put the canister in the C-Clamp with the supporting plate of material underneath, and begin to screw the C-Clamp down. This will press the disk down on the bag. When it is good and tight, then you turn the whole thing over, spilling the tincture into a bowl, and then continuing to screw the C-Clamp down until you can turn it no further, allowing the tincture to pour into the bowl. When you can turn it no further, just let it sit there for a while dripping, before you remove it, and pour in some more.
Please keep in mind that the canister size is important. The larger the square inches of its base, the less pressure you will be applying to the herbs. A larger canister will be able to do a larger batch of tincture, but it will also produce a slightly smaller yield, because it will receive less psi.... pounds per square inch. By way of illustration, if a 200 lb. man stepped on your foot with his boots it would be painful, but if a 100 lb. woman stepped on your foot with "high heels" it would be excruciating, because she would be applying more psi than the man. Each person will have to decide which is most important to them.

Method #2

Buy a piece of 12 in square steel tubing, having the steel yard cut you about a 6-8 in piece of it. Make sure you get a good wall thickness.... like 1/4 inch if possible.  Drill a whole in the top, exactly in the middle. Buy a large C-Clamp per above, but cut off the screw device, both male and female parts, discarding the "C". Put the threaded bolt through the whole you drilled in the tubing, and then weld the female part onto the tubing, making sure that your alignment is fully perpendicular. This method is better, only because it provides no weak open side, such as is inherent in the C-Clamp idea. If you have a saw, or can get them to do it at the steel yard for you, shave off the upper corner on one side at least, so as the tincture may be more easily poured out. The method for pressing would be identical to that described above.

We used to sell the Mathre press, but don't now, for a combination of reasons. However, the press they make is much like  that I have just described, and to help you visualize it, I provide you with a picture  of Mathre's press here:

You will notice that it has three peices of "channel" steel in its construction, and four peices of  1 inch solid steel bar. Were I to build mine over again, I would not use the 12 in. channel, as seen in the image, nor would I make it so very long from side to side. I would make it about 14 inches long, using about 8 inch channel, i.e., 8 inches deep. The upper piece of channel I would also turn upside down so as to avoid having to weld the plate on the bottom to provide a flat pressing surface for the tincture pan. Other than these changes, its construction it is rather self explanitory by reason of the image.... as sorry as that image is. ;)

Cut three equal lengths of 8 in channel. Cut 1 in. holes in the four corners of all three of them, being careful to make them identically placed. Run the rods through all three pieces. You may be able to notice from the left image that I also added some pipe for guides for the middle piece of channel, though this is not wholly necessary. This middle piece should also have the holes cut larger, as it has to slide easily up an down on the bars, and does not have to be welded to it. If you elect to add these guides, these should be added at this time. Next, weld your corners down, being careful to keep it square. It will be allot easier to do it right the first time, than to go back and try to fix it. Another thing I would likely do differently is to weld a nut on the underside of the top, and the top side of the bottom pieces of channel, welding it to the bar, and then to the channel, thus giving you a very solid back to weld against when you weld up the other side of the bar to the channel. If you choose to do this, you will have to add them appropriately before you begin welding the corner bars.Next weld your pipe guides on if you chose to use them. Next drill holes diagonally inside the corner bars, as shown in the image on the right, and install the eyelets and springs as shown. Next install your jack. I chose to weld the top part of the jack to the middle piece of channel, but that is up to the individual.

 The Pans

In the image below you will see more closely how I have provided for pressing pans in my outfit. This is admitedly "Gerry-Rigged".... works great, however, and has made a bunch of great tincture. If you wish to get pans more institutional in appreance that is up to you... no problem. Or you can go to a garage sale and get two stainless steel pans that will fit into eachother, as seen in the image. Then, if you know how to weld stainless steel, you can weld the spout on, as seen, and use a hose clamp to attach the exit hose for the tincture to drain through. I had heard that stainless was difficult to weld, and so I had a welding shop do my spout for me. They took stainless bar, drilled out the middle, and welded it on for a spout. It only cost 10.00 or so.

The methodology is to make a cloth bag out of STRONG material, (if it's died material bleach it well first), and then pour in your tincture mix, and fold over the top. Then put the upper pan on top and begin pressing. Be sure to have the exit hose turned up when you first pour in the tincture, because it will being to come out right away. To be much more efficient, you may take a stainless plate and put spacers in the bottom of your lower pan, and weld the plate in, so that the tincture can freely flow downward and out the spout. I just cram a spoon down in front of the inside spout opening, so that the bag does not squish into it, thus blocking the exit of the tincture. High, tech stuff, right? The theory behind the tincture pans is obviously open to modification. You could go and buy any type of stainless steel pans to accomplish this, or, as some have done, make a round disk that cranks down into the lower pan, and the press up against that. Just use your imagination, and do the best you can.

IMPORTANT: It is extremely important that you know in advance of welding up your press exactly what size your pans are going to be, and the travel distance of your bottle jack, as you must calculate the height of the press by these measurements. Buy them FIRST,and THEN draw up the exact measurements for your press. The necessity of this cannot be overemphasized. If you do it wrong, however, don't despair.... you just have to fit your pans to your press, rather than the press to the pans, which, while it is more difficult, is still possible.

The last method to be discussed is that of buying a press ready made, as there are lots of them out there, and then simply making your own pans, per the description above. The cheapest of these that I have found is that pictured to the left. It is from harbor freight, at harborfreight.com . The one pictured costs a very low 119.99. Had I to do all over again, this would be an attractive option, considering I spent about 50.00 on the bottle jack alone. And one nice thing about this outfit is that it has an adjustable base, so that it will accomodate any kind of pans you have made. The fact is that there are LOTS of these presses out there which can be modified for the purpose of making tinctures. The K & K juicer press might be an option for some. It costs around 300 plus dollars though, but already has the pans, spout etc., I believe. Just do an internet search for K & K Juicers. The only place I know that has it is uncledons.com, though we may carry it soon. To the right is the image of the K & K. Once you have the general idea of how to press tinctures, the possibilities are endless. It's necessary to point out that the K&K press has a HUGE base, and therefore a greatly reduced psi, as described above.

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