We have a bunch of apple trees in the yard, and we press most of it into juice. On a good year, we take the apples to be pressed in a commercial place, as it would be insane to try and do it by hand at home. On a bad year, however, we only get a small amount of apples, so we press them at home.
Before pressing, the apples need to be crushed into a pulp. To this end, we have this:
A commercially available apple crusher. A fine piece of reasonably well made gear, but it’s very annoying to use. It needs to be placed on top of a couple of chairs or something, so a container can be placed below. Turning the crank wants to move the whole device instead of just the mechanism, so the crusher needs to be fastened to the chairs somehow, and it all just ends up being wobbly.
To solve the problems, I made this:
A couple of old bicycles, a bunch of scrap steel, and an evening or two of welding. Now the crusher stays put, and it’s much more confortable to turn the crank by pedaling, while comfortably seated.