DIY cake press for storage

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I had another liner episode. I removed all the tobacco and pounded the liner back into the outer tube. One more experiment with the noodle press and I go back to the tuna cans. I put about three ounces of tobacco in a zip lock bag, rolled it loosely and stuffed it into the noodle press. I have cranked the press and will wait a few days before removing the bag of tobacco. The issue with the liner is that any moisture in the tobacco wants to seal to the sides of the inner liner. As you try to remove the roll of compressed tobacco, because it's stuck to the liner, the liner comes out with the tobacco locked inside.
With clamps and the tuna can, you can easily line the inner bottom and sides with a 4-cup coffee filter. Removal is simple.
 
Today, I wanted to see if the tobacco in the zip lock had begun to stick to the liner walls. It was only one day in the press, but I'd done some extreme cranking. I removed the bottom and cranked, as the ziplock came out easily, with no sticking. But, the bunched up excess of the bag gave the tobacco roll an odd look and loose tobacco at the top and bottom.
But, I wanted to see if lining the walls of the press would aid in extricating the compressed roll and it did.
Another attempt.
I cut two parchment circles for the bottom and top, and a piece of parchment 4.5" by 7". I made an overlapped tube, 4.5" in height and placed it in the tube, with the bottom attached, and a parchment circle in the bottom, I dropped tobacco into the tube until there was about 2" and then pressed that down with my fingers, then progressively filled the tube, pressing down and attaching the crank top and compressing. I was very careful not to crumple the edge of the parchment and only created a compressed roll the 4.5" of the parchment height. Later in the week, I'll give removal a try.
 
I just saw this essay and below are excerpts:

PIPE TOBACCO PRESSING AT HOME
By John P. Seiler

Pressing is a method by which tobaccos are exposed to high pressures to merge the flavors of the tobaccos. This is usually done in a press.

Pressing pipe tobacco has long been the province of the large tobacco manufacturers and blenders. Some manufacturers have quite large presses, and their processes are often closely guarded secrets. But what about the individual pipe smoker?

Where to Get a Press and Forms.
There are several good You Tube videos of individuals pressing tobacco in a home made "form" and also using wax paper between C-clamps. Some examples include using end pieces on a pipe between furniture clamps. These methods provide some good but inconsistent results.

I purchased a $79 6-ton press from Harbor Freight. Moving the handle up and down causes the bottle jack cylinder to go up against the head frame, resulting in the downward motion of the ram. For a "mold," I cut a 3”-diameter cylinder out of PVC plastic pipe and added and added two end pieces out of plastic decking.

I thought it would be a rather simple exercise. You put the tobacco in the tube. You put the top piece over the tobacco and just pump the handle. I let it go for three days, constantly adding pressure. The ram on the press went through the plastic top piece and melted it to the steel ram. I had to cut the top piece off of the ram. It was also hard to remove the pressed tobacco “hockey puck” from the PVC pipe.
So after the first press, the lesson to learn was that a better set of end pieces was needed and that a better design was needed to make tobacco extraction from the mold easier. Thus, this design:

• Slit the PVC pipe lengthwise once so that it can spread and use hose clamps to secure the mold during pressing. After the press, loosen the hose clamps and press the hockey puck of tobacco through.
• Secondly, use pipe floor stands of comparable diameter to the PVC pipe mold as end pieces.

I found that you should use wax paper on the top and bottom to facilitate tobacco removal and to isolate the metal top piece from contacting the tobacco.

I should add that there was no concern about a leakage of "juice" from the pressing, as I decided to generally use dry tobaccos.

It was found that this press resulted in a much harder hockey-puck.

When you press tobacco, the volume is compressed. Generally, I do not add additional tobacco once I start a press so as to only marry the flavors in the initial volume of tobacco. That being said, you can get some interesting results by layering the tobacco during single or multiple presses.

The questions arise as to how long to leave the tobacco in the press and how to apply pressure. This is something you can only determine through experimentation. Generally, I found that you apply a lot of pressure initially and then just keep checking to see that the pressure is maintained. I found that I got good results if I pressed the tobacco over three days, keeping a constant pressure applied after the initial pressing. You also got a harder pressed cake.

In my experiments, I always started with relatively dry tobaccos to blend. In the case of where I used tobacco right from the tin to the press, juice/goop was produced.

I found that you can get some very interesting results by layering tobacco. If you take a nice Virginia and press it with a layer of Stoved Virginia you get a very interesting result. Of course, you can layer various types of tobaccos and blends.

At a meeting of the Washington County, PA pipe club, we tried about 6 or 7 different pressings that I had done in both crumble cakes and hard presses. We noted that, after sitting a couple of days, the hard-pressed pucks easily broke to provide tobacco to fill a pipe. Some of the crumble cakes had either completely broken apart or came apart very easily.

There was general agreement that pressing the tobacco definitely concentrated and enhanced the flavor of the tobacco and made it much smoother.

A word of caution. Pressing tobacco can be habit forming. If you develop a liking for pressing tobacco, you will find that you may go through large volumes of tobacco.

EXPERIMENT!
Try different types of tobaccos and different blends. Adjust the process and try different pressures and different amounts of time.

That is my report on the results of the tobacco-pressing experiment. It doesn't take a lot of $$ in equipment and yields very satisfactory results.

John P. Seiler
 
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As I read the following quote, I had to laugh...

"A word of caution. Pressing tobacco can be habit forming. If you develop a liking for pressing tobacco, you will find that you may go through large volumes of tobacco." John P. Seiler


...another habit I have to conquer.
 
Did I say this earlier? Probably. The homemade press the Briar Blues guy has looks like a good one. Looks like it could be more expensive than $10 though. Here's him breaking it down. The second video is him messing with the noodle press.



 
The second video is him messing with the noodle press.
----https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H6HWx5eaOc
He writes:
"After seeing a few others use this device (noodle press) I decided I had better give it a try. These little pasta presses work as well and better ( on some tobaccos ) than my large tobacco press. If you're thinking of doing some pressing, this inexpensive kitchen aid may just be what you need. If you utilize the press and a vacuum sealer, it works well to save storage space."
 
I've been using these noodle presses and been fairly successful after lining them with parchment and reducing the amount of tobacco to 4.5 to 4.75 oz of tobacco. For me, the real benefit has been that I was able to buy several (4) and get a quantity discount. I can simultaneously press a full pound of a blend.

But, I prefer the process where I use 5 oz tuna cans, c-clamps and wood discs successfully. I open the tuna can using a
Smooth Edge Manual Can Opener that cuts the side of the can, not through the top. Once the tobacco is fully compressed, I can carefully re-attach the lid to the can with Gorilla Glue along the edge and weighing it down while it cures.

From the prior post:


To make circular pucks.
5 oz. tuna cans, which have removed lids using a Smooth Edge Manual Can Opener that cuts the side of the can, not through the top, leaving an opening slightly over 3".
Using a 3.5" hole saw, cut two discs from 1" stock, preferably, a harder stock.
Cans are thoroughly scrubbed to remove any trace of tuna smell. The bottom of the can is left intact.
Into the bottom of the can, place a cut to size parchment disc or 4 cup paper coffee filter.
Tobacco should be well humidified, but not over humidified, in advance.
Hand fill and press the tobacco into the can while it sits on a table/counter.
Press by hand, then with one of the wooden discs until hand pressing doesn't accomplish much more compression.
Place one wooden disc directly under the can and put a cut parchment disc over the hand pressed tobacco.
Now place the second wooded disc on the parchment covering the tobacco.
Hold the packet together while you carefully slip on a C-clamp at the center. Tighten.
In a few days, you'll need to tighten again and you may want to add more tobacco.

I use Aldi house brand tuna cans. For the top disc, I've had to do a little sanding of the top disc for some cans.
You may elect to use more than one clamp.

I have this set of hole saws and a couple of these.

Added 1/16/2022 Before you cut your wood discs, measure the size of the opening of the tuna can, so you cut the discs to the correct size. Keep in mind that not all tuna brands use identical cans. Once you have a successful size/brand stay with it to keep things relatively easy.
 
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Is the cylinder of the noodle press super smooth? Maybe take some 100 or 120 grit sandpaper to it, north to south, to give it some texture so it would be less sticky/tacky? I find smooth metal grabs, while brushed metal does not. I have a DE razor that is not smooth, and it glides over my face far better than shiny smooth metal does.
 
Is the cylinder of the noodle press super smooth?
There is an internal cylinder that is highly polished. The parchment liner works perfectly. The compressed tobacco roll leaves the noodle press covered with a parchment wrapping.
 
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