David Shipway’s Homemade Apple Press

David is a master builder living on an island in British Columbia. His work was featured in Builders of the Pacific Coast, and here is his description of an apple press he just built:

“Lloyd…
Right now I’m building another apple press since there’s a good crop on more trees around the island this year. The last one I built back in ’76, damn near the first machine I ever made, and it made it through all those years and another zillion gallons of juice. This new one is same old three-legger, but slightly larger and with more foodsafe materials, so it should be at least a 50 year workhorse around somebody’s homestead:

Today I drilled, rolled and riveted four 304 stainless bands for the barrel hoops, which will have rock maple staves thanks to a woodworker buddy from Ontario.


To turn the pre-drilled 14 guage flat stock into perfect circles that I could lap and rivet with some degree of accuracy, I had to google “ring roller” and then figure out how to make one out of scrap wood! Living on a small island is all about instant DIY!”


Gorilla tape on the drive roller worked like a charm!

Finished barrels

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

3 Responses to David Shipway’s Homemade Apple Press

  1. beautiful, looks like art.

    maybe when it is in operation, would there be a chance of a short video so we can enjoy the "workings"?

  2. Would like to make one like this David, you wouldn't happen to have any working plans for your design would you. Great looking unit!

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