Christmas is the season for giving - so I gave myself a present.  I ordered a cream separator, and I was notified that its now at my local Post Office ready to be picked up.  I’m kind of excited to get it home and try it out - I got milk from the dairy this evening and at least one gallon of it will be run through the separator.  The reasons for getting it were that my wife has to eat low fat cheese due to health concerns, and also there’s my love of cheese cake that requires cream cheese.  Its a small, hand crank unit.  I’ll give y’all updates as I progress with it.

Sounds great!
I remember a small hand job one that used pressure/vacume or something that could separate/combine cream back in the 80’s.
Have fun

Here’s my christmas prezzie from DH

Now that looks really nice!  What’s the diameter of the mold?  You’re going to have to set that in a big pan to catch the whey, or you’ll have a puddly mess in your kitchen.

Looks nice and Strong

Oh that’s funny, I thought I’d replied to Rich’s post!
Thanks for the nice comments .. I’ve related them to DH and he’s very pleased with himself.
Its a 6”/15cm internal diameter mold and I planned to by those aluminium grease catcher pans to go under it, or something similar, and direct the runnings to the sink.
I bit “agricultural” but it will do.
Do you think it needs holes in the mold?

Hmm ... so tile, mayonnaise bucket and an aluminium pan.

Good question about the holes in the mold.  I’ve been ambivalent about that myself.  I’ve always used a solid mold; but I’ve also wondered from time to time if it might not be more efficient to have the extra drainage.  Then too, since I dont’ use cheese cloth on my final press, it may just be really difficult to extract the wheel from the mold after pressing.  Can anyone help on this one?

Somewhere .. new england cheese supplies I think .. I saw an article that was adamant that holes were required to wick the whey via the cloth and out into the air!!

yeah here .. http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/pg/243-FAQ-Cheesemaking-and-Molds.html

“We have also seen molds without these holes and we do not recommend them. During pressing, it is imperative to get all of that residual whey moving out of the cheese. This is why you need to use cheesecloth to wick the moisture away as it is pressed out. The holes give it a place to escape - more so than trying to find its way to the bottom.

“

Yup it takes forever when u dont have drainage, been their. The curds create a nice seal in the toob when theirs no holes.

thanks Neil.

One more question. How much clearance should one have between the follower and the mold?
How much do you need to allow it to slide past a layer of wet cheese cloth?

It doesn’t slide past a layer of cheese cloth.  The cloth is folded shut over the curd, then the follower is set on top.  So it just needs to slide freely down the mold itself.

Ah OK. There’s seems to be about 3 schools of thought on what happens to the cheese cloth .
The book that I have tim smith’s has the cheese cloth hanging out the top.
But I will be a fold-in-ian then!

The thing about the cloth on top of the cheese is that u have the indentations, so it ‘s down to cosmetics. I prefer the cloth outside so i dont get the indentations/unevenness, however if your flipping it frequently for a hard cheese then they can be worked out.

Wah! So many ways to skin a cat! Haha!
But I am prepared for a learning journey ... still going on with my beer learning journey.
So I’ll try being a fold-in-ian at first and see if the dents bother me.

Very excited about the whole thing .. I’ve been researching the local milk .. there’s a company that sells
unhomogenised jersey milk. Think I’ll use that to start with. They also sell holstein/freisan milk.

Lucky !! Have fun