Pickling press for 24oz wide mouth mason jars

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Replace the band and lid of a standard 24oz jar with this, keeping your pickles/sauerkraut/tsukemono/kimchi/whatever under compression and submerged. Check out http://www.theblackmoon.com/Jfood/ftsuke.html for some handy info. This requires both a jar and a spring (available online or at some hardware stores) - everything else is printable. The plate can be adjusted downward for more/less food, compression, etc. This will take about 15oz/60% full with the post screwed all the way in and the plate fully compressed. The post can fall out when extended all the way out, and the plate/knob should be snug enough to stay put but allow disassembly for easy cleaning. Inspired by existing Japanese pickle presses you can buy at stores... but are pretty expensive. Samples were printed in PLA. Use/eat at your own risk - if you've never made pickled anything, then it might be good to practice a bit. Not sure of any long term effects of food contact with PLA, but improperly pickled rotten food can surely wreck you. Don't put the plastic parts in the dishwasher - hand wash instead. May try to print one with fda-cool PET some time... when I get my damn printers to not choke on the stuff. Always use pure/Kosher salt - iodized salt or other salt with additives can make your pickles ugly and discolored. First, get some Ball mason jars - 24oz/1.5 pint variety. Like these: http://www.walmart.com/ip/21290196. Then, a 3/4" OD by 3-3/8" long .047 wire gauge compression spring: http://monsterfastener.com/item/sprc-373?gclid=CNbT5dLlgMECFYdlfgodf0EAeA. Print all parts (I used 0.25mm layers/30% fill/3 perimeters on all but the "plunger" which I made denser - 50% fill). The spring goes into "lowerpost2" compressed by "plunger" and secured with "lowerpostcap2". The plate slips snugly onto plunger end. All that screws into the "upperpost2" which goes through "lid" and is secured with "knob". You will likely need to do a bit of surface sanding on the posts and plunger to make the plunger move easily and the screw action work well.