Pickling press for 24oz wide mouth mason jars

thingiverse

Replace the band and lid of a standard 24oz jar with this setup, and keep your pickles/sauerkraut/tsukemono/kimchi/whatever under compression and submerged in liquid. Check out this page for some useful information: http://www.theblackmoon.com/Jfood/ftsuke.html This project requires both a jar and a spring, which can be found online or at most hardware stores - the rest is printable with ease. The plate can be adjusted downward for more or less food, compression, etc. This setup can handle up to 15oz of liquid/60% full when the post is screwed all the way in and the plate is fully compressed. The post will fall out if it's extended too far, but the plate/knob should remain snug enough to stay put while still allowing for easy disassembly for cleaning purposes. This design was inspired by existing Japanese pickle presses found in stores, which are pretty expensive. The samples printed here are made from PLA material, and as always, please be aware of the usual disclaimer: use/eat at your own risk. If you've never pickled anything before, it's a good idea to practice a bit first. As for long-term effects of food contact with PLA, there is no concrete answer yet. Improperly pickled or rotten food can cause serious harm - please don't put the plastic parts in the dishwasher; hand wash them instead. Maybe printing one with FDA-cool PET will be tried sometime... but not when the printers choke on it again. Always use pure/Kosher salt to ensure your pickles remain healthy and visually appealing. Iodized salt or other salts with additives can cause unsightly discoloration in your pickled products. Now, let's get started with the instructions: first, get some 24oz/1.5 pint Ball mason jars - you can find them at retailers like Walmart. The 3/4" OD by 3-3/8" long .047 wire gauge compression spring can be found online or at local hardware stores; for instance, Monsterfastener offers one that fits the bill. Next, print all the required parts with the following settings: layer height = 0.25mm, infill density = 30%, and number of perimeters = 3. The "plunger" was made slightly denser, at 50% fill, to ensure a snug fit. Insert the spring into the lowerpost2 area, compressed by the plunger, and secure it with lowerpostcap2. The plate will slide onto the end of the plunger, and all that screws into upperpost2, which goes through the lid and is secured with the knob. Some light surface sanding may be needed on the posts and plunger to ensure smooth operation - specifically to make sure the plunger moves easily and the screw action works properly.