DIY mini grape/fruit crusher

[acorn]

Being busy lately I am clearly late to the wine making party this season. Nevertheless, I would like to share with you a few pictures of a small crusher I constructed.

Motivation:

1) Call me a cheapskate, but I have antipathy to spending over triple-digit sum of money for regular size crushers for my small production
2) I have no room to store a normal-sized crusher
3) I had a DIY urge / wanted to get away from the desk job

Anyway, with just about $40 investment in oak wood boards/blocks, stainless steel screws, crank handle, and other little bits, and a few hours of fiddling with tools I managed to come up with this contraption. Of course, it may not look very pretty just yet, but it works well. The dark spots are burnt oak or pencil marks which were removed after the photos were taken.

Please feel free to express any criticism, feedback, comments, suggestions, questions, and such.

 

[BlueStimulator]

How did you make the groves on the grinder and side boards. Two boards clamped together and drilled. I really like your design, fine work!!!!!!

 

[Rocky]

Acorn, looks like a functional piece. Nice work. My only comment is to be sure to clean, sanitize and dry the piece after use.

A couple of questions:

Why did you slant only one side of the chute?
Is one side of the chute plywood and the other oak?
Where did you buy the crank mechanism?
Is the roller easily removable for cleaning and sanitizing?
Can you provide a few pictures of the roller? I am curious as to how it was made.
You have the mating "teeth" on only one side of the roller. Any reason you did not make a set of "teeth" for the other side. It would make the crank bi-directional and stop whole berries from falling through uncrushed.
Have you tried it with grapes?

 

[acorn]

Acorn, looks like a functional piece. Nice work. My only comment is to be sure to clean, sanitize and dry the piece after use.

A couple of questions:

Why did you slant only one side of the chute?
Is one side of the chute plywood and the other oak?
Where did you buy the crank mechanism?
Is the roller easily removable for cleaning and sanitizing?
Can you provide a few pictures of the roller? I am curious as to how it was made.
You have the mating "teeth" on only one side of the roller. Any reason you did not make a set of "teeth" for the other side. It would make the crank bi-directional and stop whole berries from falling through uncrushed.
Have you tried it with grapes?

Thank you both for your comments and encouragements. BlueStimulator, I'll try to answer your questions in the same order they were asked.

1) The chute has a slant on one side due to my fat-headedness when I missed the measurement of the board by an inch, thus being unable to have enough board to create a slant on the other side such that it would be level with the other side.
2) The chute is all plywood and is detachable. Also, to add to #1, I will rework the chute next year by using either oak or stainless steel, with both sides slanted.
3) The roller is removable by unscrewing the nuts and grover nuts on one side and unscrewing 4 screws on the side of the frame (basically taking one side of the frame off). The roller itself was made of 1.5" x 1.5" x 8" oak block. I then used different Dremel routing bits to accomplish the grooves and teeth. I will take more pictures of the roller soon and post them here.
4) The teeth on one side are made from a thin (relatively) oak plank with teeth ground the same way as on the roller. I screwed this plank with a set of stainless steel screws from outside of the frame. The reason I didn't make a set of teeth on the other side is because I was unsure if it was worth the effort. Instead I will attach a simple ungrooved plank to the other side of the frame such that the berries that are stuck to the roller will be scraped off when roller is rotated (or not allowed to fall through uncrushed). I didn't intend to make the roller to work in two directions because I find it uncomfortable to turn the handle counterclockwise.
5) Yes, crushed a bunch of grapes last night. Worked like a charm.

Now, I still want to improve the design and appearance of the crusher in the future, but for now I just need to use it as is, since the grapes have arrived and are waiting to face their fate.