I have been wanting to try my hand at making my own pressed tobacco plugs from mixtures I have created at home for quite some while. I did a lot of reading on the subject of home pressing and what methods other enthusiasts had employed to that end. For the most part, woodworking G-clamps were the weapon of choice for creating the pressure and a whole variety of formers were used to contain the mixture whilst it was being pressed.
Sadly what most folks ended up with was something resembling crumble cake. I on the other hand wanted something more akin to proper plug. Not the soft plugs that G Pease produces but the more solid 'brick like' plugs as per Condor, Erinmore etc but how to go about this?
It then occurred to me that I already had the necessary equipment for the pressing, my rock trimmer which I use in my mineral collecting hobby. All I had to do was to remove the hardened steel chisels from the device leaving me with something that would exert extreme pressures (this thing cuts granite like it would cut a biscuit/cookie) by simply turning the handle.
My next task was to find something to use as a former and all I had at hand was an old PVC pill bottle. That would have to do for my first attempt I thought so yesterday I went ahead and got cracking.
I was using a mixture of roughly 60/40 Curly Cut and Brown Bogie. I fed the mixture into the PVC pot and kept pressing it down to add more. This I did until I could not get any more inside so took it to my 'press' where I placed a sheet of tinfoil over the baccy and placed a coin (roughly the diameter of the pot) on top of that and started winding.
This is where it got interesting as every time I wound it down naturally it compressed some so I had to unwind it and add another coin. This I did several times until I could really feel resistance meaning that some serious pressure was being applied.
Fast forward to today and I just added a couple more coins as obviously overnight it had settled somewhat. It is now pretty rock solid and the PVC pot is starting to swell at the bottom! I have wondered how I might go about extracting my plug from the pot and can only think of using my Dremel with a cutting disc. If this works, and I suspect it will, I shall next make a proper hardwood former (American black walnut) with a steel plate for the bottom and the sides being screwed together for later extraction of the plug.
I estimate that I used about 15 - 18 typical bowlfuls of tobacco to start with and I estimate the current size of the plug to be about 15mm tall so it really is well compressed.
I am hoping to leave it in the press for a whole week but am itching to see how it has turned out so I may open it up earlier :wink:
Below are three images of the press in action...
I would be very interested to see what other members have come up with in their own attempts to make a proper plug, and if anyone has any ideas or improvements that might be useful for my own set up please do let me know.
Regards,
Jay.
Sadly what most folks ended up with was something resembling crumble cake. I on the other hand wanted something more akin to proper plug. Not the soft plugs that G Pease produces but the more solid 'brick like' plugs as per Condor, Erinmore etc but how to go about this?
It then occurred to me that I already had the necessary equipment for the pressing, my rock trimmer which I use in my mineral collecting hobby. All I had to do was to remove the hardened steel chisels from the device leaving me with something that would exert extreme pressures (this thing cuts granite like it would cut a biscuit/cookie) by simply turning the handle.
My next task was to find something to use as a former and all I had at hand was an old PVC pill bottle. That would have to do for my first attempt I thought so yesterday I went ahead and got cracking.
I was using a mixture of roughly 60/40 Curly Cut and Brown Bogie. I fed the mixture into the PVC pot and kept pressing it down to add more. This I did until I could not get any more inside so took it to my 'press' where I placed a sheet of tinfoil over the baccy and placed a coin (roughly the diameter of the pot) on top of that and started winding.
This is where it got interesting as every time I wound it down naturally it compressed some so I had to unwind it and add another coin. This I did several times until I could really feel resistance meaning that some serious pressure was being applied.
Fast forward to today and I just added a couple more coins as obviously overnight it had settled somewhat. It is now pretty rock solid and the PVC pot is starting to swell at the bottom! I have wondered how I might go about extracting my plug from the pot and can only think of using my Dremel with a cutting disc. If this works, and I suspect it will, I shall next make a proper hardwood former (American black walnut) with a steel plate for the bottom and the sides being screwed together for later extraction of the plug.
I estimate that I used about 15 - 18 typical bowlfuls of tobacco to start with and I estimate the current size of the plug to be about 15mm tall so it really is well compressed.
I am hoping to leave it in the press for a whole week but am itching to see how it has turned out so I may open it up earlier :wink:
Below are three images of the press in action...
I would be very interested to see what other members have come up with in their own attempts to make a proper plug, and if anyone has any ideas or improvements that might be useful for my own set up please do let me know.
Regards,
Jay.
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