My homemade cheese press

I used the directions from Fiasco Farm to make a cheese press today. http://fiascofarm.com/dairy/cheesepress.html

I had a piece of leftover kitchen counter top from when we built our house in 1979, cut it in half, rounded the edges, drilled the holes, cut the dowels, and put the 'feet' on. I made the mold from PVC pipe. I drilled holes in the PVC at the bottom edge and at 2 " intervals up the sides. For the follower, I am using a PVC fitting that was a hair too big to go in the pipe/mold by using my belt sander to sand down the edge 1/8 of an inch so that it fits inside. I cut a circle of plexiglass to put under the follower to make a smooth top on the cheese.

I will have to come up with a spacer to put between the follower and the top board, and I'll have to find my son's old free weights for pressure.

The only things I bought were the pipe, fitting, dowels, screws, and washers. All together less than $10.