Leader Clear Filter Press - Set up Questions

[johnallin]

1061510616

New Leader Clear Filter Press is here and I'm hoping some of you can offer up suggestions as to how you set your presses up.

I have the pneumatic pump on a separate base and can't decide if it should be below the press or next to it. The hoses are 1" ID and seems like overkill for what we're doing over here. Picture attached shows the press and pump on a temporary bench in my wood shop until I can determine what I need for a cart...

My dumb questions are:

How do you control the air regulator going into the press and moniter the pressure gauge if it's down near the floor?
Do you have a regulator up at the press, or do you just get on the floor when you're filtering, or do you set up next to the press as I have in my pic.

This press came with 1" ID hoses, stiff as a board and it seems like overkill. The Siro Press has 1/2", it's very flexible and worked just fine.
Do any of you use less than 1" or is it needed due to the pneumatic press, or to move more syrup faster? The Siro hoses are 1/2", very flexible and easy to move around and store when finished. I'd like to go back to 1/2" or close, as long as it won't collapse..

I ran it last night for a few minutes off a Porter Cable pancake compressor, it could not keep up and ran continuously. I'm looking at a California Air (?) 1 HP 2cylinder compressor, but it too is only rated at the bare minimum and I think we'll destory it in short order. Any suggestions?

Thanks for any input and/or pictures you can offer. John

Side note...my Siro Press is starting to look like one heckuva tidy package - boy was it simple compared to this!

[Super Sapper]

The regulator needs to go on the air line before the pump. It can go on at your supply source if you want or anywhere before the pump. The pressure gauge needs to go on between the pump and the press. You can put it on just before the press if you like. The pump can go wherever it works best for you.

[johnallin]

Thanks SuperSapper. The pump came with a regulator, but I just read the Wilton Manual and it states that a pressure gauge is not needed because the pump will stall at whatever psi you have feeding it. If I understand that correctly, it means that if I set PSI at 40lbs, if the press begins to clog and tries to exceed 40 lb it won't be able to. Sounds logical...now is it?

[lpakiz]

You have it exactly right. If you set the inlet air pressure at 40 psi, that's what it tries to deliver. If syrup runs thru the press at less than 40 psi of back pressure, all is good. At 40, the air pump just stops pumping, but holds that 40 psi forever, or until you either shut it off, or dial the pressure up another several pounds. Then it will start pumping again, until the back pressure of the syrup equals the inlet air pressure. Then it stalls. No harm at all in letting it hold that pressure all night without pumping anything. (nothing gained, either)

[johnallin]

Thank you, that saves me having to plumb in a gauge. I think I'm going to like this