Quote Originally Posted by Amber Gold View Post
The guy I bought it from, would stick dowels into the holes to keep everything lined up. Worked fine so that's what I stuck with. Turns out, wetting the papers works just as well. I did have Bill make me a press stand in the off-season. I like it a lot. It's really nice being able to easily move the press around, and these cast iron presses aren't light.

I generally don't have issues blowing syrup everywhere...can't say I've ever blown a paper either.
The hand pump presses aren't built as rugged as the ones with gear pumps. The end plate is like a waffle plate on one side and flat on the other. There is a flat plate that goes over that then washers and nuts to tighten it. It is hard to get it tight enough to withstand the pressure of a real pump. When I got it it had papers with it so I used them. When I bought replacements I found out that there is such a thing as heavy duty papers. I was blowing papers all the time with the light duty papers and haven't blown one since with the heavy duty ones. There were times when I wished that I had sold it and bought a gear pump press. Now that I have it figured out I have a good set up that cost a lot less than the gear pump press.