Hmm....unlike any cider press I have ever seen.
Could it be something a wood worker rigged up to be a clamp to glue something? because of the 3 rods you could put varying amounts of pressure on something....but what?
Linda C

Hi Linda,

I thought about that too but the size and shape of the wood that could fit between the uprights would be pretty limited. Maybe it could be hold pressure on a dresser drawer as the glue/dado joints dried.

I'm betting somebody knows.... :-)

It looks like a bookbinders press to me

Size and shape doesn't look right....would have to be a very thick book and a large folio to make sense of the size.
What's the distance between the bottom of the threaded rods and the base of the thing? In other words what size thing would it press?
Linda C

Linda, the distance between the bottom of the threaded rods and the base can be adjusted from 8" to 13". The opening is slightly less than 26" across.

Ken

Cheese press?
Botanical specimen press?

What I suspect this is a home made press designed for a specific job. Look it over carefully. Do you find a manufacturer's mark or stamp anywhere? If there is no mark, this lends weight to a non-mass-produced item.

We can only guess what it intent was because the pressure plates are missing. It could have been something as simple as a device to hold the corks in jugs of fermenting liquids.

If the device is very clean and shows no sign of smudges from adhesives, then it probably was not used as fixture for gluing. With proper attachements, it could have been used as a crude press.

A great many "Older" devices of this sort are hand made....weather intended to press a book during binding or flower specimens between absorbent paper or fruit for cider or wine....the question is what did the maker intend for it..
Perhaps the person who made it had a hobby of making small boxes and used it as a glue clamp? or to clamp veneer to the pieces to make the boxes?
maybe?

Looks like a great end table/conversation piece, just add glass.

I like that, Froufrou. With different sized glass globes under the presses!

I believe I will use it as a conversation piece. The guy I bought it from didn't know what it was either :-). There is no residue of any kind. I thought I might be able to determine its age by the size of the wood but haven't had any success.

Maybe one of these days someone will see it and say "Where on earth did you get that _____? My granddaddy had one just like it!"

Or, maybe not.

Now...I'm trying to picture the different size glass globes you're talking about. Like fishnet floats?

A refugee here form the days when we made coffee or end tables out of all sorts of stuff....that's why I still have a farrier's bench with magazines on it!!
I remember the lobster pot, all sorts of cool boxes, like fruit crates and even an old Ammo box...still have an old soda syphon box! And there were the days of old interesting suit cases...and my coffee table is a cut down dining table.
I would pile books under the screw things...old interesting looking books. If you can find a law library that is cleaning house and has some old leather bound volums they are tossing...that would be great.
Linda C

Yeah fishing floats! Or dolls (creepy). Painted ostrich eggs? Books would be nice, but I like the idea of something that very definitely should not be pressed appearing to be pressed. Then of course some neighbor kid would stick a hand in and tighten it...

It's really kind of elegant in a functional sort of way. Maybe throw it on the woodworking forum and see if anyone there has a clue? (Not sure that's an active forum.)

Hi,
It looks like a perfect piece of equipment for bending wood. When you want to bend wood to certain shapes and make a lot of identical pieces, you make a pair of forms with the curvature cut out of them with a gap between for the workpiece itself; The forms are called "cauls". It looks to me like it's the perfect shape and size to hold a set of cauls for making a lot of curved chair back rails. You need tremendous clamping force to get the cauls to meet when bending, and those screw clamps would be ideal. The frame is also made very heavy to stand up to the tons of force being applied. Anyway, that's one woodworker's opinion/guess.
Casey

Thanks Casey!

sombreuil - BINGO!

Here is a link that might be useful:

I used something similar years ago to use just as Casey described. Slightly different construction details but the same idea.

I'd steam the pieces in a steam box, then set them between pairs of cauls and stack insert them in a similar press. The one I used had five rods instead of three.

Depending on the set, I'd bend 2, 4, or 6 pieces at a time.