Okay, I have several acres of grapefruit getting ripe and nothing to do with them unless I want to peel and run them through my wife's juicer. Is there a commercial juicer out there that will juice a wheel barrow of grapefruit at a time? My wife said when she worked in the grocery business, they had a large press that they would pour oranges into to make fresh orange juice, but I don't see anything like that on the net. I have a 12 ton shop press that I wondered if I could rig something to. Any suggestions?

Phillip

Phillip, do a google search on making your own apple press for some ideas for a fruit press. Not sure how it would work on citrus but with your press you could make a simple test.

Randy

I don't know if this is what you are looking for. I bought one used on ebay for $200 last year. It is fast and pulverizes the pulp as well. Alas, this year I have next to nothing in fruit!



http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-WARING-COMMERCIAL-HEAVY-DUTY-CITRUS-JUICER-JC3000-/350247811700?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item518c657a74#ht_3018wt_905


There are juicers like you are talking about as I've seen them at orange grove stores in Florida. This one is for oranges:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NSF-Automatic-Commercial-Orange-Juicer-Citrus-Squeezer-/320602468369?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aa5657011#ht_1281wt_1139

Thanks all. Some form of press might be my cheapest option. Mr. Citrus, the second link was what I was thinking of. The price tag though would mean I would need to drink a lot of grapefruit juice before my return on investment paid off. For the juicer that you bought, do you need to slice the fruit and hand press them onto a reamer? That would be similar to one of the ones we have. Our other juicer requires you to peel the fruit and then it runs it through something like a food processer with the juice being separated.

Anyway, I saw an apple press that someone made that resembled my shop press. My only question is if you press citrus, will there be any bitterness from the rind?

Phillip

I like the way these juicers work. Kind of large and expensive though...

I did make a small apple press, using plywood covered with aluminum foil. It worked more or less although far from perfect. I would think you could build the same thing by cutting the grapefruit then wrapping it in a muslin old pillow case then pressing with your press. It would be a cheap test.


Randy

I have a Black and Decker citrus juicer. The design is great but the gears are plastic and wear out quickly and has a short life. It is very inexpensive though and very user friendly. This would not be a great juicer for a commerical grower but for a casual citrus grower it should be sufficient. If it breaks a new one only costs about $20.00. This juicer is so easy to use and has a pitcher under the extraction cones to collect the juice so there is no need to hold a container to collect the juice. If you juice every day it may wear out too quickly but for people like me who only juice about 500 fruit a year, it is a good investment. I have used this juicer to juice at least 500 fruit and so far it has not broken. If Blacker and Decker only used quality parts like metal gears instead of plastic it would be the best juicer in the world!