Making cheese is a rewarding hobby that can help you save money as well as giving you the pleasure of eating food you made yourself.
Soft cheeses are relatively easy to make, but for hard cheeses, you’ll need a cheese press. These can be expensive to buy, but they’re relatively simple to construct – so here are 19 plans that show you how to build your own DIY cheese press at home.
Table of Contents
1. Pressing Cheese at Home
The first “plan” on our list isn’t really much of a plan at all. Rather, it’s an introduction to everything you need to know about cheese presses, how they work and the kind of things you need to know when building one. This means that by reading this blog before looking at the other plans, you’ll have a much better idea of what the others are talking about – and just for this reason, we thought it merited a place at the start of our roundup.
2. DIY Cheese Presses You Can Make at Home
We love the way this video starts – “G’day curds nerds!” – and after this excellent opening, this cheese-making hobbyist goes on to explain to us how to build a simple cheese press that you can easily DIY at home. It includes a list of everything you’ll need, and it also includes links to some other cheese-related resources, making this a great plan for anyone interested in making their own cheese for the first time.
3. A Simple and Inexpensive Cheese Press
Here’s a plan from Instructables, one of our favorite online sources of DIY plans for just about anything you can imagine. Their plans are always well written, easy to understand and accompanied by plenty of useful illustrations to help you complete the project – and this one is no exception. Another great place to start for anyone taking their first steps into the wonderful world of homemade cheese.
4. Make a Cheap, Effective Cheese Press
As this YouTuber tells us, buying a ready-made cheese press can be expensive, and if you’re just starting out, you might not be willing to spend quite that much on your new hobby. The answer, then, is to DIY your own – and with this tutorial, you will learn how to make one for as little as $10. So that’s got to be worth trying, right?
5. Making a Simple Cheese Press
Just like in the video in #5, this blog suggests that for beginners at the start of their cheese-making journey, constructing a DIY cheese press is an inexpensive solution that will allow you to try it out and see if you enjoy making your own cheese. Then if you want to take it further, you can always buy a more expensive version later. If that sounds like a sentiment you can agree with, here’s a plan that shows you how to do it.
6. DIY Dutch Cheese Press
If you don’t have the time or the patience to make sense of complicated and technical written plans, this video tutorial might be a better option for you. On the left of the screen, you have the DIYer demonstrating what you need to do while on the right side, you will see a succession of diagrams showing how everything fits together. This is a well-produced video that makes building a cheese press easy – a recommended watch.
7. A DIY Homemade Cheese Press Plan
If you’re a goat owner, there’s a good chance you’ll be interested in making cheese from their milk, and this plan shows you how to DIY a simple press that will help you get started. There’s also a guide explaining how to use it when it’s done, allowing you to start making your own homemade cheese right away.
8. How to Build a Cheese Press from Wood By Wright How 2
This is an interesting tutorial because it was originally done as a YouTube livestream. It’s an hour-long video, but it’s a fascinating watch because we see the whole project taking shape from start to finish. You can also read the comments from people who were watching during the stream, giving the whole thing the feel of an interactive lesson.
9. Cheese Press Construction
We love the honesty of this blogger in her introduction – she got into cheesemaking through a desire to “eat more cheese and pay less money for it.” We’re sure there are lots of other people who can relate to that, and if you’re one of them, this is a plan you can follow to build a cheese press and get started.
Check this tutorial
10. Easy and Inexpensive DIY Cheese Press
For soft cheese, a press isn’t necessary – but if you want to make hard cheeses, it’s essential. However, you don’t need to spend a fortune on one because they’re easy to DIY – and in this plan, this YouTuber shows us how to make a very simple and inexpensive yet functional version.
11. A Homemade Cheese Press
As this blogger notes, buying a cheese press can cost a lot, reducing the savings you make by producing your own cheese as well as taking away part of the fun. His solution was to build his own, which he says should cost no more than $15. Want to see how? Then check out his plan for details.
12. How to Make Your Own Cheese Press
Here’s a video from another home cheesemaker who created a design for a cheese press through a desire to save herself a bit of cash. It’s an easy plan to replicate at home, and most people shouldn’t have too many problems following her simple instructions. Another video we enjoyed that can teach you how to make a cheese press at home.
13. How to Build a Cheese Press
Most people start experimenting with soft cheeses, but it’s only natural that once you master those, you’ll want to try your hand at hard cheeses too. When you get that urge, a cheese press becomes necessary – and this plan will teach you how to DIY your own.
14. Building a Cheese Press for the Homestead
We always think the best DIY plans are the ones that allow you to repurpose scrap materials you already own, creating something functional from junk that otherwise would simply be thrown out. That’s what this YouTuber does, so if you want to make a cheese press that will cost you practically nothing, this is a video you should watch.
15. Homemade Cheese Press
This is a nice story – this homemade cheese press was created as a birthday gift for someone who had been hankering after one for a while. The design is simple and easy to replicate, making this a great option for anyone who wants to have a go at making their own cheese for the first time.
16. Cheap DIY Cheese Press
Sometimes the simplest plans are the best, and in this video, we watch as a YouTuber demonstrates how to build a basic, functional cheese press using only a few inexpensive materials. With something like a DIY cheese press, there’s no need to overcomplicate things – and if that’s something you agree with, this plan is for you.
17. Homemade Cheese Press from Small Farmer’s Journal
If you have goats at home, sometimes, you might find you simply have more milk than you can use – and when that happens, turning it into hard cheese is a great option. To do so, you’ll need a press – and this blog entry gives you a plan for building a simple version at home.
18. Make Your Own Cheese Press and Save $$$
Here’s a great video we enjoyed watching because it gets straight to the point. These YouTubers start off by explaining that the cost of buying a cheese press is the most significant outlay you’ll face when starting out making hard cheese, but that you can save yourself a lot of cash by building your own. They then demonstrate the process – so check it out to see how it’s done.
19. How to Make a Cheese Press
WikiHow is another of our favorite online resources whenever we want to know how to do just about anything. If you don’t know the site already, it contains a huge collection of how-to guides, and this one tells you everything you need to know about how to build your own cheese press. As ever, the instructions are clear and easy to follow, and there are also plenty of illustrations for each step. A wonderful resource and well worth a look if you want to have a go at DIYing a cheese press.
Check this tutorial
Lots of simple and inexpensive plans to follow
As you can see, there are lots of great plans online for building DIY cheese presses, and following one to build your own will allow you to save money on buying a ready-made model.
We’ve enjoyed finding these plans for you because they’ve inspired us to have a go at building one ourselves, so we hope you’ve enjoyed reading and watching them too. And above all, we hope we’ve helped you find the plan you needed to build your own DIY cheese press at home.