tortilla press, warning, picture heavy!

[wecsoger]

Rolling your own is easy after all. Even though I still want to get the cast iron press I posted an image of in another thread, for now this will have to do. And seriously folks, why not stretch ourselves a little? Projects like this stretch your mind and keep your skills sharp.


Scraped through the back shed and found scrap pieces of wood


Cut to what looked to be the right size


Preliminary fit looks good


Block for the lever arm. Looked through my can of bolts, found this one and cut to length. It's stainless steel, ridiculously over-spec'd for this project, but the price was right - free. For you sharp-eyed people, yes that is an AK-47 mag in the background


Assemble, mark and fit


Did pilot holes on all the screws


Glued the top lever base down


Total cost of project, two bucks and some change. Couldn't find any hinges the correct size. Got some purdy ones in brass. Actually, they were cheapest ones there.


Hinges, mounted. Note the gap, you need to leave that for squishing the tortillas


Mounting the lever arm. For those of you who paid attention in school, what class lever is this?


Finished product, ready to squish. At least after the glue dries overnight. It's about 8" across


And closed up. Will be playing around with it tomorrow. I have both the regular flour and the corn (masa) so this will be fun.

[Blaine]

Looks pretty handy to me

[Mescalero]

When this first came up, it prompted my memory, I have seen Mexican women making them all my life, have also seen the factories all my life.
Never occured to me I might have to make them myself one day.

[Alan Wood]

Interesting project! However they do tend to use some rather nasty chemicals in the glue of plywood. I would want to have wax paper between the wood and the tortilla if I were to use such a press.

[FWiedner]

Looks to me like your tortillas will have a downhill slope.

That might cause a noticable degree of salsa run-off.

Buy napkins.

[Blaine]

Looks to me like your tortillas will have a downhill slope.

That might cause a noticable degree of salsa run-off.

Buy napkins.

Pinche Gringo...you have to turn them once

[Sixgun]

Man, I'm lost. Look here, you guys can laugh all you want but I have no idea what a "tortilla press" does. ---------------------6

[Mescalero]

Pinche Gringo!

[FWiedner]

Looks to me like your tortillas will have a downhill slope.

That might cause a noticable degree of salsa run-off.

Buy napkins.

Pinche Gringo...you have to turn them once

Yeah, and tires only go flat on one side.

Turning it or flipping it will only force the mass of dough to another or the opposite side.

I think that the device needs a stop or a shim piece on the lever side of the press plates to compensate for the hinge gap and ensure a uniform thickness.

[pwl44m]

Thats gettin pretty technical just to Mash Masa.
Perry

[Griff]

Pinche Gringo!

Really? The kitchen help???

[Blaine]

Looks to me like your tortillas will have a downhill slope.

That might cause a noticable degree of salsa run-off.

Buy napkins.

Pinche Gringo...you have to turn them once

Yeah, and tires only go flat on one side.

Turning it or flipping it will only force the mass of dough to another or the opposite side.

I think that the device needs a stop or a shim piece on the lever side of the press plates to compensate for the hinge gap and ensure a uniform thickness.

When the thin side gets turned to the thick side, it won't make contact. Please don't tell me you work on airplanes

[wecsoger]

However they do tend to use some rather nasty chemicals in the glue of plywood.

You're absolutely correct. You can use waxed paper, or what's better, get a freezer or zip-lock bag. Cut edges off on the sides and remove the top, leaving the bottom as the hinge. Throw your flour or masa in between and squish away.

[rjohns94]

Well done. Let us know how it does. My mouth is watering now

[Pitchy]

Cut to what looked to be the right size

My kind of builder.

[SteveR]

All I have ever used was a rolling pin, neat idea, probably quicker with the press though. Looks like it would work sort of like the old waffle iron my parents had.

Steve

[jcw]

Man, I'm lost. Look here, you guys can laugh all you want but I have no idea what a "tortilla press" does. ---------------------6

.
Tortilla presses flatten out the wrinkles. Nobody wants wrinkled tortillas do they............

[cfplinker]

If your tortillas come out two thick, just use shims made from soda pop carton cardboard until you get the thickness you need. Then you can adjust the hinges to give that thickness. On mine I found that the amount of slop in the hinges was enough to give me a good thin tortilla.