A handmade home for woodworkers and admirers of woodworkers. Our community icon is submitted by @1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca whose father was inspired to start woodworking by Norm and the New Yankee Workshop.
I made a tofu press and have some Howard butcher block conditioner on hand. Is that enough for a finish or do I need something more?
I don't know what that butcher block conditioner is. If it's meant for butcher block counter tops, I would make sure it's food safe.
Food grade mineral oil is a common choice for cutting boards. Since you're working with food, I would make sure that whatever finish you use is specifically food grade.
I have a related question!
I bought some wood kitchen stuff from an amateur home gamer with a small stand at a fair. The finish is non-existent and it needs more sanding with finer grit... but my issue now is that I don't know how to deeply saturate it with food-safe oils. I slather the stuff on, but it doesn't seem to absorb. I'm more used to using product like orange oil, which woods seem to take well, but that's not food-safe.
Do I need some sort of vacuum chamber to extract the air in the wood fibers and cause the oil to deeply penetrate? Or is there a particular oil that is good about absorbing into wood? I've been using a beeswax/mineral combo which has been fine for cutting boards, but it's not doing the job for the woods in these utensils.
Pure Tung oil.
If you can stand the smell of it. I just use cooking grade flax seed oil because I like the smell better
Also: freeze your tofu, and thaw it, it drains better
Nice Idea! In going to steal it and make one myself too!
I never understand why people would rather use a petroleum based oil for foodstuff finishes instead of edible plant based oils.
If this press is for vegan consumers, make sure there’s nothing in that conditioner that conflicts with a vegan diet.
The press looks great, I recently stumbled on some YT videos that showed how to build wooden knobs; I think they’d look great on this press.
Ooh they sure would. It was a "proof of concept" like all my projects, but I rarely go back and improve them if they're good enough. But wooden knobs would be a definite improvement
@greenhorn I would not put any finish on it. Just was it down when you are done and make sure the wood dries fully and the wood will soak up any bacteria and kill it. A finish will block that process and allow the bacteria to grow on the surface. This podacast has some good info on it https://www.finewoodworking.com/2024/10/04/stl325-no-finish-no-problem
Listening now. I ended up using conditioner I had, and I'll continue to use it on the exterior for appearance, but I'll leave the interior parts bare from here on out.
I've never seen a tofu press, but it looks like it has the worst DPI resolution of any printing device in existence.