What is a Pollen Press?
What is a Pollen Press?
Just like it sounds, a pollen press is a device that is used to compress plant material into what we all know as a disk, pellet, or puck. Even though it can be hand-cranked or even hydronic driven, all pollen presses can be used to produce the same sort of products.
What are Pollen Presses Used For?
The main product that pollen presses are usually used for is to take ground dry herbs and compress it into cakes, or pellets. But there are alot of reasons why someone may want to do this. Sometimes it can be for personal storage, it could also be used for commercial applications.
How to Use a Pollen Press
Like we said before, Pollen Presses can come in a manual and hydraulic form. As there are many different model designs for the hydraulic systems. We would recommend that you read the user manuals for these types of presses before you start to use it. We say this because some may need to apply an upward pressure, where others need a downward or even side on pressure. There's also a list of uses of molds and parts that we won't be going over today!!!
But we will be going over the two main variations of the manual pressing systems; the T-bar and the flat cap. Both designs consist of a cylinder that is threaded at both of the ends. BUT there is a difference and that is how the press is tightened, and how the materials within are compressed.
The T-Bar Pollen Press
A T-Bar Pollen Press looks exactly how it sounds like a “T”. The “T” style hand grip is used to apply pressure to the materials within, squeezing out the air pockets, and compressing it into a dense disk. A Lot of these models are designed to apply pressure in one direction. It will extend a shaft down onto the materials, which will press it against the base plate.
Flat Cap Pollen Press
The more general design for a pollen press has two pin inserts and two end caps. Each of these inserts are long, like half the length of the tube or more. As the ends caps are tightened, it will bring the tips of these pins closer together, squeezing out the air pockets, and compressing the materials within into a dense disk. Unlike the T-bar design, the pressure needs to be applied from both directions. If one cap is screwed on all the way before the other is attached, it may make it difficult to attach the second cap.