They were the best of times, they were the worst of times (catchy :-) )

This olive season succeeded in as much as I pretty much achieved my primary goals:

I now know how to run the press and can go into next year with confidence as a miller.

I proved that there are people in the area who are interested in the service and are willing to put in the work and the money to make oil and support the project. 

The season started very late and unfortunately some personal issues shortened the season for me. Basically I only really got to run the press in December, once I knew what I was doing. There was more demand for the press in January and February that I couldn't satisfy... good that there was demand, a shame that I couldn't satisfy it. 

So now I am starting to prepare for next year. Next year I plan to be in a better space and be prepared to run the press many more hours a week. 

I will keep you updated.

THANKS!

Andy

Well the exuberance of my last post was a little premature. While it was true that I had all of the motors running on the press I was to discover that I couldn't actually extract oil.

It turns out that if you have people spend 4 hours picking olives and then spend 4 hours pressing them into a mush without producing oil everyone feels generally disappointed and dejected. To their credit my 'alpha testers' were awesome and didn't give me any grief about working very hard for nothing. Bless Them!

Finally I got some help from an expert (someone who has pressed olives before) and together we diagnosed and fixed a setting that was wrong on part of the machine. My fourth pressing went well and produced a reasonable oil yield.

I am now cautiously optimistic that we are over the hump. I still have a lot to learn in terms of tuning the water content, the temperature, etc.. but these are things that will make % differences in yield rather than 'no oil' vs 'some oil'.

I have now cautiously spread the word that the press is working and I have a few people booked to bring me olives over the next couple of weeks. Fortunately the olive season is very late this year so I haven't totally missed the boat. Depending on how many people show up I will determine if I can start distributing rewards. I will distribute based on order of backing the project. I will keep you informed how it's going... I hope we have finally arrived at production readiness.

The press is now working! We had some fun troubleshooting the electrical wiring but eventually we got everything running. The internal logic of the switching is quite amazing; in order for part A to work part B must be already running. In order for C to work D and F must be on; that kind of stuff. Many relays, servos, micro-switches and miles of wire later... we have a working press.

Now I need to give the press a good clean and some grease and I will be ready to make some oil. I hope that will happen next weekend.

We did find that one of the main bearings sounds a little crunchy. I am hoping that a good greasing will give it some more life. Otherwise I might only be making limited oil before I have to swap out that bearing.

Yesterday I moved the press to its new home!

Now, finally, I can start getting it setup and working. The olives are just starting to ripen on the trees so I still have a good chance to get at least some oil made this year.

Andy

Hi Backers,

Things are moving forward slowly. Last week I went to the UC Davis Master Miller Class, it was great, I learned a lot about olive milling that would have a taken a lot of trial and error to learn.

I am still having trouble finding a permanent home for the press but am hopeful that I will have something soon, the main problem being that the press requires 3 phase 220v power which is only available in very limited places. I did get to plug in the press once and turn it on. Most of it worked but there was one motor (of 8) that would not activate. This could have been user error, a problem in the control board or a problem with the motor. Once I have a real home for the press I will be able to take the time to diagnose and fix the problem.

Olive season is upon us and unless I get a home and the machine working really soon my ability to deliver your rewards will be limited till next year. Olives must be picked and pressed the same day so either I am pressing during the season or I miss it. There is about 10 weeks of the season left so I am still optimistic that I will get at least some olives pressed and some rewards out this year. I have to periodically take a deep breath and remind myself that that this was always meant to be a long term project and that if I miss this year it's not the end of the world (just a little disappointing). Any rewards I can't get out this year, I will get out next year.

I will keep you informed of progress as I really appreciate your part in making this happen!

Thanks!

Andy