I drained the curds and stacked them in the mold with the follower in the press. The photos below show the press setup. A cut-away pie pan allows the whey to drain off the press into a bowl below. I added handweights as necessary to increase the pressi
ng weight to 50 pounds. Once I ran out of handweights I added 10 pound sacks of sugar and flour. The height of the frame meant that those weights wouldn't fall off the press. When I jerryrigged presses in the past, that was always a problem and it was tough to balance more than 20 pounds.
After 12 hours I removed the cheese and will let it air-dry for 2-4 days to develop a rind. I'll then wax it and put it away until April so it ages nicely. I'll let you know how it turns out. If my scraps are any indication, I think it's going to be really tasty.
The picture below shows how 2 gallons of milk turns into a cheese cyllinder roughly 4" high and 6" round. It's white because I didn't choose to add traditional cheddar coloring.
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