Lentil Presses
 

Who makes the best lentil press?

Hi Keoki!

I love my Zoozii presses; they are family made in the US. I use the Lentil Trio nearly every time I torch.

If you visit the Tips &Techniques section of LE, look at the Press Game right under Torch Questions. You might be able to try out some different presses before you buy.

I know other LE peeps have favorites too, so you'll probably get lots of good recommendations.

Have fun!
Helene

There is not much difference in the presses to say one is the best... But you have options.
Depending on the presses you already have the investment can be different. Additionally there are a few different kinds of lentils. In addition to varying sizes, you can get a strait sided lentil (ssl) the slim lentil, and each will differ in sizes by vendor. Cattwalk presses require a base, you can get away without one, sometimes. This would be an additional investment. Zoozii presses have pins built in to align the layers. Check put both websites. Every press they have has example beads.

There are other options as well. If you can find them there are tongs. IMO they make a thicker lentil, and have a different learning curve. There are other companies that make presses as well, perlnpress, eXpress press and more. Optionally someone make a graphite paddle to help shape lentils also.

I believe there was a lentil press in the garage sale recently. It may still be there if you are looking for a deal.

Zoozii's. I love the SSL, which means the straight sided lentil. There is a slim version that is my very favorite of all and you don;t have to buy a base to go with them like you do for some of the other systems.

I happen to like Corina Tettinger's presses the best, because of the way they line up - somehow lining up the pegs on other presses slows me down. The others are fine too, of course.

Hi there, I am a newbie. Just got my trio of straight sided lentils from Zooziis plus the large SSL. I have tried some out today but my lentils are cracking. I am cooling in vermiculite and then putting them into the kiln a few hours later. Can you kindly tell me if this is possible or if I need to garage them immediately upon making, and if so, at what temperature. I will be grateful for some help on this.

BarbaraD-- When you use a tool on glass, in this case a brass press, the tool will suck some of the heat out of the glass. You need to reheat the glass so it's evenly heated, giving extra attention to those parts of the glass that are thinner as they lose heat faster, and making sure you've got a nice deep heat in the thicker parts, as well. You can take your time doing this. Your lentils probably cracked because they weren't even heated, and/or they were too large to survive the vermiculite and just cooled too fast for their size.

It sounds like you have a kiln-- is there a reason you're not using it to garage your beads as you're making them, then running an annealing cycle?

Mimi

Thanks for much for your response. I need to be able to make smaller beads in the morning and then come back in the afternoon and make the bigger and encased beads and garage them.So, my thinking is this. To have a program where I can put the smaller beads in once they have cooled down in the vermiculite for 1 or 2 hours and get the program to go up to the heat to garage the 1" lentils as I make them. And then to be able to skip to the next segment once I have had the last lentil in the kiln for say 30 minutes. Am I being difficult? Is it possible? Trouble is I need to be flexible as I don't have a volume of large 1" lentils that could take a whole day. I am looking for the best of both worlds!

I always batch anneal at the end of the day but I can see that this will have to change. Even with my Zooziis nugget Trio and the Itty Bitty Trio the beads were cracking before annealing and after annealing.

Three weeks ago I changed my annealing program. I now have one to reheat cold spacer beads and hold at 940; a second one to just go ahead and anneal spacer beads from cold and a third one which heats the kiln fast and holds at 940 for me to make lentils and other pressed beads, rugby, etc. Since doing so, I have not had one broken bead in the kiln or during cleaning. I am so thrilled. I will happily share the details for any beginners like me.

Glad to hear that you worked through the cracking issue! Now you'll have even more fun. ��

Thanks Roberta. I am just so grateful to be part of this wonderful lamp working community where knowledge is shared and reliable advice is always on hand when one needs it!