Apparently you have not read the hundreds of posts here about the Squeezo, Villaware, Roma, Weston, or whatever brand its called today. You can find all the answers, byt simply doing a keyword search for the word 'Squeezo', 'Villaware', or Roma, as well as the words 'food strainer' ALL of these are similar and ALL of these require an OPTIONAL shorter grape spiral, as grape seeds cannot pass out the end of the strainer without jamming. There are THREE OPTIONAL STRAINBERS and the OPTIONAL shorter grape SPIRAL that is sold as an attachment set, which can be purchased seperately. The various machines also have several improvements, like newer twist on strainers that are held on the body housing by a small single thumb screw. Also, a shaft seal to prevent leaking out from the crank shaft. The older Squeezo and Victorio used big wing nuts to hold the strainers onto the housing. I have the complete set of optional screens for the newer designs, and have used the smaller holed one for extracting all the juice from red raspberries which will prevent seeds from gettng into the juice. The one that comes with the machine is useful for tomatoes, and with the shorter grape spiral it will prevent the jamming due to the large grape seeds. The other two optional screens have larger holes and one is useful to mash applesauce, and the largest hole with approximately 1/4 inch round holes is good for making a minced tomato product. Proceeding to run the machine with grapes with big seeds can rupture and distort the screen, rendering it useless.

For a real Squeezo, there is NOT an optional grape spiral/scroll available. The Villaware, Vitorio, Weston, Roma, and Norpro Sauce Master can use the optional grape spiral/scroll which can be purchased on-line for about $12.

For those of us with Squeezo's, it is back to the old fashioned way of making grape juice for jam or jelly, but not by using the Squeezo. Mash them, quickly bring them to a boil and simmer 10 minutes, and then strain the pulp using a jelly bag or layers of cheesecloth to get juice. If you have an electric juicer it will handle the grape seeds easily, but in a different way. If you have a Foley Food mill, it will let you get the pulp out and leave some of the seeds in the screen. If you have a Chinois, or cone colander, it would also work. Both of these take more labor to de-seed grapes and you still have to jelly bag the results. These last two are fairly inexpensive to buy new, and worth it for other canning uses.

Nancy

Thanks for the help!

Nancy, I agree, I have an old stainless steel Squeezo and there is not a grape screen available for them. Ken was kind enough to help me by finding a user's guide on line, since my mother had given me the Squeezo, it had been in her shed for years.

I really like it for tomato sauce, for apple sauce, but not for grapes. I have gotten around the problem by planting seedless concord grapes, LOL.

I also have grapes currently draining for jelly that will be made tonight, the remainder will be canned as juice. I cooked them, crushed them, and then poured them into an old pillowcase. I tie the pillow case shut with clothesline rope and hang it from the back of a kitchen chair so it drips into a pan below. Grandma used to hang hers on a nail from the basement rafters.

I do have a jelly bag, but it doesn't hold enough, I can drain a lot of juice with a pillowcase and be done with it.

Annie

Annie - the pillowcase is a super idea for the huge amounts I harvest too! I would use a new 100% cotton pillowcase though, washed and bleached a few times, not a used one, since science tells us that our skin cells shed constantly and laying your pretty little head on the pillowcase every night means that even with lots of washing/bleaching/sun-drying, the cells are still embedded there. (Trust me - I take in used fabrics for making charity quilts and the pillowcases are tossed as there is no way we could ever get any clean enough to be odor-free or sanitary - we've tried! If you don't believe me - have someone else smell your pillowcase - you are inured to your own personal body's fragrance.) I know, gross, but true.

Nancy

Nancy, the pillow case was new once, many, many years ago. Actually, it was new when I bought it to do jelly, I wanted a white one. Why? Beats me, it's sure not white any more with all those grapes and elderberries and blackberries and apples, I've been using it for probably 20 years as a jelly bag!

I don't know if Grandma's was new or not, but I figure the stuff all gets cooked anyway, so it was probably fine. (grin)

It works great, though...

Annie

Here is a link for all the squeezo parts. The same site also sells the optional screens, but no grape spiral. I would suppose that if you had a spare spiral it could be cut down shorter by about one quarte its length, and that may allow big grape seeds to pass through the end. My old Victorio had almost the same exact design with wooden plunger and aluminium funnel. The screens were also fitted with the big wing nuts. I sold that several years ago, as its shaft leaked badly when doing tomatoes. The current squeezo has been in production for 25-30 years, and the machine is now made by Garden Way, while older units were made by Lemra. Both made here in the US.

Here is a link that might be useful: Squeezo parts

The post from ksrogers about grape seeds damaging the strainer screen has given me pause.

I have been thinking about using a strainer for small batch berry squeezing. The models you describe are kin to a commercial grape crusher using an archimedes screw. I currently have made my own cog type crusher, and use a filter bag to strain.

I use the small batches for jellys and jams. As a wine maker, I don't think this strainer would be useful for a small wine batch would it?

msieng, what type of wine? Grape? If so, I don't think the squeezo is your answer.

Mine is very old, and I find that it gets blackberry seeds out relative well with the smallest screen, but some of the smaller red raspberry seeds get through.

Annie

Most of my wine is fruit based, plum, peach, and pear. I make a blackberry merlot, but use fermentation extraction and pressing for that.

What I would like is an easier way to extract juice from my muscadines and scuppernongs in small batches for jelly, jam and syrup. Now its crush, strain off and press hulls, and then filter. If the strainer would work, I could just press out juice and strain.

just a thought.

I use the strainer attachment on my Kitchen Aid mixer. It has the spiral. I think the spiral is available for most strainers. It handles the bigger seeds.