Pressing My Own Block/Bar

That's a cool project, Don. I believe St. Valentine also pressed his own lugs so I hope he has some comments and advice for you. Keep us posted.

Oh yeah, been there, done that.

Of course like in everything people have their own ideas and methods how to proceed. First thing to know it that the professionals use a lot of steam and hydraulic presses with up to 50 tons.
And of course there´s a reason for that. So all we can do is trying to get near. Using simple tools I had some good results in the past.
Talking about pressure: Some people use a vice or clamps together with wooden or PVC form. I personally don´t believe you can achieve anything more than a loose crumble cake with
such a equipment. On the other hand there is not enough room for a 50 ton press in my basement too.   What you can get cheap on Ebay are hydraulic bench presses and I started
with a six ton press.
I made myself a form that would resist that kind of pressure out of a 2" stainless steel tube and two brass blocks that fit in the tube. I cover those blocks with backing paper.
By moistening the tobacco with any media you like you add the "glue" to it. Don´t overdo this, otherwise you have a sticky mess coming out through the gaps of your form (ask me how I know this).
For getting something near a plug you need to keep it under pressure for at least two weeks, better longer.

Right now I have another mixture in the press and will let you all know how it came out this weekend.

Here´s the  rig:

Don word of caution, I f you are going to make a form for pressing plugs make sure you use a good hardwood.

After having a mixture of VA, Per and a bit of booze in my 6-ton press for about four weeks I opened it up today to see the results.

It has roughly the size of a hockey puck and feels quite hard so I assume it came out as a plug. Still needs a bit of drying but cutting it will reveal if it is only a kake or a plug. It smells heavily of the liqueur I was using - yummy!

I was quite generous with the Per and I hope it will not knock me down! 

Wow Frank, that looks great!

I will let it sit for a day or two and then try to cut it. It seems indeed quite dense and I think the four weeks of pressing time did it. I wasn´t too generous with the liqueur this time which helps.

Right now I am smoking a crumble cake I made last year. It is more dark and has a liqueur topping too - delicious!

You'll need whole leaf to make a plug but this is a great looking Kake!

I make a cigar mixture but I just use a humble bean can and a C-clamp to press it. I don't add any liquid and after a week or so under pressure it comes out solid. 

The general idea is that if it's safe enough to eat, it's safe for smoking/vaping. I'm no scientist and try to play it safe with what I inhale. I did find this www.bullcityflavors.com/sweetener-tfa/ as a really safe bet to sweeten tobacco for smoking. 

I imagine if asked, Jeremy from Cornell and Diehl would confirm what I'm saying, as their home mixing kit comes with the candy flavoring.  

And if you REALLY want to get into it, take a look here: link

I'm sure I did blow it out of proportion, but I'm still playing it safe and will not smoke sugar if I can help it. I do not feel it's safe, whether or not others think it is, is irrelevant to me. Thanks, though, for your thoughts, I was only trying to warn him as some don't know it's bad for you.

The RJ Reynold's book is cool too, but as we know, they don't care if we get cancer.

Why didn't the Native American Indians get cancer from tobacco inhalation? They probably didn't add anything (additives (like what big tobacco uses)/casings) to their tobaccos.

Frank, I agree it's better to play it safe. I hate to say this though, but you are probably already smoking those candy flavorings in your aro's now. It's just the vaping industry used the same candy flavorings because the tobacco industry did so long before them for flavor. My example here is Captain Black, we American's generally start with that as a first tobacco and it's done so with chocolate emulsified with propylene glycol (pg). PG is also the main ingredient used to slow the burn of tobacco (FSC cigarette in America as an example).

PS. I would never smoke or recommend smoking a vaping ejuice. It's formulated with Vegetable Glycerine and I'm positive that won't burn well. Not to mention, you'd be adding nicotine (if equipped, lol) to nicotine. No thank you, sir.

One more thing for clarification and I'm done I promise, just want the information to be correct for safety purposes as this is a resource. I'm not referencing flavoring EXTRACTS. Those have water and/or alcohol and are weaker in flavor. Those your Momma used to make pound cakes with. The liquids I'm talking about are the concentrates from Lorann, Capella, Flavor West, etc. and they contain only the flavor in propylene glycol. They are made to flavor candy, tobacco, coffee, and eliquid, not foods.

I would also guess that if you goofed and used the water/alcohol based extracts, that you could let the alcohol evaporate off as part of that moisture control understanding. It would still be weak and probably nasty in the end, but experience is a great teacher. You could also reduce the flavoring with low heat to evaporate it, like what is commonly done with rum casings. Some folks heat the alcohol off prior to tobacco indroduction, while others let the tobacco steep submerged while letting it air to evaporate the alcohol then press at a specific time to still retain the moisture added from the flavoring. I still can't recommend using an extract for flavoring anything but foods. Use the proper concentrate, please.

Tonight I have cut the first slices from my latest tobacco pressing/blending experiment. Well, I have to say it came oiut splendidly! The VA and Per ratio is just right without the Per being too strong for me (nicotene-wise). The VA doesn´t bite at all and I still can taste the sweetness of the liqueur which I used for a topping. It even came out as a proper plug and not like a crumble cake. I dare to say that this blend is up to par with some of the professionally made ones I have tasted. So after all it is possible to make a great blend at home with blending tobaccos/mixtures. Now if I only would remember the exact ratio of the tobaccos I have used....