There is a very old cider press in a town about 45 minutes from me built by a Swiss Immigrant in the mid 1800s. The press beam is a single white oak timber 30 feet in length, 30 inches square.
How the man managed to move this timber and build the press by himself is a mystery.

THe press also features two hand carved wooden screws. It only uses one for lowering and raising the press, the other ha made as a backup in case the first one should break, The second screw has never seen a day of use. The people who operate it now continue the custom of heavily greasing all the moving parts with lard every time they use it. That's kept the machine working fine for over 150 years with no major repairs.

The press itself is modeled after old wine presses used in Switzerland. The legend is that he had to figure out how to transfer the design of much smaller wine presses into such a large design, however I don't believe this story as I have seen the presses in Switzerland that are just as large.