When I switched from soiless to coco I rinsed as much dirt off the rootballs as I could, then plonked them into the coco. pH feeds to 5.8, no problems, and I've never looked back. I sucked in mud, but coco is a breeze :)
This is one of the greatest threads out there, weed related or not!
Thanks for taking the time, THO, like you're not busy enough, lol!
Hope it's the best new year ever for ya!
Moe, I don't have a press or even do dabs, but I have a buddy who made one with the HF table top press. Sounds like it's it's just as janky as the one you have. He welded a bunch of stiffening stuff on it, and I mean on almost every structural part... then he went got the floor model! LOL!