does anyone make their own soymilk or tofu?

i go back to texas on tuesday morning from a two week vacation with three goals i plan to accomplish....

1. find my motivation again! i have lost 60 pounds so far and need to start working as hard as i used to at this.
2. fix up a used bike/drive my car less
3. start making my own soymilk and tofu.

i have the recipes to make both, but i was just wondering if anyone here makes their own soymilk and tofu and has any idea, tips, do's, or dont's for me. or let me know if this is something that takes practice to perfect.. anything! i'm brand new at it and very excited!

You need a special box for the fermenting, says hubby from the other room. He tried it and said it was interesting, but now we buy it - actually cheaper.

I never made my own tofu, but we have made our own soymilk. We have a maker and it's pretty easy. You just need to soak the beans and add water. It's pretty easy to clean up to. We have alos made a combination with garbanzo beans as well. I forget which machine we have...I will have to look it up. It's not very time consuming, it's cheap and it eliminates packaging :)

I have a few recipes for both... Hotpot Tofu, Basket tofu, green and lavender tofu, bamboo tofu, and matcha tofu. I havent tried any yet but they are pretty simple and they are made in a hotpot, a strainer or basket with cheesecloth, a wooden tofu mold, hollowed bamboo, and a glass mold respectively.
With fresh soymilk youcaneven make yubu. That is delish and very expensive to buy most places, but very easy to make. Check out some recipes for that if you do try making soymilk. Its the best source of protein you canget. I have Shunju Japanese cookbook but there are many more less fancy (amazing cookbook with good tofu ideas but seriously... some of the recipes are beyond impractical including one that can only be done in the japanese mountains and a few would cost over $100 to prepare for)

Very easy to do.  soy milk maker is much, much easier to make soy milk.  Soyapower is one manufacturer but there are many.  Soya power you add 1/2 cup soaked soybeans and 6 cups water, turn it on and it grind and cooks soybeans and makes soy milk in 20 minutes.  we like the milk better if strained it through a cloth. 

tofu is very easy to make.  You can use store bought soy milk although then it becomes more expensive than buying tofu -- although fresh tofu is much better tasting and has a better texture.  I first got turned on to it at a Japanese store I used to go to that had a little tofu factory in the store.  Fresh tofu is creamy and very tasty.  The steps are simple:  heat the milk to 165 +/- degrees, add a few teaspoons of Nigari dissolved in water (nigari is a natural tofu solidifieer derived from sea-salt also called calcium sulfate).  You add the nigari a little at a time and as soon as it starts to separate or coagulate or curdle, stop adding nigari and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Then, pour the the goopy liquid into a tofu mold (you can buy all of this stuff and one comes with the soyapower soy milk maker) lined with a damped cloth.  You put a weight on the top of the tofu mold and let it sit for 20 minutes or so and you have a nice block of tofu.  I think about 2 cups of dried beans makes 3 gallons of soymilk which makes 2 pounds of tofu.  The thing to remember is that it's a bit of work but I think fresh tastes way better than store-bought tofu.