Hydraulic press project

Thanks for the offer on the jack. I bought a 20 ton jack on Ebay yesterday for $27.50 including shipping. Will get it next week.

Spent more time on the stand yesterday. My original plan for yesterday was raking the driveway ruts and spraying for weeds. It takes 60 gallons of weed killer to cover the gravel driveway and other areas that I spray. Takes awhile with a 4 gallon backpack sprayer. Tiring too. An hour or so to deal with the driveway.

I had to weld up the rake I use on the driveway. Drug the welder out and got that done. Since I already had the welder out I decided to weld the supports to the stand. Made sense to me. Well one thing lead to another. I bailed on the original plan and worked on the stand instead. Making something verses spraying weeds and raking the driveway. Not a hard decision. I got most of the holes drilled for the work rest/table and all of the pieces cut for the work rest/table. Went in to take a break and the power went out. That happens fairly often where I live because a lot of the power lines snake through trees and falling branches do a number on the power lines. Going to finish the work rest/table today.
 
The work rest/table is tacked together. The inner sides of angle iron aren't flat. They are angled. Is that where the name came from. The pieces weren't fitting together very well with the angled sides so I milled a flat on each end. Squared up the ends of the short cross pieces while I was at it. The work rest/table is a tight fit between the sides of the stand. Probably too tight. Better than too loose. That's all for today. The weed spraying is calling.

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The hydraulic jack showed up today. Now I need to figure out how I am going to mount it. Right side up. Upside down. Decisions. Decisions.

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I like the tube idea- certainly should work and much easier than any other way I've seen to make a jack work upside down
Of course, the pump action will be upside down too :)
-Mark
 
It would be easiest to mount the jack upside down. I might try that first. I will have to watch the video again that I posted. Can't hurt to try. I can always try some other configuration.
 
that's certainly short'n'stout! Looks about the same height as mine but twice the diameter.

How thick are the uprights? Might be worth doing some rough calculations and seeing if you have enough strength to oppose 20t from the jack. For reference my 10t enerpac is two 1" round (either solid or thick wall tube) uprights either side and the top and bottom of the frame are 2 1/2 x 1" bars (again, don't know if solid or tube). It's really heavy. I can't really pick it up, so I'd guess something between 120-150lb for the frame and cylinder.
 
I believe I have all of the parts I need to finish the press with the exception of springs to retract the ram. I'll figure that out once everything is in place. And I need to get this done because the new seals for the rear end on my midget showed up. I need the press to get the old ones out and the new ones in.

There are two ways that I can mount the jack. I can mount it sideways which I think would be the strongest because the supports would not only be welded on but also bear against the top cross piece. Down side is it might be awkward to use.

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Or I can mount the jack front to back. This is the typical way you see a press. One support piece would need to be cut to miss welds on the cross piece and it wouldn't be welded to the side of the frame. It would only be welded to the top cross piece.

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This is probably 6 of one verses half a dozen another type of issue. It probably doesn't matter when all is said and done.

How do you guys think I should do it?
 
I would bolt the jack to a 1/2" thick piece of steel plate and put 2 screws through that to a plate on the other side of the channel. That way you can reposition the jack from one side to the other if you have an odd shaped piece to work on. My enerpac has that function, though in all honesty I haven't needed to use it yet.
 
The basic stand is done. I still have to make the jack work upside down and I will need to make some fixtures to hold things that I put in the press.
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I used up the last of the free bed frame I was given to make the attachment supports for the jack. I doubt that I will ever use a bed frame in a project again. Went through several drills to drill four holes to attach the jack. The first two holes went ok. The last two were a nightmare. Never again.
 
Got the jack filled with oil and the line going to the reservoir. It sort of works. Pumps very slow. I think there is some air trapped somewhere. I will take everything apart tomorrow including the pump mechanism on the jack.
 
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