Manley mechanical press

after seeing this masterpiece first hand, i can't see how the peanut gallery could really feel the gravity of this ultra-cool press.
i still have not, nor may i ever see, something so simple, so brute force utilitarian , and elegantly designed machine.
i would love to have a dire need to come and actually use it!!!! :grin big:
 
Too tired to look, but wondering if this company could be related to the current Manely automotive parts Co.. Hi performance valves, and other performance related parts. Off to bed, big day tomorrow. Mama's coming home, and have to pick her up in Gypsum. My son is bringing her half way up from Denver, as he had camping reservations up by Redstone. Also have a large, old, railway lathe to look at on the way there. Cheers, Mike
 
Ulma Doctor said:
after seeing this masterpiece first hand, i can't see how the peanut gallery could really feel the gravity of this ultra-cool press.
i still have not, nor may i ever see, something so simple, so brute force utilitarian , and elegantly designed machine.
i would love to have a dire need to come and actually use it!!!! :grin big:
Click to expand...
if you ever need it Mike it’s here.

I think the whole idea of this press is hard to capture digitally. I didn’t really get it until I went down and saw it. Even in it’s sad rusty tweaked condition it really appealed to my side that loves simple ingenious machines. There is a lot of crazy stuff in old barns. The guy who had this was a rancher and even though he had several other presses said he preferred this one over them.

This old press has been massively used and abused in ways I can only imagine. I’m sure it got really close to being junked. Like when they broke off that massive cast iron “ear” on cast iron body. One of possible future fixes is try and straighten the two angle irons cross braces. They are not little wimpy things! What were they doing when they bent those? The bed beams are bent too, but I flipped it over and the other side is good.
 
I knew I was not completely done with the Manley enough for paint but didn’t know what I was missing. After several uses where it came in handy it became clear. The bed on this antique is around 100lbs and the way the holes for the pins are set up they have awkward spaces between them so I can’t just walk it down like I would have in the past so I decided to go full monty and put a HF cable hoist on it to raise and lower the bed like the big presses. The 1000lb hoist from HF was like $40 but it had super thick cable on it so I swapped it out for some 3/16” cable I had. Made some guides out of some 1 1/4” solid PVC I had.

I also decided to put on double locking castors on it like what’s on scaffolds. Now just waiting on some press plates and should be good to go. Might even paint it……naw.
 

Attachments

  • D1E42660-443B-4190-BBED-D25D6956899A.jpeg
    D1E42660-443B-4190-BBED-D25D6956899A.jpeg
    2.1 MB · Views: 166
  • 1F2605D2-77DA-49B5-872C-4A8CDCC6B797.jpeg
    1F2605D2-77DA-49B5-872C-4A8CDCC6B797.jpeg
    1.8 MB · Views: 178
  • 5130A541-4363-4773-9264-8AD392A3B2C8.jpeg
    5130A541-4363-4773-9264-8AD392A3B2C8.jpeg
    2 MB · Views: 173
Had forgotten about your acquisition till you posted today. Looks like we could form a club as I Manley'd up too.
Still have to put the nameplate back on, but its only cast iron.
This one has a manufacture date of 1951. The manual feed has a ball thrust bearing. Guessing its a 40 ton.
IMG_4501.jpeg


Greg
 
And here I thought you were seeing something I'd mIssed lol

Greg
 
Many of the restored early Manley’s had what they called a speed press that was an arbor press built into one side. I wish mine had that because I am totally a fan of my separate 2tn arbor press. I have found so many uses for the arbor press. Like it was instrumental in getting the beads in the bulkheads I made to lay down flat with the blade attachment pressing into a hockey puck. Such a simple thing, but took a ton of warp out of those bulkheads and getting a panel to lay flat after i form it is a massive trick.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top