Shop Press upgrades

[chips&more]

Several light years ago I made the pictured below 50 ton pneumatic/hydraulic press. At that time its intent was to drop Model T front ends, but nowadays I use the press to smash the bejesus out of projects that go astray. It does not have a jack handle to operate, just open the air pressure valve and away she goes. Maybe of interest is the quick adjust/feed on the ram with Buttress threads. And the hand crank winch used to assist in raising and lowering the table. I picked up the winch at a local Flea Market, I think it was a boat trailer winch in another life. I procured the tank, pneumatic amplifier and winch everything thing else was homebrewed.

- - - Updated - - -

Also along the topic of smashing things, is the below pictured 3 ton arbor press. But, now with a hole in the end of the rack/ram. I can’t believe how handy the recently acquired arbor press has been. And now that I have it, my bench vise has gotten a break. The arbor press is now a must have in my shop. And to make it even more useful, I put a hole in the end of the rack so attachments could easily be fitted. To make the hole, I attached the rack to a Bridgeport table on the back side. The rack is positioned vertical with the not business end of the rack pointing to the floor, and that end of the rack was shimmed off the floor for support. Swung the BP head around at the base. Lined things up and made the hole.

 

[12bolts]

chips,
Nice press.
can you just clarify please, is that a air over hydraulic jack, or did you modify a straight hydraulic jack to be air operated?

cheers Phil

 

[chips&more]

The press is an air over hydraulic amplifier pump with ram. You can see the pump pictured in the upper top right corner in the first picture. Sorry, I can’t recall exactly, but the pump’s specs is something like 90 psi air in and 2,000 psi hydraulic out. The ram piston is just that, with hydraulic pressure for pushing down and 90 psi air for the piston return.

 

[markknx]

Chips&more I'mjust wondering what you use the drill chuck for? is it to start small pins?

 

[markknx]

Here is some pics of my press and some of the tooling I have made for it. The only mods I have made are the addition of nylon glides on the ram support to fix the side to side and front to back movement these presses are known for. Also the clams I added on the top channel to hold the jack handle wile not in use. Mark

 

[wquiles]

Wow, awesome upgrades )

 

[markknx]

Found two air Hydro jacks on creigslist last night went out andpicked them up today One is 10" tall 20 ton, the other is a low profile 20 ton. the 10" is going to be used to covert my press to air over Hydro. I will get some pic. of the jacks and some of the upgrading. although it should be a pretty simple mod. The jack is 1" taller than the one in the press.

 

[SG51Buss]

This is a great thread. Many good ideas in here.

I got the Cummins 20 ton press awhile back. About the same price as the HF press.
What I like about this press is:

- The ram can be slid to the left and right, handy for awkward jobs.
- The single side rail design gives you a little more wiggle room to fit those awkward jobs.
- The hand pump/reservoir is remote, easier to place and align the job while pumping.
- A pressure gauge

During assembly, be sure to apply a little pressure before tightening the upper crossover bolts.
To be safe, acquire the good press plates. The included crap-cast plates aren't straight/smooth/level.



I printed out a 'tonnage' gauge ring, sticky-backed to the gauge face.



Thanks to the ideas in this thread, I plan to add some kind of hand-crank winch for adjusting the base/table.

 

[HSS]

Excellent press works. I haven't posted in a while and the site has changed up a bit; I don't know if I can still post pictures. I had some problems with pictures being rotated after I attached them. I'll start another thread when I figure it out again and not hijack this one.
Patrick

 

[ndnchf]

This is an old thread, but hoping you guys can show more shop press modifications. I just got a new HF 20 ton and am looking for ideas.