Upgrading Harbor Freight 20-ton Press to Air

[BadDog]

Oh, very good, I missed that in the pic. Basically just like mine.

[BadDog]

Oh, and the HF press plates are dangerous. Those need replacing.

[warmstrong1955]

Oh, very good, I missed that in the pic. Basically just like mine.

Wasn't my idea....years ago, we had a 50 ton air/hydraulic press at a just starting manufacturing facility. Don't remember who mfg it, I should, I ordered it, but it was a good one.
It had a foot pedal.
It had changeable 'tips'....came with a half dozen, and we kept making more.
That press was used for a lot of stuff....including forming plate & things.

So.....even on the junk-yard budget....I copied a lot of that!

[BadDog]

Yes, that's a fantastic feature.

Mine still has the 2 speed hand pump, which is good enough for my needs. But I've often pondered converting to air-over. I've got one of those little stand alone air-over power packs (like a big brick), so all I would need is a coupler. And it even has the foot operation built in to the rocker, if you're ok with your foot 6" above the floor. I used those all the time on the frame machine I had many years ago.

[warmstrong1955]

We had one of those at a rebuild shop. A 35 ton Enerpac ram & two-speed hand pump.
I bought a Enerpac air over hydraulic pump for it....yeah....looked like a brick, a bit smaller than a shoe-box, and foot operated.
Made it much nicer, but I remember they got a chunk of change for that thing.
Probably mild compared to today's dollar.....

[BadDog]

Sounds like the same thing. I think it was a couple or three hundred for the air-over pump I have. I got it planning to put quick fittings on a variety of setups. For example there is the press, and a big tube bender, maybe even the engine crane, etc.

[SteveHGraham]

Oh, and the HF press plates are dangerous. Those need replacing.

Are you referring to your own press? Harbor Freight went to steel arbor plates years ago, and I got my press after the change.

[BadDog]

Oh, didn't know that. Mine had those grey cast iron things that were not only not flat, but far too easily broken in use.

My current press has 2" x 12" x 20" steel AR 600 plate. Freaking heavy but they aren't going to be damaged by a measly 50T press. A friend of mine repairs heavy mining equipment for the local mines and let me dig through his drops (says something when digging through "drops" require a decent sized forklift, much of it well over 2" thick) for material, and cut it on his 2D CNC flame cutter. Speaking of heavy, I have 4 of them with some different contours, and use them as weight on my landscaping drag box (actual Gannon) when using it to rip.

[SteveHGraham]

It's hard to believe they ever let a set of cast plates make to a customer.

[whateg0]

Shifting is one reason I hate those presses that use a floor jack and a floating transverse beam. Even when I built my old press that used a 20T bottle jack, I used a solid bar through a vertical tube that was fixed to the frame. So, really no different on that end that a fixed cylinder. On that, though, I bent a piece of 1"x1/8" flat stock to form a fence around the base of the bottle jack to keep it in place. The press is long gone now, but the bottle jack still gets used occasionally when needed. In fact, while I still had the press, if I needed 20T of lifting, I just pulled the ram down, out from under the jack and put a clamp on it to hold it in place until the jack was returned.

Dave

[liveaboard]

I'm in process of building a 20 ton press;
I seem to going the other way. It was a air over hydraulic jack but it came broken and with parts missing, so I'm going to use a hand pump I have from a different junk score.
If you have only air, is it sensitive enough to do things like straighten shafts? Or do you have a hand pump as well?
I've been using a press at a nearby shop and it has a pressure gauge; I found it very useful because it stops rising when you get to the yield point.
I'm waiting for the gauge and a new pump shaft seal, then I can finish.
I bought the jack at auction long ago, I didn't realize it was so damaged. The base was pushed concave! How could that even happen?
Some things just have to be faced...

[spro]

I own 3 presses not counting small arbor presses. Dake screw press, another bench press, hydraulic press cylinder with gage and separate pump and the 50 ton in a garage. I like the 50 ton's large pressure gage . I Really like the pump because it is two stage. One stage is rapid movement (which puts considerable pressure) Then move the handle to the second stage. That's where stuff really happens, so a two stage pump is pretty cool. It is a separate unit with its own reservoir and these units may be available.