Made a shop press

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liveaboard
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Made a shop press

Post by liveaboard »

I made a 20 ton shop press last week; probably dumb considering I could have bought a Chinese one new for $300.
But I had almost all the material lying around; a broken air/hydraulic jack looking for a problem to solve, a high pressure hand pump, and the steel.
I had to buy the pressure gauge, a new seal for the jack, and the paint.

2" heavy square tube
drilling uprights.jpg
Steel hydraulic tube
braze.jpg
tube cone.jpg
The bottom of the jack was convex; I don't know how that's possible. Anyway, I faced it. Here drilling a new oil port [welded the old ones closed]
jack bottom.jpg
Since the jack will be upside down, I put in a drain port. There is a second 'wiper' seal that sends oil that got passed the pressure seal into the reservoir.
jack oil drain.jpg
Last edited by liveaboard on Fri Nov 01, 2019 6:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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liveaboard
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Re: Made a shop press

Post by liveaboard »

The oil filler pressure gauge only cost around $10.
I made the connection block from mild steel and welded it to the pump bottom.
pressure gauge.jpg
pressure gauge2.jpg
First pressure test;
first pressure test.jpg
Second test, measuring the deflection of the upper beam at full pressure [indicator above is stuck to the wall behind]. I didn't think it would be strong enough, but it is [yay!]
deflection test.jpg
And here all painted and in use pressing a flange from an old bearing block;
bearing block in press.jpg
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warmstrong1955
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Re: Made a shop press

Post by warmstrong1955 »

Hey.....and there ya go! Looks good!
No cost really, other than your time! That's a good thing. You can spend the money you didn't spend on something else! ;)
I built mine out of stuff laying around as well, including the air over hydraulic jack I pulled out of a scrap metal bin, and fixed by replacing an o-ring. Only thing I paid for was the spray paint when I finally got to making it shiny.

I like it!

Bill
Today's solutions are tomorrow's problems.
RSG
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Re: Made a shop press

Post by RSG »

Nice job! You'll get more satisfaction from building it than buying it.
Vision is not seeing things as they are, but as they will be.
spro
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Re: Made a shop press

Post by spro »

That press really turned out well. I bet it is a joy to use.
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liveaboard
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Re: Made a shop press

Post by liveaboard »

Thanks guys; I'm really pleased with it so far.
A design fault though; the 24mm rods that hold the shelves bent a little at full pressure.
I need to find material and make some hardened rods for it.
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warmstrong1955
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Re: Made a shop press

Post by warmstrong1955 »

Mine are 1" 1045 TG&P, and I've had no problem. Only reason I used the 1045, was I had some leftovers laying around.
So.....a bit larger in diameter at 25.4 mm, and a bit greater yield. 36 ksi for mild, vs 40 ksi of 1045. Maybe that's all it takes, and it's closer than I thought? I didn't run the numbers....I winged it.
You could find some 4140 Q&T if you want to overkill it and be sure, which is at about 230 ksi yield.
Today's solutions are tomorrow's problems.
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BadDog
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Re: Made a shop press

Post by BadDog »

My 50T uses 4 rods
Russ
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spro
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Re: Made a shop press

Post by spro »

That is probably the answer because you don't want any more metal taken out the heavy 2"X 2"s. It is all assembled and looks great!
I mentioned having a 100,000 lb. hydraulic press and that is my "big one ". The way it works with the ram downward, avoids all those issues with a sliding fixture. Nice job on that, too. I'm getting to something important here, bear with me. Mine is constructed with wider "C" vertical beams and they built that everywhere on the press. That means the platen is two channels 5+" apart and most always, needs plates to bridge the gap between. The jack you have, may have been used in a similar situation and base became convex. Now that it is all trued up, very accurate compared to others.
An accurate press is a jewel as it should direct pressure to where the user set it.
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GlennW
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Re: Made a shop press

Post by GlennW »

Very well done!
Glenn

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Harold_V
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Re: Made a shop press

Post by Harold_V »

I agree with Glenn. Very nice looking press. I am in envy, as I don't have anything beyond my 6 ton arbor press. I do have a 100 ton 4 post press (manual hydraulic), but it isn't operational.

H
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liveaboard
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Re: Made a shop press

Post by liveaboard »

It's something I've needed for years; sometimes I had to go use one in a garage nearby, other times I made my vice do the work.
Yet they aren't expensive to buy, or difficult to make, and simple ones like this don't take up too much floor space.

Regarding higher yield rods; Europe uses different classification numbers for steel, and it's something I need to learn about.
I've worked with tons and tons of mild steel, but very little else. I'm planning a trip to Lisbon soon, to visit a steel yard who deals with engineering grades.
My local supplier has great prices and service, but only sells mild steel.
My language handicap doesn't help; people learn English in school, and then from media. People who speak really good fluent English usually don't know technical terms, even in their own industries.
Translation software is very unreliable for technical words. Usually you get a literal translation, and in the case of Portuguese, Brazilian instead of European. They're often very different.
So I learn a few words, and teach a few words, and we usually have a laugh.
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