Hydraulic floor press?

[Supra967]

yes pins under bed for gasweld press. Bed couldn't be moved 'straight' so you had to side step it down, and with the sledge there was no gaurentee where it would end up, so half the time you'd overshoot the pin hole (sometimes only by a little bit, so you'd put the hammer down and try and lift it. bad idea )

Great price for that steel, less than half of brand new. I bought a few things off grays from workshop/gym closures and had no problem. I picked up a brand new 6in bore - 1200 stroke air cylinder (i think it was parker) for $100. Generally, they don't care what they sell, once the tag is on (for workshop stuff) that's it, at least all the little cheapo things.

cylinders size:
5in bore - 20T @ 150bar
4in bore - 12t @ 150bar

Anything in that size is going to be cost heaps. The bottle jack option is pretty good actually, and i'd personally be staying clear of anything that needs a pump added - fittings ect can add up real quick.

If you want to go the engine crane option, you might as well hunt around for the cheapest poo poo one around and start chopping, should have all the steel/mounting plates you need for <$300

Or...
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-Baumr...item25748b134f

cheap but most likely shitty too, but there's a lot there for the money. Long stroke, pump operated and when you're not pressing out bearings you can clean up the firewood around your yard

[thechuckster]

fwiw, I made a small press out of left-over rack frames and a light-truck jack - despite double-skinning everything, it (top arm) starts to bend with limited effort.




Go the biggest you can fit and a proper inverted ram as working on top of the ram is a PITA.

[oldcorollas]

how thick is the top metal?

hmm,
portapower



pumps
high/low pressure $169 http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10000Psi-...item3f1f0f3406
high pressure only $110 http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/8000Psi-H...item3f1f8aa90e
cheaper http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10-Ton-Hy...item3f1f870c8b

rams
4 ton cheapey $120 http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HYDRAULIC...item3f1f7bc610
10 ton, 150mm stroke, shorter body, looks chunkier $210 http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10TON-HYD...item2c6992cf43

not sure on what fittings they have.. fittings should be easy tho.

dodgy 10 ton portapower. 390mm ram for 150mm stroke
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10-Ton-Po...item2c68450eab

plus $xxx for steel...
I like the hi/low pump, and the 10 ton yellow ram = $400ish already...

other ideas



check out his other toys
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/s...2122&showall=1

[thechuckster]

how thick is the top metal?

the top and bottom angle pieces are probably 2-2.5mm. The top also had a section of the side U-channel in it which is probably 2mm. Only the angle material bolts to the uprights bit everywhere there's doubled-up material there's high-tensile bolts & washers clamping it all up.

I like the top-mounted ram tho would also have some sort of assistance with adjusting the height of the table.

I used one press that used huge pins under the table - one would always get stuck and so if it's only you in the workshop, you have to somehow belt out the stuck pin while also stopping the heavy table part from dropping onto the floor (e.g. your foot).

If you know someone who works in the agricultural/earthmoving maintenance game, see if you can scab a cheap 2 foot double-action ram and some hardware to drive it. Hydraulic pumps are fairly cheap and can be driven by an old vacuum cleaner or washing machine motor with suitable pulleys. My brother's partner has an etching press constructed all from ex-ag equipment except the two press plates - would happily put 100s of psi on a table about 600x600. Downside was it needed a min of 4 people to move it around the studio.


edit: a quick look on ebay has rams starting new from $200 and dodgy used items from $100. 12V pumps (used) from $100, or plain pumps (used from about the same peso. Double-action spool valves seem to be the most expensive item as they're mostly new.

[oldcorollas]

good ideas, thanks don't have close friends in those games tho..

starting to think if i'm going to make one in the next week, would be easier to use the engine crane ram with an A frame
but the ends of it are not conducive to an easy design.. or are they? hmm
main prob is i don't have a lot of steel lying around atm.. and th ebugger would be tall.

or just spend $400 on something like this
https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/P143

if it bends under the loads i put on it, then beef it up with 10mm plate and welder
could also beef up around the pin holes with 10mm plate tabs with hole welded on.. easy to do. would also be easy to make the bed wider etc.. if needed


PS, with those bottle jacks, apparently is easy to modify them to use an external oil tank, so you can mount them upside down..

[oldcorollas]

could possibly use the ram from a trolley jack... they have decent extension.. but unfortunately have holes drilled in the ends for the bolts on which to pivot..

might work for a cheap short term thing.. may need to be used sideways...

[thechuckster]

The HF item has a lot going for it - the piston is directly acting on your work piece, pump is in a sensible place, has 190mm of extension, comes from HF.

Downsides are the press table requiring two people to safely shift.


An engine crane piston just needs a triangular piece either side with a huge hole thru it. You have welder?

I wouldn't bother modifying the small bottle jack - would rather buy a porter-power pump unit and attach/buy rams as required.

[oldcorollas]

only 140mm extension, but maybe that's enough... HF is still china-spec, just a little better than usual, and with a warranty that might even be worth something

table shift =kangaroo jack?


or just counterweight with wire and pulley for effortless movement...
or trolley jack with various lengths of wood..

[Supra967]

If you're looking at motors and long rams you can't beat those log splitters for value.

HF item looks good too. Wouldn't worry about the table movement, you shouldn't be able to do one pin at a time if it's built right.

[oldcorollas]

thinking HF item will be the go..
easy, not that exxy, can make wider bed for when needed....
saves a lot of stuffing around in a short time

now looking for equiv setups for similar price..



hmm, maybe AIS places can get hafco also.. there's one near work
https://www.alltools.com.au/shop/ind...PP-20_20_Tonne

[oldcorollas]

went in to gasweld today.. their 20ton remote pump one (Toolex?) looks identical to the above H&F one.. even down to the dodgy cast press plates
the ram travel of the toolex is listed at 115mm, whereas H&F is 140mm
maybe they have different rams??? pumps?? evenrything else looked the same.. even the warning stickers and their location

this looks very similar to both of them
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/51...ith_gauge.html
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/36...ith_gauge.html

i think they are evenb copying each others pictures

[oldcorollas]

got the H&F 20 ton today. boxes say 100kg.. heavy
pump and ram look better than the gasweld model for sure..

going to start assembling tonight then need to get good press-plates, bearing separator etc..

edit: it assembled very well, holes lined up and apart from 1 spring washer, was complete.

the top member was a little skewiff, but should be ok.. the ram hangs from a thick solid plate that pushes up against it, so a few deg here and there is ok.
got the air out of the ram and pump and now it squishes things good.
might need to add a little more fluid to get to the end of the range...

overall, very impressed with the chinese build quality

[petergoudie]

Is there any chance one of the uprights is upside down causing the slight skew of the top member? If not, I would take back both uprights and get a pair with the same drilling pattern. You don't want any misalignment when pushing bearings and seals.

Also, can you tell me if the thick ram plate is threaded? For a 20 tonne ram it is probably about 60mm diameter at the thread.

[oldcorollas]

the uprights cannot be confused.

the top member is comprised of two U channels, with (from memory) angle welded between them to space them apart.
the "legs" of the U channels should be parallel to each other, but they are not quite.
there was also a little extra space between them (ie the gap between them was a bit wider than the width of the uprights).
this could all be easily fixed by slitting the angle,and rewelding at the correct spacing and with the U channels perfectly parallel...

I'll try and get a photo tomorrow.

but.. the ram is held by the thick plate, so as logn as that is aligned, all good.

i think the ram itself (piston) may be 60mm diameter (or so says the gauge).
the ram body is threaded, with a small collar to go on top (10mm?) and a large collar on the bottom (the one that takes the force)
the plate the ram goes into is not threaded, so all the force is resisted by the large lower collar

anyway, a few photos and measurements tomorrow

[4th surf]

Now mine looks like the one in the top pic but was only a 10 tonne. then the bottle jack died so a new 20 tonne jack got purchased and fitted. I did mod the press to do Hilux rear wheel bearings (with a drill) and no problem, The whole press via gumtree and a replacement bottle jack later cost about $250 but the other fittings and bits and pieces that you find that you need is where the cost adds up. Hell one of the collars cost more than the press and jack