Wood Splitter To Broach Press

JimDawson

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I needed a broach press for broaching keyways and other stuff and I had a cheap Chinese 7 ton wood splitter sitting on the shelf so with some modifications I have a pretty nice broach press. It was pretty much useless as wood splitter anyway.

First I cut off the wedges, then fabbed a base shelf, welded that on to the frame. Then cut off the original ram plates and made some that were 5/8" thick. I threaded the bottom one for 1"-8 all-thread for an adjustable height ram.

broachpress1.jpg Click on images for a larger view

I had to weld on some additional feet because it was a bit unstable and wanted to tip backwards, and it makes it nice for clamping to my forklift forks. A fork lift makes a nice adjustable height work bench also.


broachpress2.jpg

It is a bit heavy to move around so I welded an eye to the top so I could pick it up with a chain.

In these pictures, I am broaching two 1/2" square holes in about 300 dog bone shaped parts
pile-o-dogbones.jpg

These are light guide mounting brackets for a 40 ft tall, computer controlled chandelier with surround sound and flying light show, not my project, I just built the brackets

chandelier.jpg

broachpress1.jpg broachpress2.jpg pile-o-dogbones.jpg chandelier.jpg
 
Nice Idea using the log splitter. Wouldn't mind seeing bore uf that light display. Looks instering.
 
Jim, I had this very same idea. It's nice to see someone has done it. I do a lot of 1/2" hex broaching and key-way broaching of various sizes. My 3 ton arbor press is not quite tall enough to where I have to start some of the broaches in the hydraulic press which can be a pain to keep straight.

Questions;

How much room does it take up (foot print)
Is the power sufficient? Say to a 5T arbor press?
What is the max height between the ram and base?
Does it push straight or did you need to make any modifications in that regard?
 
It's about a foot wide, by about 20 inches deep.
Plenty of power, it's rated at 7 tons but seems to have a bit more push than that.
Ram to base max is about 18 inches, with about 18 inches of travel
It seems to push straight, no modifications in that regard.

The only change I would make is to move the ram out a bit more, maybe 1.5 inches or so to get more clearance between the ram and the frame and thus allow larger parts. I have thought about building a new frame to have an actual C-frame press with more clearance.
 
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