Shop Press.

[aametalmaster]

Here is a shop press project that has been ongoing for the last 17 years or so. I started it cutting and punching all the metal. Then i got side tracked with my train bridges so it sat for about 15 years in the corner. Then one night my daughter came home and said they wanted 80 bucks to press a new wheel bearing in her car. I jumped up and said wait a few hours i will do it. So i went to my lathe and made up the split block to hold the jack and proceded to weld up the frame. Then next day it was done. The orig 6T jack worked fine as long as my torch was handy to heat up some of the parts but i thought 12T would be better. I really didn't want to stress the frame with a 20T since the reason i started this press i forgot long ago. So move ahead 2 years i had bought a 12T jack and had the split blocks made to hold it to the top of the press i just needed to swap it all out. Since this was a long weekend and its too cold to feed the fish i headed to the garage. Just had to drill some new mounting holes and make some clamps with my shaper to hold the base of the jack to the plate and its done again. Now i am working on some more quick change tooling for smaller shafts since i am doing some bearing salvage. More pics of that to come.
Another feature of this press is its going to double as a hoist frame to lift my 2 bigger lathes on their feet. The press bed and bottom plate are bolted in so i can remove them with the jack. Then i can straddle my lathe bed and with a 1/2T chain hoist attached to the top of the press frame i can safely lift my heavy parts. Enjoy. ???? just ask...Bob

 

[PurpLev]

nice build. looks heavy duty. what do you find that this will be used for mainly in your shop?

 

[aametalmaster]

nice build. looks heavy duty. what do you find that this will be used for mainly in your shop?

I press in about 25 keyways with my broach set in pulleys i make every year. I was borrowing my buddies press since mine wasn't done. And i press in/out u joints in drive shafts since i custom make them i need to remove the old u joints first. And the neighbors just love that i have a press so they can bring over their parts...Bob

 

[Ray C]

I can't speak for the OP but, you can't live life w/o a good press if you do broaching (which I find myself doing a lot of). Also good for the occasional stuck part -that won't fit in the vise or that you don't want to bang on w/ a hammer. BTW: I have home-made benchtop version of something very similar and it gets used a lot.

nice build. looks heavy duty. what do you find that this will be used for mainly in your shop?

 

[PurpLev]

thanks for the responses. always thought of arbor presses when thinking 'broaching'. I guess this press would makes things easier.

 

[aametalmaster]

thanks for the responses. always thought of arbor presses when thinking 'broaching'. I guess this press would makes things easier.

I have 2 arbor presses and never used either of them. I am going to mount the #0 Famco on the side of this press and a vise on the other end...Bob

 

[aametalmaster]

Here is my little #0 Famco press i have had for about 10 years. Bought it off ebay for 12 bucks missing the bed plate. I cut one out of 4" stock and will finish it. Tomorrow i will make a bracket to hang this little press on the side of the shop press...Bob

 

[Ray C]

Bob's press is great looking -nice and heavy duty which makes easy work of difficult tasks. Here's a smaller home made job that works well for the size stuff typical in my shop. It mounts on the end of the bench and is easily removed. It's all made of 1x2 heavy wall tube stock, left-overs from a job. The return springs are pieces of an old garage door spring. I have a couple different base plates for different purposes. Like Bob, just tossing some ideas out there on how simple these things are -yet very useful. Do note however, when something is under a couple tons of pressure, it can come flying out (causing injury) if things aren't lined up. It's important to use the right kind of fixtures.

 

[Tamper84]

Very nice presses!!!! What are the dimensions on the metal you used?

Chris

 

[aametalmaster]

Very nice presses!!!! What are the dimensions on the metal you used?

Chris

Just happen to have them ...Bob