Will I need an arbor press for my bridgeport top end rebuild?

seanb said:
Jets stuff is made in China, Honestly the Harbor freight shop press is pretty well built and not alot of precision needs to go into a press.

You can keep an eye out for a used american made press on craigs list. That's what I was going to do but the guy never emailed me back so i bought the HF one.


http://www.harborfreight.com/20-ton-h-frame-industrial-heavy-duty-floor-shop-press-60603.html


I understand not wanting low quality import stuff.
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I went to HF today and looked at this. It's not bad at all for the price. Probably will end up going with this. After watching more videos of people pressing everything out on this rebuild I don't think I want to try to hack through it with a bench vise. We get those 20% off coupons pretty often as soon as I find one I'll go down and pick this up.

The plan is to take off the head tomorrow so I can see the bushings in the motor pulley...to buy the rebuild kit. I'll start another thread for that. If nothing else for my future reference.
 
seanb said:
Honestly the Harbor freight shop press is pretty well built and not alot of precision needs to go into a press.
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My experience may be due to a lemon, but I have a 20T HF press. It works reasonably well, that is, until I tried to use it to broach a keyway. It was cutting such that the keyway was twice as deep on the exit end than the end where the broach started in. Turns out that under tension the ram is not square to the table. By quite a lot. I ended up temporarily shimming between the bottom of the jack and the plate it sits on by 0.150" (on the front edge) to tip the ram and get everything straight. Never had any issues pressing bearings though. YMMV.
 
MrDan said:
My experience may be due to a lemon, but I have a 20T HF press. It works reasonably well, that is, until I tried to use it to broach a keyway. It was cutting such that the keyway was twice as deep on the exit end than the end where the broach started in. Turns out that under tension the ram is not square to the table. By quite a lot. I ended up temporarily shimming between the bottom of the jack and the plate it sits on by 0.150" (on the front edge) to tip the ram and get everything straight. Never had any issues pressing bearings though. YMMV.
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I guess if I go into it not expecting to do broaching it should be fine. Plus at this price I can always use it until I find a deal on an USA built arbor press.
 
Well I got a coupon and bought the 20t press from HF. I was actually surprised at the weight of the thing. Notably it's still in the truck due to the snow/rain. I'll drag it out of there tomorrow perhaps and try to figure out where it's going to fit!
 
Speaking of top end rebuilds on BP machines...

Last night I took the top end of my BP clone apart, because the back gear in/out lever wasn't moving between the two detents properly... The only thing that took time was removing the large timing belt pulley from its keyed shaft. Didn't need a press, though, just some patience to work it off the shaft.

Someone loaded the whole thing in grease... even though there's an oiler for it. Not having seen one apart before, I'm assuming the grease needs to go and it needs a good oiling again? Could someone who has more experience let me know?
 
Dabbler said:
Speaking of top end rebuilds on BP machines...

Last night I took the top end of my BP clone apart, because the back gear in/out lever wasn't moving between the two detents properly... The only thing that took time was removing the large timing belt pulley from its keyed shaft. Didn't need a press, though, just some patience to work it off the shaft.

Someone loaded the whole thing in grease... even though there's an oiler for it. Not having seen one apart before, I'm assuming the grease needs to go and it needs a good oiling again? Could someone who has more experience let me know?
Click to expand...


Hi Dabbler, the entire back gear area should be completely full of grease. As well as the back gear pinion gear area. I've disassembled my top end entirely now. I'll be starting a post for all that and the pictures of the damage I found.

I did use that HBF press I bought several times taking things apart and gear pullers. Made things much easier I think.

Paul
 
thanks for the info!

I managed my upper disassembly without a press, even though I have a hydraulic one...
 
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