Presses

What size cylinders and what pressures are you folks that have a hydraulic press running? I currently have a H frame that runs a 5" cylinder at 2000 psi. The frame flexes at full pressure. I am looking at building a narrow throat C frame press and trying to figure out if I am better off using the cylinder and power supply I have or looking for something different. Thanks

Built this little manual hydraulic press a couple months back and it has come in handy quite a few times. Used it to press form some candle holders and would like to make some other dies for it soon works well and I only have about 30$ into it.

This is a Craiglist find. The cylinder is small and so is the pump, but it was the right price. It is a 110 electric motor. The large square block on the table is a shatter tank for pressing bearings. I don't want the shaft out that far so I put some blocking on top - safety police...I will be adding material so they lock in place and can't slide off. The shatter tank is made from 1/2" plate. The 2 pieces of 2x6 on top is 3/8" wall. The can on top is 1/2" wall 6x6 tube with a 1/2" top plate. Again, I will build pieces to lock all these in place. Question for you press guys, have you placed a gauge on your machines to indicate force? If so, can you share …

I stumbled upon this hydraulic tank , self contained pump...... wondering if it's worth grabbing, being a pulley/belt , for a press eventually here's a pic , then specs sheet thanks URL=http://s594.photobucket.com/user/rugerman/media/image_zpslv6zeuer.jpeg.html] URL=http://s594.photobucket.com/user/rugerman/media/image_zpsz9fhoqg4.jpeg.html]

This is a 35 ton screw press, or try press, made in Grand Rapids, Michigan by the Jereki Company. If I remember right, the date on it is 1910, but I could be wrong. It's not intended for hot work. It's very slow. It's made to try your dies (therefore a "try" press) before you put them under power and heat. It has one large hole in the table and many 3/4-10 holes in the head and the table for bolting dies in position. I use this all the time. It's particularly nice for fitting embossing dies--where the punch enters the die--using copper test pieces to gauge the relief needed. Cold copper behaves a bit like hot iron, so if you test your dies with copper, cold and slo…

Moving house, got a big hot tub with three massive motors and water pumps. Would they be any use in the construction of an electro-hydraulic press? frank

Pretty much as the title says. I am looking at building one but can't seem to find the same or even similar parts to the ones you guys use over in the US. And when I do find something here the price is an absolute joke. $900-$1300 for a basic 5hp motor...... and that's just the start. Don't even get me started on the price of hydraulics haha. Anyway, anyone done it? Cheers

I am building a 24ton hydraulic press and the valve recommended by batson is grainger item 6x844 or Prince RD-2575-T4-ESA1 When i did research on this valve i found someone on bladeforums that used this valve and couldn't get it to work because the "SA" in the serail number means single acting. Did batson make a mistake in his book recommending this valve. Please recommend a valve that you have used and worked well. I would love to know exactly which valve is used on the carolina knives press since that is essentially what I am building. thanks

Up until now I have used an analog spool valve to run my press. I have however been very impressed by some of the cycling hydraulic presses I have seen, that run like a power hammer using a microswitch for top of up stroke and a microswitch for bottom bottom of down or a pressure switch whichever kicks in first. I love my press for punching but found it limiting for drawing out work, the limitation being my reaction time at top and bottom of stroke, which sucked into heat time and at the bottom of the stroke cooled the metal too quick. My thoughts were that with tooling set close and a cycling control system the press would really become the tool it always wa…

I was just looking over the Game of Thrones (and other fantasy) coins that Tom Maringer has been striking over at shirepost.com; he started out with one screwpress and was striking coins more as a fan and now has expanded to being a mint. The quality is awesome, not much of a surprise when you consider the quality of the swords he used to make, He's an old friend of mine, (I brokered the deal for his first screwpress, he and his wife introduced me to the lady I have been married to for 30+ years.), so I am partial to his work. But anyway it's an interesting look at what else you can do with a screw/fly press

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I’m planning to order a new fly press after the first of the year. Help me decide on the size P5 or P6. Intended uses will be cold veining and fullering lines, bending, and straighten stock. I would also like to use it for punching holes for mortise and tenon jointery. I mostly make home accents with 1” or under stock but sometime use a little larger. If possible I’d also like to use it for punching or slitting larger stock for making top tools and hammer. I see several threads with people recommending for the P5 with the explanation that it will do most everything a general blacksmith would want and will not wear you out like the P6. I think the P5 will be fine for mos…

Reading this forum was very helpful in getting ideas for building my own press so I thought I'd show what I came up with. Since my space is limited I wanted something with a small footprint. I ended up with a benchtop forging press that suits my Damascus steel making needs perfectly. After lots of research I decided to focus on speed rather than tonnage. The result was a 19 ton press using a 4" cylinder with 2.25" ram. To keep noise to a minimum the motor & pump assembly are mounted independent of the press. I also mounted the pump on a shop built bracket made from 1" steel plate to reduce vibration. Power comes from a 7.5 hp electric motor driving a single spe…

So as some of you know I have built quite a number of forging presses. Probably close to 20 now. The last two I built went to a ABS Master smith (Dave Lisch) and a ABS Journeyman smith (Mareko Maumasi) Both of those have incorporated everything I have learned over the last decade building presses and I think are pretty skookum (as good as they could be for the money they where willing to spend) The problem with those custom presses is they are expensive. A pro press like I built those guys is a $8-$10,000 machine and I really dont make much. The pump alone is close to four grand, by the time you buy the rest of the hardware im lucky to have $1500-$2000 in la…

I have a home built press with a new 5hp, 220v, single phase motor, 5" cylinder and 2 stage pump that I can't remember the size of. Here's my problem. When I reach the end of the stroke on my cylinder the engine bogs and will stop totally if I don't release the control valve. My question is, does the pump have an internal relief? I replaced the control valve and that wasn't the problem so with a new motor and new control valve I'm leaning towards a faulty relief in the pump. Any ideas?...Joe

I've been offered a No.6 GP. anyone know what the GP stands for?

A couple years back I scored a free small No.3 Denbigh flypress and recently I bought a huge Norton No.6DB flypress. I've 99.9% moved into a new workshop & I've setup my "hot metal working zone" in a way I'm confident stand the test of time, but I can't really find a good spot for the small fly press. (I don't think I used the small flypress once in my old workshop after getting the big one). The only convenient spaces for it are down the other end of the workshop in the fabrication/assembly area which are too a long a walk from either my coke or gas forge for a piece of metal to retain a decent heat. My only heat source down that end is the oxy-propane torch whi…

Can anyone point me in the right direction to find formulas for steel beam sizing? I'm looking at designing a 20t c-frame press and would like to understand the relationships between load point spacing, depth of throat and beam length. Also, recommenced factor of safety would be helpful. I've searched log splitter info and the best I've found was "go as big as you can". I've also asked on another forum, and been told it's really complicated and to do a lot of reading......

I couldn't see where this had been posted before, maybe I didn't just miss it. Thought ya'll might like it. This kind of stuff just amazes me.

I was planning on making Batson's H frame press according to his directions, but in the materials list it calls for 3 x5 x 1/4" angle for the four uprights. this seems a little light to me and when I look at similar presses like the carolina custom knives 24t press the uprights appear to be 3x 5 x 3/8". anybody made one or have any recommendations? also, last time I was at the scrapyard I came across two pieces of 5 x5 x 1/4" square tubing and I thought I could make the uprights out of that instead for a design similar to the Claiborne press only having the cylinder on the bottom pushing up. this would be the cheapest option, but I want to make sure it is strong enough…

I have a 30 ton H frame press that's been collecting dirt for awhile and was thinking about getting one of those harbor freight 20 ton air bottle jacks for it. So far I've read a handful of topics for those little air hydraulic presses but everyone seems set on building their own press frame for them. Is it a wise idea to use this 30 ton frame as a 20 ton forging press host? For less then $100 and hardly any time on my hands it sounds like a great idea after seeing what these small presses do on youtube.

1.5" per sec or 38mm per sec is that fast enough?

today I did a little more with a smaller area 16mm sq for bottom tool and 20mm round laid on top, also 20 by 10, each went down to below 5mm thick in 1 stroke have a video for later showing how fast it is

While not complete, I've got my press operational. It presses up which requires me to lift the work as it closes which seems awkward. I'm thinking that it would be more comfortable to rest the work on the lower die while the press closes downward. To reverse the press would require some fabrication and 2 new hoses. Any thoughts,suggestions are appreciated.

I recently came across a pile of hydraulic cylinders at the scrap yard that were something like 5" bore and 30" long.. i didn't have a tape measure. anyway, I wanted to build a fairly compact forging press kindof like randy mcdaniel's H-frame so i decided to pass on these. Now that i have been thinking about it, i thought maybe a press could be made in which the cylinders are configured like a KA75, so that the compression stroke of the cylinders would close the dies of the press. I understand that the compression stroke of these cylinders has less strength than the extension due to the reduced surface area from the piston rod on the compression stroke. but In this ca…