February 25, 201610 yr I figured I would share this. I spent 2 months gathering materials and 3 weeks building it. And didn't know anything about hydraulics, but come to find out its not as complicated as it looks.
February 25, 201610 yr That looks great! I like the foot controls you have on it as well. I've been pondering a press like this, you have me inspired to gather some materials!
February 25, 201610 yr Author Yea it was fun to build it seemed a little simpler than my clay Spencer tire hammer I built. And this thing will smash some steel. I can take a two inch billet and mash it to about 1/2" in one squash. lol I wanna make a little better die set up but this one seems to do great . I wanna make a jig for punching hammer eyes
February 25, 201610 yr that looks great, I am building one just like it right now. could you tell me what size angle iron you used for the uprights? thanks
February 26, 201610 yr Author I used 3" by 3" angle for the sides .And it was 3/8" or 1/2" I ccan't remember I was gona use 1/4" because it was more accessible but I was afraid it would be to weak. This thing is awsome. I based it off the Carolina 24 ton press and the foot pedal is so sensitive and the ram is fast enough it's like a power hammer action . You can use lighter hits with the pedal .. but if your just forging Damascus I'm sure you could get by without it
February 28, 201610 yr I really like the dual foot pedal - looks handy. I'm in the process of gathering materials for my own press - so I have a question for you and others: you decided on the ram on the bottom instead of top - how does that design work for you? I have decided on a H style press - but I'm still trying to decide if I want the ram on top or bottom. Image searches seems to give a lot more top rams - so I'm really interested in your feedback on this - can you see your work as well as you would like and hold it steady as you press it with the ram moving upwards?
February 28, 201610 yr Yeah looks just like mine. ()range that is0 My freind Dick and i built this . Took about a month. Dick is a excellent welder. We have made several random damascus and are working on some feather now.Love it. TJ Smith
March 1, 201610 yr Author Yes I truly like the cylinder on bottom better I think visually I can see it better. It makes everything around chest high.I really thought my design over and for what I am forging like hardies ,tongs , and hammers .and a small amount of damascus i really like this design. And i kept my motor and tank on a cart like the Claiborne design. For space reasons. This thing is a beast and it's great for larger stock like I've been working lately.
March 6, 201610 yr Author I used a 5" cylinder and 2"or 2.5"bore and i got one with 12" stroke just incase i need extra room. And i bought the two stage pump at northern tool it was an 11/3gpm if I recall. I bought the cylinder at surplus center .I thought about going to a 6" cylinder but prices jump considerably
March 19, 201610 yr FM32 Perfect size for my shop , did you happen to compile a parts and supply list by chance ? thanks for sharing Rob
March 20, 201610 yr Author No not really a parts list . I made it 53" tall and I think around 12" between the rails. I was bent on making a c frame press or this h frame and something just told me this would be sturdier. The biggest thing on the frame was making sure I did multi pass welds and I made sure of that..
March 23, 201610 yr Very nice. I've been thinking about a press in lieu of a hammer, but need to study up on hydraulics and what I need to shop for in terms of parts. Ideally, I'd like to get close to the 50-ton range just to say I did.
March 24, 201610 yr Good Morning Rob, It is better to collect a bunch of parts, do the Math for the Hydraulics. I bought a Book from Princess Auto on Hydraulics, it explains how/why. Two stage pump works best. Neil
March 25, 201610 yr From the recent builds I have seen, it seems more are leaning to the single stage pump to keep speed and minimize die contact time thereby keeping the workpiece at forging temps longer. Can you post a vid of this press in action?
March 25, 201610 yr Good Morning 78, I will disagree with you. A two stage pump is low pressure/high volume (first stage) and High Pressure/Low Volume (2nd Stage). The Ram or Die will travel quite quickly, from rest position to contacting the work load. Then the speed will slow down and the Pressure will go HUGE. When you retract the Die/Ram, it will do so quite quickly. Remember that Friction makes Heat, you will have time for more than one squeeze. Your Hydraulic Press will become your new favorite Squeeze (Not your Date). Neil
March 25, 201610 yr I use a single stage pump on mine as I use limit switches to save on wasted time, if your press does its full stroke then it is a different story. I can set and change the travel in seconds so there is virtually no wasted time to need the hign speed low pressure. below is the front and back of my dwarf press, recently when drawing out some manganese alloy steel I was doing on average about one stroke per second, the tool was less than 1/4" above the original material height, the material went from at a guess 9/16" to 3/16" and the tool returned to the start position, I was getting 10 to 15 strokes per heat and just using a flat ended piece of 1" round for the top tool overlapping by 50%. 2 heats and I drop the top tool in a bucket of water. with a 2 speed pump can you do more than 1 stroke per second or are you wasting a lot of time waiting for the press to reach the work? do you have limit switches or stops set to restrict unwanted travel?, as you can see on mine there are washers welded to nuts, I just spin them to set both up and down travel the nearly finished press, after this it just had the switches wired up to footswitch and solenoid valve before it was used, still needs the new front plate and then it goes to a customer soon Edited March 25, 201610 yr by the iron dwarf unmangling text
March 25, 201610 yr Any travel over what is needed for positioning the piece or tooling is wasted time/heat so adjustable limit switches are a good idea.
March 25, 201610 yr very few presses I have seen used for forging seem to have them though and the air over hydraulic ones I dont think I have ever seen such a system used, of course you can compensate by using a bigger pump / motor etc but my aim was for small, cheap, compact and practical, maybe I could do it a little faster with a 50hp motor on an expensive pump but my 3hp works ok with the switches. for the tasks it was designed for it will probably be better than most twice the size.
March 26, 201610 yr 19 hours ago, the iron dwarf said: very few presses I have seen used for forging seem to have them though and the air over hydraulic ones I dont think I have ever seen such a system used, of course you can compensate by using a bigger pump / motor etc but my aim was for small, cheap, compact and practical, maybe I could do it a little faster with a 50hp motor on an expensive pump but my 3hp works ok with the switches. for the tasks it was designed for it will probably be better than most twice the size. Look forward to seeing this in action !! Please post pics when running .....
March 26, 201610 yr had posted a vid but it seems to have gone there is a thread about the build and a few other bits due to the forbidden bug, next time it is used I will make another vid and post a link here. the prototype is sold as soon as a single phase power pack that is suitable is found
October 12, 20169 yr On 2/24/2016 at 7:15 PM, ForgeMan32 said: I figured I would share this. I spent 2 months gathering materials and 3 weeks building it. And didn't know anything about hydraulics, but come to find out its not as complicated as it looks. I sure would like get all the specs.from your press so I can build one like it. how many tons pressure is it ?
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