This one is a treat to watch in action. The press is a homemade 40-ton hydraulic unit, and the maker puts that tonnage to work in three ways: splitting a rectangular wooden block, crushing a heavy square steel hollow section until it buckles, and compressing a thick angled steel plate to show off its straightening ability. That last demo in particular says a lot about how much control the machine has under load.
The construction is solid and well thought out. Everything sits on a mobile steel chassis, with an enclosed rectangular base frame of roughly 75 by 75 centimeters and 60 centimeters tall, riding on heavy-duty casters. Heavy C-channel beams form the uprights, and two vertical hydraulic cylinders drive the ram in parallel. A 5.5 kilowatt electric motor feeds the system from a steel reservoir, with braided hoses carrying the high-pressure oil inside the C-channel beam. The rear analog gauge reads up to 3,000 psi, with typical running pressure around 2,000 psi. Working clearance between the columns is about 50 centimeters and the ram stroke is roughly 30.
What stands out to me is the interchangeable tooling on the ram and lower bed: flat anvil dies, crowned drawing dies, and a 90-degree V-die brake, all held by cam-clamping levers that lock identical plasma-cut mounting plates. The directional valve runs through a dual mechanical control setup, and the maker shows its sensitivity by easing the ram down onto a matchbox. The lower anvil riser was rebuilt from two 25-millimeter plates plus one 18-millimeter plate after a thinner earlier assembly deformed under load. New hoses, the hydraulic unit moved to the back, and metal guards around it round out the recent work; the maker calls it a completely different machine now.
One thing still open: the fixed mechanical stop bars are slated to become adjustable threaded stops, and a spring-loaded switch for automatic ram return is also planned.
Project by KarlMetalworks. Watch it on their YouTube channel: