Casters on an H press?

Not yet, but mine will be. HF orange Chinese 20 ton. I don't see a downside. Might want to reinforce those angle iron legs (on mine) but probably will not.

Along with all of the other answers, I'd add that I'd "recess" the casters, i.e., mount them on sort of an L-bracket, so that you only have to raise the base of the press maybe 1/4" - 1/2", rather than 4 or 5 inches.

________ BASE _________ \_/ | OF | \_/ / . \ | PRESS | / . \ \ _ / ------------------------ \ _ / ------------------------------------------------- < floor

Cheers! Rich

(or coat the floor with something hard, polish it, and put the press on a big air bearing. ;-) )

Rich, you clearly don't have to deal with a space-limited shop. The above design is great for stability but it really burns floor area. I wish my press were smaller, but it's the size it is, and I don't want it *any* bigger.

GWE

I dunno, at 6'3" I'd like to raise mine a little.

I dunno, at 6'3" I'd like to raise mine a little.

At 5'9" I have raised mine. Built a 4x4 H base to go under the press & attached casters to the 4x4's - lifts the whole thing up about 6" - easier to use now.

"Grant Erwin" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com... | | >

| > Along with all of the other answers, I'd add that I'd "recess" the | > casters, i.e., mount them on sort of an L-bracket, so that you only have | > to raise the base of the press maybe 1/4" - 1/2", rather than 4 or 5 | > inches. | >

| > ________ BASE _________ | > \_/ | OF | \_/ | > / . \ | PRESS | / . \ | > \ _ / ------------------------ \ _ / | > ------------------------------------------------- < floor | | Rich, you clearly don't have to deal with a space-limited shop. The above design | is great for stability but it really burns floor area. I wish my press were | smaller, but it's the size it is, and I don't want it *any* bigger. | | GWE

I can sympathize with that completely. Why not put two fixed casters on one side mounted so that when it tilts slightly it's supported by the two wheels? Put a pad or lift point on the opposing side and you can then use a floor jack or other means to lift that end to move it about. I have also done a contrivance with casters mounted on a plate attached to hinges, and an external lever, where you lift the whole thing up by stepping on a lever, rocking the plate level and lifting it up onto casters for easy movement. When where you want it to be, lift the levers (sometimes easier said than done!) to let the device drop back down onto its base. Depending on how much you move it and the floor condition, you may want to lock the mechanism in the mobile position, since if I catch something going the wrong direction on the one I did, the plate and casters would sometimes pop back into the stowed position. I had a hard time visualizing this the first time I did it, but take a long plate and mount it on sturdy hinges, long ways. To the plate end, attach a lever perpendicular to the plate such that it extends on the _other_ side of the hinges. Mount swivel casters to each end of the plate. My item had a flat bottom, and when the plate and lever is "up" the casters support the plate which then sit flat on the bottom. The distances and caster size have to be worked out with a bit of simple math so that the casters will just rest on the floor in the stowed position but raise the thing when rolled up. Step on the lever, which causes the plate to flatten out on the bottom and the caster's usable height will lift the item up. Does this make sense? I wound up using this so since the item (actually a bingo machine console which spends most of the time in storage) had a "skirt" to keep stuff out and look immobile, but be easy to move by folks other than me. The levers stuck out arc shaped slots on the backside.

I wrote an article that included wheels on a press. I posted some of the details in the dropbox.

The text of the above URL is:

On the list, a fellow asked about putting wheels under his

20 ton press. I posted this to share what I did.

This is the dolly Wheel details that is part of the Home Shop Machinist article I wrote "Build a 50/30 Ton H-Frame Hydraulic Floor Press". The article is in the May/June

2004 issue. These are detachable and I pull them off when not moving the press around.

PressWheelLeverSideClose.jpg >> detail of one wheel PressBaseLayout-s.jpg >> early picture with the dolly wheels PressFrontSidePainted-s.jpg >> full picture with wheels Press4-DollyWheelDetail.jpg >> diagram

Each wheel is on a pipe that serves as a lever, so there are

4 wheel units. 2 have casters and 2 are not. To engage the wheels, do one side at a time. Attach the wheel unit, one solid and one caster. The pipes will be about a 45 degree angle. Push down on both pipes and when you have them pushed level, slide the latch that is in one pipe into the other pipe and the press is on wheel for that side. Then do the other side.

I have a lot of weight on this press and thus have taken to using a piece of pipe that fits between the press's jack and the floor(vertical) slightly offset to the side that I'm setting the wheels. Then use the press jack to lift that side so one does not need to lever up the press with the wheel pipes. Once you jack it up, simple slide the latch and do the other side.

Hope that helps,

Reed Streifthau Raleigh, NC