Do I really need an arbor press ?

The one hobby task I know of that a C frame press is better for than an H frame is pressing these into sheet metal.

It's easier to make and set up custom punch and die sets for a press like this that centers both:

I have three hydraulic shop presses, but for many small jobs my arbor press is much faster and more convenient. I easily use the arbor press hundreds of times more often than all the hydraulic presses combined.

Then again I use the arbor press to set alignment pins in molds I make everyday so...

Seriously if it has enough leverage to do the job its far faster than a hydraulic press. Even those with air over jacks on them. Probably faster than one with conventional hydraulics and an electric pump as well.

They just tend to have a lot lower max limit than a hydraulic press, and don't have the kinetic mass energy of a fly press.

I have three hydraulic shop presses, but for many small jobs my arbor press is much faster and more convenient. I easily use the arbor press hundreds of times more often than all the hydraulic presses combined.

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I tend to use the milling vise as a light duty press because alignment on parallels etc is easier. The handle force isn't excessive for 1000 Lbs of clamping pressure.

Did I mentioned I have a 6 ton (supposedly) arbor press.

Did I mentioned I have a 6 ton (supposedly) arbor press.

-- Bob La Londe CNC Molds N Stuff

----------------------------------------- My equipment is meant for the relatively light work typical of electronics and consists of machines appropriate to industrial model, tool makers or prototyping shops, i.e. in the space between hobby and production where I operated. An ad for the Heavy 10 lathe recommends it for short production, tool-room and maintenance. The collection would have been an inventor's dream in the 1960s when it was all new and tight, now it shows its 60+ year age.

It is NOT money-making production machinery which is why it was available and affordable. It's probably too small for practical ore processing projects, the machines I've made with it challenged its capacity. Segway had a 15" lathe and 12x48(?) Bridgeport, both CNC, which accommodated larger projects. Both were more awkward to use than my machines for my usually cut-and-try small parts and off-sized repairs.

That is a broad space and all of it overlaps. I started selling molds made on a Taig CNC mill years ago.

Plenty of wannabe experts will say that old stuff is better than many of the new import machines I run today. They would be wrong. If they were both in new condition at the same time it might be, but its rare a 60 year old machine is going to be better.

I have debated something like a watch maker's lathe for smaller parts, but I can usually muddle by with the 14x40. I also consider the Taig

I have debated something like a watch maker's lathe for smaller parts, but I can usually muddle by with the 14x40. I also consider the Taig

-- Bob La Londe CNC Molds N Stuff

----------------------------------- I examined and could have bought this watch maker's lathe from the store last year, and considered it for a while.

My Heavy 10 with a collet made #0-80 x 1.25" fillister head screws for an optics prototype easily. At the time I didn't have a metric conversion gear set. It isn't fast enough to drill small deep holes but it makes small brass instrument parts well and will start deep axle lube holes for the Sears AA to take over.

The AA is NOT a small lathe I would recommend, the spindle bends too easily and the 5/16-24 compound feed wasn't graduated until I indexed a 41-2/3 line dial for it. I put some work into restoring it for practice on more valuable machines.

I was unimpressed with the operation of a Prazi clone and the Sherline and Taig have too little capacity for me, I need a 1/2" or larger spindle bore. No one seems to be unloading a Rivett or P&W small precision lathe plus finding tooling for them is impossible.

Here is an option for turning small parts that aren't collet sized and may need close in hand work like filing:

If I'm going to mount a drill chuck in my spindle I'll use one of my tailstock chucks and an adapter sleeve to 3MT. Now I'm curious about how much runout that setup might have . Maybe I'll look into that tomorrow after I finish making bread . We're out of everything but loaf bread ...

If I'm going to mount a drill chuck in my spindle I'll use one of my tailstock chucks and an adapter sleeve to 3MT. Now I'm curious about how much runout that setup might have . Maybe I'll look into that tomorrow after I finish making bread . We're out of everything but loaf bread ...

-- Snag

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I do too, for short pieces. The 58B accepts long off-sized rods and dowels through the spindle. I don't have the 58B running completely true yet except in a 4-jaw, but a little runout doesn't matter for many of the small parts mods I make, such as putting dog points and bevels on the ends of screws to make them self-align, or milling a wrench hex on threaded rod, my sawmill's track levelers. The milling has the round work in a lathe chuck or collet mounted in an indexing fixture.

My AA lathe usually has a 1/2" Jacobs thread-mount chuck on its 1/2-20 spindle because I use that faster turning lathe for hand-held filing and polishing where chuck jaws are dangerous. The 58B does the same for the South Bend on work that doesn't fit a collet. It's more nice-to-have than essential but the price was right and I rarely pass up an accessory for that classic lathe, my 1965 Old American Iron and more useful to me than a 65 Mustang. jsw

One of my projects from a gazillion years ago... I used to play Calcutta pool tournaments in a local bar growing up. My mom okayed it, and the bar said it was okay for me to be there at night during the tournament. During the days I'd stop by to just play if I had time and money, but at night I was only allowed in for tournaments. I think I started around 12-14 years old. It wasn't until I was 16 that I won my first decent jackpot. A few years later I started shooting in three tournaments a week.

Anyway, during that time period I discovered what I liked and didn't like about some cues, and I found I liked a cue with less taper in the shaft. Unfortunately of the cues I found with less taper I could afford they tended to be warped or very light or both. K-Mart used to sell a line of pool cues with a Dufferin brand name. They weren't cheap, but they were a lot cheaper than many of the more famous brands, and they were built with a good straight, straight grain maple, probably rock maple, shaft.

I also bought a wood lathe for another interest. I made a plate that threaded onto the spindle of my wood lathe with a screw through the center to thread on the chuck from a hand drill motor. I made this with scrap/junk parts we had laying around. It wasn't perfect, but it was not bad. The Dufferin cues had a metal shaft stub on the front shaft that extended into the rear shaft socket when threaded together. This made them very tough and usable as a breaking cue. I never had a joint loosen up on one. I would chuck that stub shaft in the drill chuck, and then poke the leather tip onto the tail stock center. I always replaced the tips with a softer tip anyway, so that was no big deal. This setup allowed me to reshape the taper of a 21 ounces cue to something I liked better and still have a 19.5-20 ounce cue when I was done. I got back part of that weight by wrapping the big end with 72lb braided dacron fishing line.

Anyway, sticking a drill chuck on the business end of a lathe is nothing new to me. I did it long before I learned how easy it is to do with modern machine tools like Snag suggested. The 8.5x18, the 7x16, and the

I have made a few straight collets for special things. One I use fairly often is for a #7 drill on the big (for me) manual mill so I can maximize table clearance for tall parts before I have to swing the head and hang a tall part off the side of the table.

Sometimes when I have small parts I'll use a straight shank ER collet in the set-tru chuck or the 4 jaw chuck on the 14x40. RPM is a little low at a max of 2550, but it works. ER collets don't have much range in a single collet, but they are available between metric and standard inch in such a greater number of sizes that its rare you can't find one that will work... and I may have stretched, or over tightened one once or twice.

Anyway, sticking a drill chuck on the business end of a lathe is nothing new to me. I did it long before I learned how easy it is to do with modern machine tools like Snag suggested.

------------------------------ As a lathe the Shopsmith had the choice of a spur center, faceplate or the drill chuck, fine for wood, not so much for metal so I had to improvise.

In any case Snag will likely find an arbor press is more useful than he thinks.

I've already thought of a couple of projects that it will be a better choice than the hydraulic press . Got a main-shaft race I need to press out of a '39 Harley transmission case . And probably a couple of things in the crank case halves , haven't got that far into the motor yet .

In any case, if you have one,you find more uses for one than if you do not have one. Arbor press, grinder, wood chipper, sticky notes, painters tape...

I walked out in the shop a little while ago, and picked up a hammer to put away. Suddenly everything looked like a nail.

Seriously an arbor press is a very useful tool for "pressing." I found it faster and easier within its range than anything else. A vise will make do, and its going to be hard pressed to push out an automotive U-joint, but an arbor press is very useful. I bought mine originally for punching, and broaching, but it mostly gets used for pressing.

Speaking of u-joints. I broke my first bench vise trying to press out a u-joint with a cheater bar on the vise handle. A task that was achieved with ease with a 12 ton hydraulic press. Also a task I wouldn't try, even with my 6 ton, with an arbor press. Maybe I should try. The last one I did was a huge pain. The biggest problem was supporting the drive shaft. The arbor press is already mounted on a heavy work bench.

Speaking of u-joints. I broke my first bench vise trying to press out a u-joint with a cheater bar on the vise handle. A task that was achieved with ease with a 12 ton hydraulic press. Also a task I wouldn't try, even with my 6 ton, with an arbor press. Maybe I should try. The last one I did was a huge pain. The biggest problem was supporting the drive shaft. The arbor press is already mounted on a heavy work bench. Bob La Londe

------------------------------ The last U joint I tried to press out for a neighbor was a GM one with the injected plastic retainer I didn't know about.

It's easy with the right tool, a smoke wrench.

Avoid chainsaws.

Lately its the angle grinder.