Hydraulic press Q's

I'm doing a project where I could use a hydraulic press - things with press fits on a Clausing 5900 series lathe. It's infrequent that I've needed a press but this is a project where I need to press off bearings and other parts with interference fits.

I got the impression from a comment that A frame presses kept the ram in alignment better than the usual H frame presses. Is there an advantage of one style over the other?

Most of the bearings and press fits are on ~1" shafts. How much tonnage do I need for that type of project - assuming that's enough information.

Harbor Freight presses are reasonably priced and the store isn't too far away. Any problems with the HF presses?

RWL

Reply to
GeoLane at PTD dot NET
Loading thread data ...

On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:39:07 -0500, the infamous GeoLane at PTD dot NET scrawled the following:

The 12T oughta do ya just fine. The (new?) little 6T models are cute, though, for smaller stuff. I think I like the straight H format (33497) better than the A style (16670). More room up top for odd shaped larger goodies. (I used their old 12T happily when I wrenched for a body shop in a past life.)

I've heard some problems with the seals on the jacks, but that's about it. Those are infrequent and repairable with o-rings, usually free on warranty, especially if you're a frequent purchaser.

-- There is no such thing as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder. --Ronald Reagan

Reply to
Larry Jaques

I needed a small press years ago, and just welded a box frame together with separated channel rails at the bottom and use my small hydrulic jack. Works well for smaller stuff.

Reply to
Bill McKee

On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:45:19 -0800, the infamous "Bill McKee" scrawled the following:

I did the same thing (tabletop size) because someone gave me some small, predrilled channel iron. I didn't bring it with me from CA when I moved. Today, I'd buy a press.

-- There is no such thing as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder. --Ronald Reagan

Reply to
Larry Jaques

I've got a 12 ton HF H frame, and I have run into one U-Joint it wouldn't press out. Otherwise its been ok. Never figured out exactly what the problem was. I broke a vise getting it out with cheater bar. The new one pressed right in.

Mine is old and I have not had any problems except I lost the fill plug for the jack. I whittled a wood plug and its been there for years.

And you can always take the opportunity to upgrade to an air over hydraulic.

My problem with my 12 ton HF press has been two fold.

  1. I know just where that 12 ton bottle jack is when I need to lift something my floor jack or my farm jack won't handle. As a result when I need to use the press I can't always find the jack quickly. I bought a new air over hydraulic to replace it one time.
  2. Now that I have the air over hydraulic I still have the same problem. That air jack is really nice and fast when servicing cars, trucks, and trailer and sometimes when I need to use the press I have to look in the shop were I last serviced something else.

Ok 3 fold.

  1. Now I have this perfectly functional 12 ton bottle jack with a wood plug in the fill hole that sits in the corner and never gets used.

P.S. I've gotten really good at taking the jack out of the press quickly and putting it back in. I've got a couple pieces of pipe cut as spacers hanging on the wall right behind it for that.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Larry, I'd like to buy the 12 Ton press but have a couple of questions. For very, very rare occasions when the 12 ton cannot cut it, can I place my existing HF 20 ton jack onto the frame, or, would that be way overstressing the design of the system. Your thoughts?

Thanks, Ivan Vegvary

Reply to
Ivan Vegvary

My son and I have had the H style Harbor Frieght/Northern Hydraulics press with air over hydraulic jacks for many years and neither of them has leaked yet. We often push them pretty hard. I don't see alignment as a problem for what you are going to do. I'd get the 20 ton press if you have the room, just so you get more basic strength.

Some of the later presses have the jack pushing a rod down rather than pressing a frame that is supported by two columns. My experience has been with the latter. See:

If you don't want to spend any money: In the past, when I need to press some things that only required a ton or two of force, I simply positioned things under a rear axle housing on my 6000 pound tractor and pressed down with a suitable hydraulic jack.

Of course, I am always looking for ANY excuse to buy more tools, so I'd never do that again!

Pete Stanaitis

------------------

GeoLane at PTD dot NET wrote:

Reply to
spaco

On Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:02:22 -0800, the infamous "Ivan Vegvary" scrawled the following:

Yes, you can, but be careful. Chances are good that you could bend something with the 20 if you have to crank on it. The 20T frames are beefier for that purpose.

BUT, you really need to find the -reason- that 24,0000 pounds of pressure won't move something. It's usually because something's crooked. Quick application of a drift punch on the inner race can make all the difference in the world. The little bit of vibration can shake things straight and allow them to fall into place. Air hammers work here, too. Just don't chip anything.

One reason to buy a larger press is that it's easier to crank things down with them. But, generally, they aren't needed. As a mechanic, a

1T arbor press would handle 1/4 of my jobs if it were large enough. A 4T press from PortaPower (hydraulic C-clamp, more or less) handled quite a few more, and the big 12T did swing-arm work and axle bearings, which wouldn't fit anywhere else. They slid into place like butter, most often. I also seated a helluva lot of bearing races with cut races. I'd pop the old ones out of brake drums and rotors, saw the slot with the 3" cutting disc on the die grinder, and use it inverted to drive the new race home. Worked like a charm, and no press was necessary.

Yeah, Ivan. You can probably get away with the 12 and occasional use of the 20 jack, but if you're smart, you won't need the heavy.

Oh, freezing/heating parts works to reduce tonnage needed there, too. Chill the inner with CO2, that other ghastly and deadly AGWK gas (I used to use R12 back in the day), and warm up the other pieces in a baggie dunked in hot water, or use a torch if you can.

-- There is no such thing as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder. --Ronald Reagan

Reply to
Larry Jaques

It all depends on what you need to do. I've very few instances where I need to drive things on or off, but a lot of cases where I need to bend or straighten stuff. Or hold. I had one barrel that just kept turning in the barrel vise, no matter how hard it was cranked down. So I chucked the works in the press, pumped the jack until the barrel blocks creaked, then attached the receiver wrench and whacked it with the 5lb. deadblow again. It unscrewed then. Barrel didn't budge in the blocks. The weight of the press frame was a plus there as well as the width, which just cleared the wrench handle. So that 20 tons of pressure did the job in this instance. Would a 12 tonner have done the job, too? Maybe, but it wouldn't have cleared the wrench handle.

Just got a coupon book today from HF, 20 tonner is $170. Don't know if the 20%-off coupons can be used with it or not.

Stan

Reply to
stans4

Larry, thank you so much for your thoughtful sage reply!

Ivan Vegvary

Reply to
Ivan Vegvary

On Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:48:22 -0800 (PST), the infamous snipped-for-privacy@prolynx.com scrawled the following:

Yeah, straightening does take a whole lotta oomph.

Eek! How do those pancaked rounds come out of that barrel, hmmm?

Most coups are usable even on sale items, and they say so right on them.

Ya weighs yer portability (12T) versus yer brute strength and immobility (20T) and ya puts yer money down where it suits ya.

-- Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly. -- Thomas H. Huxley

Reply to
Larry Jaques

On Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:48:19 -0800, the infamous "Ivan Vegvary" scrawled the following:

You're welcome, Ivan. It's one of the few metal-related machines I've had some experience on. I'm glad to be able to share it.

-- Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly. -- Thomas H. Huxley

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Greetings fellow 5900 lathe owner:

I bought a 30T A-frame press off of e-Bay close to a decade ago. My press is the bolt together version. I was not happy with with the ram alignment (wobble). I machined a bushing out of some mystery plastic (probably nylon) and fab'd a retainer for the bushing to attach the bushing in the circled area. There was a steel plate with a very loose fit (about 0.25 inch radial clearance) to the ram as part of the press as mfg'd. The bushing improved the ram alignment but I needed to have a very loose fit (guess about 0.020 inch clearance) between the bushing and ram so that there was no resistance to ram retraction when releasing the pressure on the jack since the return is limited to the force exerted by the two springs.

A fuzzy picture of the press with the area circled (I was at my workshop yesterday evening with the digi cam but did not think to take a less blurry pic nor to take a close up pic of the bushing):

formatting link
My bottle jack has a very slow leak that I have yet to determine the origin - I am guessing the pressure release valve (though I have replaced the o-ring and that did not improve things).

As someone else mentioned, having a removeable jack is very convenient for other things - I have dragged it into 3 crawlspaces and lifted beams to level out floors/ raise corners of houses (while my 8T bottle jacks usually work OK, it is night & day difference when using the 30T puppy).

BTW, most, if not all, of the bearing & bushing pressing that I need to do on my 5914 was done on my 1/2T arbor press (and my 5914 now has bushing in many more places than Clausing originally used them because of the lack of any lubrication by the previous user(s)).

=A0Any problems with the HF presses?

Reply to
aribert

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.