Homemade Hydraulic Bench/Bearing press

Niall310 · Jun 21, 2020

Has anyone made their own floor mounted press?

Use a bottle jack upside own or use redundant rams from around the yard?

I've been keeping my eye out for a while but nothing suitable has turned up. A few flimsy looking ones on Ebay and any decent s/h ones would cost to much to get delivered to NI.

I've a few shear grab rams but when I worked it out with a hand pump generating 280 bar I'd only get the equivalent of a 14T press. I have 2 rams but I'm thinking this could be hard to get it to push straight?

Any pics or suggestions would be a help.

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davidroberts30 · Jun 21, 2020

Can get a 20t ready made for 200 notes?‍

Kevm · Jun 21, 2020

I made my own with a 20t cylinder off ebay, I already had a foot operated pump, quite a lot of heavy steel went into it - probably too much but I didn't want it to bend and without being an engineer and doing calculations you have to make it way too strong.
But just a joy to use when you have to push out a bearing or bush.

Niall310 · Jun 21, 2020

Kevm said:
I made my own with a 20t cylinder off ebay, I already had a foot operated pump, quite a lot of heavy steel went into it - probably too much but I didn't want it to bend and without being an engineer and doing calculations you have to make it way too strong.
But just a joy to use when you have to push out a bearing or bush.View attachment 889013

davidroberts30 said:
What thickness steel did you use?

Any do's or don'ts?

Judging by the ones I've seen, your frame would be well able for 30T+

I can CAD parts up easy to get laser cut which would save on the labour end of it so I'll have a look for a cylinder alone.

Niall310 · Jun 21, 2020

davidroberts30 said:
Can get a 20t ready made for 200 notes?‍

What are they like?
I thought they looked flimsy but the only ones I've used were a 30T bluepoint I think it was and it was alot heavier.

davidroberts30 · Jun 21, 2020

They work?‍

DrWazzock · Jun 21, 2020

My father made a press out of an old forklift that we used to fit on the back of a tractor. Used the uprights frame etc which where good stout channel irons. 20 tonne bottle jack provided the power.
Probably cheap enough to buy ready made nowadays.
I use it all the time. Couldn’t manage without it. Buy or make as big as you can afford to get awkward sized jobs in. Generally I find if you are getting to anywhere near the point of bending the press then there is something wrong with the fit of the parts.

Kevm · Jun 22, 2020

The uprights are 10 x 60 and the top and moving table are 15 x 200 though I think i could have got away with 12 x 200 which would have reduced the weight when I change the height of the table.
The four uprights I tack welded together, milled the ends to get them all the same length then drilled them together to make sure all the holes were level/accurate.
I can get different heights by either putting the table on the pins or in the holes but if I made it now I would put two holes in the table to get more height options.

rob h · Jun 22, 2020

eBay or facebook market place.plenty of secondhand presses

Niall310 · Jun 22, 2020

DrWazzock said:
My father made a press out of an old forklift that we used to fit on the back of a tractor. Used the uprights frame etc which where good stout channel irons. 20 tonne bottle jack provided the power.
Probably cheap enough to buy ready made nowadays.
I use it all the time. Couldn’t manage without it. Buy or make as big as you can afford to get awkward sized jobs in. Generally I find if you are getting to anywhere near the point of bending the press then there is something wrong with the fit of the parts.

Forklift mast is a good idea if there was one lieing about! it would have the inner section to cut down to make a bed too. handy!

Niall310 · Jun 22, 2020

Kevm said:
The uprights are 10 x 60 and the top and moving table are 15 x 200 though I think i could have got away with 12 x 200 which would have reduced the weight when I change the height of the table.
The four uprights I tack welded together, milled the ends to get them all the same length then drilled them together to make sure all the holes were level/accurate.
I can get different heights by either putting the table on the pins or in the holes but if I made it now I would put two holes in the table to get more height options.

Its parts like the uprights I could CAD and get lasercut to save the time of cutting/drilling to get the same outcome but that would add to the cost. i'd rather it to heavy than too light.

What did you use as pins for the bed?

What distance between the 2 cross beams of the bed?

Niall310 · Jun 22, 2020

rob h said:
eBay or facebook market place.plenty of secondhand presses

not many in NI unfortunatly

davidroberts30 · Jun 22, 2020

Niall310 said:
Its parts like the uprights I could CAD and get lasercut to save the time of cutting/drilling to get the same outcome but that would add to the cost. i'd rather it to heavy than too light.

What did you use as pins for the bed?

What distance between the 2 cross beams of the bed?

drill 28mm holes use drawbar pins

Farmer_Joe · Jun 22, 2020

davidroberts30 said:
They work?‍

exactly really not worth wasting you time making one, and i like making stuff where i can,

got a 10 tonnne one for around 120 about 6 years ago on ebay, done everything i asked and saved its value on the first job it was tasked to do, push bushes into suspension arms.

bravheart · Jun 22, 2020

Yes they work fine for most of the jobs you don't need 50t of pressure.

Ok this may be silly question of the day coming up and sorry for the hijack but I've got a small bench press works fine but on the floor atm., if I was to mount it on the bench how strong does the bench need to be? ie. just take the weight of the press or weight of press + 20t.

Mur Huwcun · Jun 22, 2020

bravheart said:
Yes they work fine for most of the jobs you don't need 50t of pressure.

Ok this may be silly question of the day coming up and sorry for the hijack but I've got a small bench press works fine but on the floor atm., if I was to mount it on the bench how strong does the bench need to be? ie. just take the weight of the press or weight of press + 20t.

Strong enough for the press and whatever you'r going to be putting in the press

bravheart · Jun 22, 2020

Mur Huwcun said:
Strong enough for the press and whatever you'r going to be putting in the press

So will the feet of the press exert the weight of the press + the 20t the ram is pushing down with on the surface of the bench?

e5c0rt.mk1 · Jun 22, 2020

bravheart said:
So will the feet of the press exert the weight of the press + the 20t the ram is pushing down with on the surface of the bench?

No just the weight of the press and whatever is in it. The 20 ton is just pushing against itself

Kevm · Jun 23, 2020

Niall310 said:
Its parts like the uprights I could CAD and get lasercut to save the time of cutting/drilling to get the same outcome but that would add to the cost. i'd rather it to heavy than too light.

What did you use as pins for the bed?

What distance between the 2 cross beams of the bed?

I just used 25mm for the pins, mine is 25" between the uprights and it will take something 8" down through the table
I figured that would be the absolute biggest thing I would ever put in it, but the trouble with making it bigger to accept bigger "lumps" is you then have to use bigger steel for everything.

Zebbedee · Jun 23, 2020

Kevm said:
I just used 25mm for the pins, mine is 25" between the uprights and it will take something 8" down through the table
I figured that would be the absolute biggest thing I would ever put in it, but the trouble with making it bigger to accept bigger "lumps" is you then have to use bigger steel for everything.

You will never make a press too big unless it won’t go in the shed,,, then you probably need a bigger shed

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