Thread: Small Hydraulic press - ideas

Most bottle jacks cannot be used upside down a 4 ton jack would be next to useless as a bearing press
even a small bench top jewellers press is rated a 8 ton

Gday bob I would say that a pressure gage is a very useful add on but by no means essential, and my very limited experience tells me bottle jacks don't work upside down

Not home made but very simple construction. I could measure up if it looked suitable
10VK31_AS01.JPG
I was going to make one like this but the price I got second hand was less than the cost of materials. The horizontal beams are solid as are the vertical rods, but it is for a 10 ton ram. If you are only doing 4 you may be able to scale down as well as use heavy wall RHS with maybe some local reinforcement.

Michael

Thanks Guys, much appreciated.

Michael, thanks, some measurements would be useful.
I'll make it to take a 10 tonne ram/jack in case I stumble across one.

Cheers
Bob

Surprising how much grunt one needs to push some bearings and bushings out. Some days the 30 tonne in the shop feels underdone.

Minimum 10 tonne in my opinion.

Hi Bob
My father in law used to make 10 ton presses using a bottle jack. The fluid feed for the jack is in the base. All you have to do to make them work upside down is to use a piece of tube to extend the feed to the other end of the reservoir, ie from the bottom to the top. I cannot remember the details but it didnt take him log to do the conversion.
Then all you have to do is make a prefab frame to suit.

Roger

Roger is right. My press had a pickup tube fitted by me about 35 years ago I just drilled the intake hole inside the case out to suit a tight fit for a 1/4" tube and pressed (hammered) it in with a little sealant.
By the way it is a 5 ton jack and has done a mass of work. I have a 12 ton jack that I have stuck in there temporarily on a few occasions, but mostly the 5t one works fine. I do have a pressure gauge on mine (an old oxy cylinder gauge) and I can tell you that my jack goes way over 300bar - 4500psi.... then the pump handle bends.... the ram is 1.2" diameter by the way.

http://dcknives.blogspot.com.au/p/hydraulic-pin-press.html

only a 6t tho

There are some dimensions given in the H & F description of their 10 tonner which might give a useful guide here:

http://www.machineryhouse.com.au/P141

Frank.

There's a 70 ton non-hydraulic press shown here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_LSPX8cNaE

Bob,

I strongly recommend a floor standing press. The height allows longer work to hang down between the table rails. Pressing bearings onto an axle half-shaft, or anything longer than about 10 inches, is a lot more complicated if not impossible on a benchtop style press. Your absolute minimum capacity should be 10 tons and even then you'll quickly run into it's limits. I strongly recommend an air over hydraulic pump as well if you intend to do any more than a couple of pressings a day.

Cheers,
Rob

Here's a design I'd seen on youtube some time ago, saves having to modify the jack.

Some time ago I was given a 12V operated hydraulic pump. Similar to that used for cab tilt mechanism on smaller trucks. I plumbed it up to a 4" ram and put it all into a H frame that came from a foundary (I think) Anyway, I fitted a pressure gauge and found that the pump generated up to 3000 psi but could be reduced by adjusting the pressure relief valve. At 3000 psi the 12V motor really struggles so I reduced it to 1500 psi, which when you work out the surface area of a 4" ram it equates to about 8.5 tonne. To cut a long story short, I have found 8.5T more than enough to do everything I have needed and enough to occasionally get myself into trouble as well! Also, why can't you mount the hydraulic jack the right way up? Who says it needs to go upside down? You could easily mount a plate under the base to fit accessories Cheers, Simon

Originally Posted by Ch4iS

Here's a design I'd seen on youtube some time ago, saves having to modify the jack.

This is what I meant!