Got me a press!!

Z

ZebDeming

Well-Known Member
In real life I'm an auto mechanic, I know lots of folks who are collectors of "stuff" It may just be part of the mechanic's life to collect stuff that most folks would throw away. In my travels today I was at the shop across the street, which is an ag equipment dealer. I sometimes spend some of my lunch break over there talking shop with the guys. In passing I asked the mechanic out back if he had any old hydraulic cylinders laying around, as I would really like to build a forging press. We rooted around in the back room and found a few canidates, he said to take them and try them out, well I don't have a hydraulic pump and motor yet, which I informed him of. A little scrounging later we had uprooted an old hydraulic line crimper which is used to crimp the fittings on hydraulic lines. It had a 110v pump, a double acting cylinder of about 3.5 inches and a directional valve. Here's what I brought home with me today, I'm glad there are other packrats out there


IMAG0139.jpg


The pump wasn't hooked up to the lines but tonight I hooked it all up and gave it a test run. I plugged the motor in half thinking to short out a breaker and start a fire :) nope, just ran like it should. The ram moved up and down like it should, so on to fire up the forge to see if it would have enough power to move hot metal. I wired a piece of roundstock to the ram as you can see in the pic to act as a makeshift die and not to damage the piece it was attached to. Here's what I did to some 5/8 diameter coil spring in one heat.

IMAG0140.jpg


While it isn't the power house that some of you guys have, it does move hot metal about 100 times better than my hammer. Now to make a stand for it and replumb the pump, I'm also going to make a couple sets of dies for it. I'm super excited to put it to use :) It's small enough I can put it in the trunk of my wife's car If I need to, and space is at a premium in my garage as well.

Thanks for watching
Zeb
 
Congrats on your find, Zeb.
Make sure those hoses are in good shape, and keep 'em shielded from the hot stuff.
 
Thanks guys, I'm gonna replace the hoses as they're probably older than I am :) gonna relocate the valve too, some heat shielding for the lines would probably be a good investment too, thanks for the tip
 
That's a awesome setup! I was thinking about investing in a log splitter, but would love to have something smaller. What's the tonnage? How large a throw do you expect after installing the dies? How fast does the ram travel? What's the make/model for that press? I might have to check into Ebay to see if one's available...
 
VaughnT, Estimating it at about a 3.5 bore in the cylinder and guessing at 1500 psi, it's around 7 ton. I'll measure the throw and speed maybe today when I get out in the garage. I'll look around on it and see if I can find a make and model, check shops that make hydraulic hoses, they have machines just like this, maybe even an old one out back :)
 
Thanks, hoss. I'll have to do some local searching and see what I come up with as that would sure beat hammering all day! I wonder if 7 tons is enough to do damascus, or if you'll have enough room for a billet once you make up some dies. Of course, it might not be a problem if you can make some longer uprights.
 
Sweet! Squished the snot out of that steel, didn't it!?!

5" is plenty of room for a billet, and I like how fast the action is. Definitely gonna have to keep my eyes open for one of these.
 
Hey, that's cheating!!! You should have to hammer and hammer steel - like in the old days:)

You have a GREAT toy.... I mean "tool" there. Congrats. That Damascus you forged up was neat. Some day maybe I'll try some Damascus.

Ken H>
 
Thanks guys. I like hammering steel too, but to get a chain to stick up to itself would be ALOT of hammering :)
 
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