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pressing 14FF crush sleeve and......BOOOM!!!

rdn2blazer

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so I tried to get my crush sleeve to crush in my 15 ton press to no avail, just not big enough capacity. so I hit my bud up who has a 30 ton press. his press is a Harbor Freight 30 ton "A" Frame Style press.

the press came with cast iron pieces you use to put across the press table to press against. there about 1 1/4 thick and bout 4 in. W. X 8 in. L. I would have been concerned with just one but I thought 2 stacked would be fine, thats 2 1/2 inches thick, granted we are talking cast but still.

well I was wrong. I was pressing a couple pumps at a time and checking the play of the race to the bearing. it was about .07 /.08 of slop left to seat to the bearing race. so I pump 2 more times and at the end of the stroke of the 2nd pump...BOOOM!!! THOSE CAST PLATES SNAPPED IN TWO!
SOUNDED LIKE A SHOT GUN!

did'nt get hurt but my ears felt it, and my left ear kinda hurts still. I think the shock of them snapping finished seating the bearing cause it has no slop in it now. still is free spinning so it still needs to be preloaded to final preload. so I dont think I went to far in crushing the sleeve.

I will replace those cast pieces with some cold rolled steel bout 2 inches thick. so dont press with ANYTHING CAST!!
 
those presses scare the crap outa me, I was doing the same thing as you, and bent the cross beam. ended up 'renting' a 600 ft/lb impact from home depot to finish crushing that damn sleeve.

had a few things pop out of those presses and go flying, use a safety blanket now :)
 
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