Ryoken's HF press mod build...

[ryoken]

tool build babble for the bored....

As alluded to elsewhere, I'm doing some of infamous 20 ton HF mods... figure I'll document them here..


while I bought the unit back in August for the fUrd to replace the old 12 ton unit my boss had ruined, and knew of lots of stuff to do to it already, I've been heavily searching vids on it to see what's possible... I also have a few things, and approaches to mods I'm going to do that i haven't seen others do..


apparently the base unit comes in 2 iterations, one where the top is welded, and one where it is bolted.. I've read people actually saying the bolted together version is actually better... the one I got was the welded, I'm ok with that...


the base, cheesy unit, minus the top slide and hydro...

I've already decided I probably would have been better just going to Fazio and buying some stuff and building one from scratch, but whatever.. this is where we are going...




so, a list of things that are going to happen...


air over hydro unit going in... it came with a hand trigger, but I'm considering doing a foot setup mounted to the base I'm doing.. foot pedals are surprisingly cheap.. plenty of units in the $20, 25 range... we'll see on that one...




the jack will get a custom knob or lever to replace the hokey, pin/handle release lever at the base... I think I'm gonna try and turn a knurled knob on the lathe for that.. but I've seen lever styles work good too.. heck, one guy used a fancy garden spicket handle...

I also ordered a cheap $20 hand crank boat trailer type hand winch to mount to the top with a couple pullies at the upper corners down to the lower, pin adjustable cradle instead of doing the whole "juggle that while raising/lowering" pins deal.. gonna use a nice 1/4" rope for that for smoothness, as opposed to the cable that came with the winch.. the pullies are coming from McBible...

you can see similar in this pic.. tho I'm thinking of centering the winch...

on my end structurally, the main thing is tightening and strengthening all the sloppy arse components... the piece that gets pressed down has a literal 3/8" slop on either side and flops around like a fish on the dock welded by a drunk 9 yr old Taiwan grrl.....

I've seen guys do bolts threaded thru to control the depths and slide on the main frame, etc...


fug all that... I whacked the ends off and am rebuilding them in 1/4" stuff to a tighter, smooth transition/slide... I considered some sort of delrin slides, etc, but figure thats WAY overkill...

also the lower, pressed against, adjustable cradle is being rebuilt for tighter, smoother sliding..





I'm also doing lockable casters on the bottom... I will be cutting out the bottom cross brace and building a stouter, bolt-in piece.. mainly so the upper and lower press bars can be slid up the towers for install, than the lower cross brace gets bolted in... thats why they are built so sloppy, so you can angle them inbetween the uprights.



I may just add some pads to the angle corner bottoms for the casters... but if I had some 3" x 3" angle kicking around, I'd just replace those hokey current lower pieces... it is conceivable that I may build a lower storage tray, or box that holds pressing accessories and is a place to mount a foot pedal..... I'll see what kind of steel/time I have..

oh, the other more minor mods are going to be welding "stop" washers to the front of the adjusting bars so they stop against the cradle when you adjust as opposed to sticking them too far thru the holes.... and replacing the hokey 2-piece hand handle with a 1-piece tube for fine feel hand pumping... and a holder for it on the frame somewhere for it....

also, I'm going to "pin" the pressing plates they come with. I did a 1/2 arse DA cleanup to surface the crappy cast pieces {my kingdom for a Bridgeport)..... but I'm also going to drill/tap 4 holes on each so I can install pins on each to lock them into the lower cradle, as opposed to slipping off and breaking your toe..


one of a few winter projects i'll be working on...

 

[82355]

Sign me up. I love watching improvements like this.

Martin

 

[sweetk30]

i have a older orange unit . i did a solid plate bottom and 2 fixed 2 swivel wheels to move it easy and give good storage . then SWAG offroad plates and finger break kit . last mod was air/over hydro 20ton jack with coupon and a tack weld of a old BALL valve handle for the release . otherwise i love it and few times i think of winch crank up/down i then thing how many times i need to move it up/down .

some history on my unit . https://ck5.com/forums/threads/20-ton-hf-shop-press-mod-today.340021/

 

[ryoken]

i have a older orange unit . i did a solid plate bottom and 2 fixed 2 swivel wheels to move it easy and give good storage . then SWAG offroad plates and finger break kit . last mod was air/over hydro 20ton jack with coupon and a tack weld of a old BALL valve handle for the release . otherwise i love it and few times i think of winch crank up/down i then thing how many times i need to move it up/down .

some history on my unit . https://ck5.com/forums/threads/20-ton-hf-shop-press-mod-today.340021/

yeah, I remembered your thread when I got into this idea...



the end result of this is building a break eventually... obviously I've looked at SWAGs stuff, but I'm gonna try and homebrew it, they seem faily priced, but it's not a critical enough shop project for me to justify that over 12v swap parts for Mutt... I've got a couple pieces I think I can work with, other than needing to buy springs....

the big question is if I can actually do a finger break, as opposed to a single long one... I've even been researching ways to harden mild steel, etc for the upper die and such.... but I'll see what I can come up with... I just want to get all the other aspects working as efficiently as possible before getting into that...

 

[Bent77]

Subd

 

[streetrodchev]

I have the smaller 12 ton, I made a solid platform/ base with casters, it is a nice place to store your pressing accessories ect. and can roll it out of the way when not in use.

 

[sweetk30]

only reason i got there press plates was i heard a guy SNAP one from 100+ feet away for the stock cast plates . and the finger break kit is nice but i have always used it 100% as a solid press bar . not saying i wont later but i tend to bend and be done no fancy work .

 

[ryoken]

only reason i got there press plates was i heard a guy SNAP one from 100+ feet away for the stock cast plates . and the finger break kit is nice but i have always used it 100% as a solid press bar . not saying i wont later but i tend to bend and be done no fancy work .

yeah, i would consider their plates.... probably cheaper than anything you could homebrew or have cut for you... i do have a couple random hunks of 1" and 3/4" for that stuff... but press plates are nice for the cutouts.....

and yeah, i just wanna be able to bend some 1/4" for brackets and such.. whether I need to bend up a box, etc with a finger, can't say... but....

 

[ryoken]

I have the smaller 12 ton, I made a solid platform/ base with casters, it is a nice place to store your pressing accessories ect. and can roll it out of the way when not in use.

casters where a common thought obviously for everyone... tho, I will say.. I've learned the hard way personally... I'll never do 2 fixed, 2 swivel again.. I'm tired of that poor manueverability.. 4 swivels.. and he!!, put 4 brakes on too.. doesn't mean ya have to use all 4.... I just ordered 10 of these.. 10.... 4 for the press.. 4 for my nice lathe stand and 2 to replace the height adjustable feet on my crazy heavy bandsaw so I don't have to lift it to drag around The LAB™...





bought these... could have got a bit better quality by running up to Fazio, but it's an hr or so away.. and I'm lazy....

3 in. Polyurethane Light Duty Swivel Caster with Brake

Amazing deals on this 3In Poly Light Duty Swivel Caster With Brake at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

expect some heavy updates on this in the next 2, 3 weeks as parts roll in.... it's a fulltime job till march 15 or so...

 

[ryoken]

also, I got my lower storage idea from this Belgium psycho I posted elsewhere.... he built the belt sander thing ya see in this vid too.. go look that up, guys a nut....

I would have done some things differently... the air over setup is a bit hokey... but you can't say this thing isn't stooopid stout overkill... I should have went to Fazio's...

 

[sweetk30]

was CRAZY when i heard that cast iron snap ........

as to 2 fixed 2 swivel its what i had in the built-it -pile of parts .

 

[bp71k5]

also, I got my lower storage idea from this Belgium psycho I posted elsewhere.... he built the belt sander thing ya see in this vid too.. go look that up, guys a nut....

I would have done some things differently... the air over setup is a bit hokey... but you can't say this thing isn't stooopid stout overkill... I should have went to Fazio's...

Pretty cool. Right as he was tapping the ram mounting holes, I thought I myself...you better be careful tapping that fast and not backing out to break the chips or you’ll break the tap...then he broke the tap.

 

[ryoken]

was CRAZY when i heard that cast iron snap ........

as to 2 fixed 2 swivel its what i had in the built-it -pile of parts .

yeah, i had kind of forgotten about the stories I'd read/heard about those plates exploding.. I've had enough "4 lb part flying around a shop at Mach 3" stories in my life.. it's probably the main reason i left the shop at the concrete plant... I almost got killed twice by "inadvertent flying metal hunks".....

1" plate is reasonable for a couple feet.. it's a way to do the cutouts that's the issue for most...


I've burned myself a couple times with the 2 fixed, 2 swivel deal... thinking it was the right choice.. sometimes it works out reasonable... it SUCKS on the killa 12v stand I built a couple yrs ago...

 

[ryoken]

Pretty cool. Right as he was tapping the ram mounting holes, I thought I myself...you better be careful tapping that fast and not backing out to break the chips or you’ll break the tap...then he broke the tap.

he's funny... I think some of it is set up to be like that, amusing.... his speaking parts are like that... he get's way complicated on his stuff.. most works out pretty cool, albeit way time consuming...... but the funny thing that caught my eye was, he just recently got a TIG.. everything I had seem him build prior was all stick welded, not even MIG.... some pretty complicated stuff too.. than he goes and breaks out some 7018 to burn it in.

he's got this nutty sheetmetal roller he built like that too... always curious to watch how those across the pond go about stuff...

 

[JoshHefnerX]

I've got the bolt together version. In, for seeing what you do.

Not sure how yours is but mine does rack bit if I'm really on it. Casters are a good idea but think adding a big thick plate to the bottom to tie it all together then casters would prob be a bit worthwhile.

 

[ryoken]

updates later.. i ran out of wire yesterday....


yeah, I'm building a whole new base and crossmember... forgot i had a bunch of 3" x 3" angle from attempt #1 on my tank tray in Mutt.... than doing like a 2 x 3 crossmember between them... that whole sub assembly will bolt to the 2 uprights...


basically finished the upper slide yesterday.. i'm gonna start on the new base today... than i'll follow that up with revamping the lower cradle... the upper and lower cradles will have to slide up the uprights, than the new lower stand bolts to the uprights...

i'm thinking i'll do a low metal box on the back section of the base and leave the front open... eventually I'll do a foot pedal, but that could be a small pad mounted off the front angle easy enough...



everything is here, or ordered other than a foot pedal, and a rope for the winch basically... i want to see what the air setup is on the HF jack before doing a pedal deal...... and if I have line kicking around the marina.

i also think i have what i need for the most part to build a brake... using up a bunch of stuff i had leftovers of.. some aren't ideal, I'll have some cutting to do as opposed to just going to Fazio and buying the dimensions I want.... but it's free...

I'm afraid to go there these days with the way prices are!



maybe pics tonight...

 

[skunked]

I have the same press with the swag finger brake kit. My only complaint is the hydraulic jack, I want an air over hydro or electric over hydo setup.

Casters are a good idea but think adding a big thick plate to the bottom to tie it all together then casters would prob be a bit worthwhile.

I added casters to mine and it's plenty stable without any other mods.

 

[ryoken]

ok, 1/2 day today by the time, I picked up food for the Miller and a few other errands... get a full day tomorrow, no need to leave the house!




anyway, the upper is done... I would say it would have been nice to have had the right dimension steel, BUT... it's China goofy metric sizing anyway...



a close look shows the double 12-pack spacer behind the slide.....

so, the bottom 1" x 1" angle iron they had welded in as a lower cross brace is now gone obviously... she was pretty spring loaded inward, about 1/2"... ate a 5" cutoff on me...



anyway, tomorrow, I hope to have the base together for the most part... wheels won't be in for a couple days... and I'll figure out the storage once I can bolt it up to the uprights.....


one thing slightly dif will be that the front/back foot print will be slightly bigger.. same distance sticking out the front, but a couple extra inches on the back part of the legs... to help make the storage a bit more usable...



the lower cradle revamp will basically be whacking out the 2 center cross pieces and doing what I did on the upper.. tho, the lower will fully go around the uprights... so you can have a winch point on the outer upright...





oh, and I correct myself.. the upper isn't quite done.. I will be adding a plate the size of the jack, under the jack spot... 1/4" prolly...

 

[ryoken]

another 1/2 day today...

had to take yesterday off after almost offing myself in The LAB™ umm, weds night irrc... luckily I passed on going to the ER, and I think I'm ok....



anyway, couple updates...


got the lower legs fitted up and bolted with new real 1/2" hardware... I swear all the china stuff is grade 2, and thats being generous...


I actually ground out the "V" of the 3" angle a bit, and shaped the bottom of the uprights to fit tight everywhere... levels, temp x-member in for square//level checking.....

proper flanged 1/2" hardware....

you can see the 2 x 1.5 standing up here that will be the x-member welded to the angle iron, above the lower bolts... the 1.5 was perfect, could have been 4" wide, but whatever, stoopid stout compared to the 1" angle HF had in there.....

tomorrow I'll stop at the marina and grab my porta-power to set the upright width....




here you can see the back is a bit longer.. the angles will be in front.... that is the HF distance, the backs are like 2" longer..

so.... since this is a LAB™ upgrade, I may as well throw a few of the other winter projects in here too... snore at your discretion...


my sis/BIL got me the 20 air over, but they actually got it from Jeg's cuz it was backordered at HF..


my mom must have been listening to one of my stories back in the summer, about wanting a new welding cart... I never built one, just used the junky low one that came with my Miller.. it's not like I have a huge shop, it doesn't move a ton... and I really didn't want my plasma in the same cart.... so I never bothered to build one, had K5/Mutt projects the time/materials would be better spent on......

than I saw the one with drawers at HF and mentioned how nice it would be for welding stuff storage, tips, gloves, yada... I have organizational issues to begin with...

well, mom in all her, "I have to spend "8 g's a yr from the IRA, and did my kitchen this yr already" got me a gift certificate to HF for $500... on top of the sweet new comforter I got from her...



so, I bought the cart, a new motor for the lathe, and a dedicated cheap vise for my fab table.... also bought casters for a bunch of my equipment...





here's the cart... I'm hoping it'll help my decrepid arse be a bit more efficient around The LAB™.....

oh, you can see the vise in this shot... holding the upright.... just the cheap 5".. was like $52..... I have a more stout one on the back bench, but it's limited as 1/2 of it is busted off.... I also felt having one on the fab table would be hugely convenient for part cleaning, grinding, etc...

tomorrows agenda is to get the lower x-member in.. than start on modding the lower cradle...



oh, I also have some air system upgrades going on too, but I'll cover that when I get it done.. you'll laugh...

 

[ryoken]

on an aside to that, looking at that cart pic.... I have a large (120CF?) bottle at work left by one of our tuna tower builders... it was a straight argon bottle, looks pretty fresh... thinking i might take that down to my gas guy and seeing if I give him that (don't think it's "his" bottle, but it might be), and my 60cf 75/25 bottle that I own, if he would upgrade me to a large 75/25...... my small argon I have is fine for the amount I spool gun...