Home made shop presses

[EarlyPorsche]

Long story short I bought a harbor freight press to use on some bushing and it was downright unsafe. So much slop in that sled with the pressure point that stuff suddenly shifts under pressure.

I've decided to make a press and build it with a bottle jack mounted upside down (I'll modifiy it to work that way).

So the first thing it will do is press out and in control arm bushings. I think I want to build a bench top model. Sort of like the 10ton Dake model. Only thing is my whole jack will hang from the top so that will take away some pressing room.

Anyway, does anyone have any pictures/plans/tips. I think it will all be made of 4" c channel and a 12 ton air over hydraulic bottle jack. Probably want 20 inches under the ram. Main thing I'm looking for with plans would be hole spacing for the table - would like to tell the steel store so they can do the holes for me.

[911_Dude]

Sorry to hear about the HF press. Ive had my eye on one for awhile. Waiting for the right project. Could you just replace the fasteners with quality material? I know from past experience, HF/Chinese products tend to make some of the worst and cheapest fasteners Ive ever seen- threads malformed, heads that twist off with min torque, etc.

[EarlyPorsche]

Actually the fasteners and frame are not the problem. They are decent and when assembling I put s little tonnage on the press before tightening the bolts and everything went together real square and tight. The issue is that sled that comes down when you pump it. There is so much slop in that (1.5-2" sideways slop) piece that when you finally touch what you want to press and pump it up a little, the sled flings to one side to eliminate the huge tolerance and get rigid for pressing. Now everything has shifted if you're lucky enough to have the piece not dislodge and hit you. Never again. I can make one for probably $200-300 and it will be durable. The Chinese stuff is at a comedically crappy level.

[VINMAN]

I've had a HF press for years. It gets a ton of use. I'm pretty happy with it, considering the price I paid for it. I agree with the "slop" issue, though. I fixed that by shimming the rack that slides. Tightened it up a bit. It was a quick and easy fix. Worked great after that.

[vonsmog]

I have had the HF 12ton floor model for about 20 years, and have used it plenty. I have bent the rod that goes down and does the pressing. So that was replaced with solid rod instead of a pipe, next I bent the top square tubing where the bottle jack presses against. This was replaced again with a solid piece of steel. Since making these changes after 15 years of abuse, I can't complain.
This model has no slop in it, and pushes straight down.

[ckelly78z]

I haven't replaced any bushings as of yet, but I am lucky that my prototype lab has a 30 ton hydraulic press meant for swaging the diameter of parts down to stiffen the rubber within. You can inch it down and have good control over the ram and only have to push a button rather than brute force on a lever action press.

[EarlyPorsche]

I thought about fixing the slop...but I just couldn't be the owner of that thing. The arbor plates were cast iron! They are so porous its scary. I agree that I could have started cutting and welding to make it tight but I forgot to mention that the rod that presses down (solid chinese steel) started mushrooming on the edge of bushings. Again, probably would have been cheaper and faster to just fix it but I think I'll have fun making one. I just dont want the legs drilled until I have the measurements figured out. I think I'll pick up a jack and start calculating from there.

[gwood]

Here's a long thread on home made swaging presses. I know they're lighter than a shop press, but you might get some ideas.

Lets-make-a-Swage-press

[dad911]

Try the mod like this? Press which stays square (not HF) - AR15.Com Archive

[MBAtarga]

Browse over on Garage Journal. Quite a few homemade and/or modified presses there.