My Latest Project, Mini Hydraulic Press

[Aly]

When I first saw this Mini Hydraulic Press
http://www.britishblades.com/forums/...ad.php?t=63146
I was very impressed by it metal squashing capabilities and thought it would be an ideal companion (and a lot quieter) for my recently completed power hammer.
Its almost complete just got to finish of the slide and make a shield to stop the scale falling on the jack, weld the bottom plate into place, then its ready for some action, got the jack of eBay £62 quid with P&P, it works very well, not quite as fast as I would have liked but providing the dies are kept at the minimum distance so the hot metal just fits in it should be OK, The eventual idea is to have an interchangeable set of patterned dies that can be used on the hammer and press. It sands in at 32’’ high with the maximum distance between dies 9’’. I’ll post some more pictures and let you know how it works in a couple of week’s time





Thanks for looking
Aly

[beachcaster]

Aly that looks really interesting
look forward to the full working report

All the best

Barry

[lukebarran]

Nice! Would that type of jack work upside down?

[jerbal]

Put the die under the jack instead of on top and it doesn't need to go upside down but you will need spring assistance to open the gap back up.

[lukebarran]

Put the die under the jack instead of on top and it doesn't need to go upside down but you will need spring assistance to open the gap back up.

lol, why did I not think of that! And the jack has two springs on it already!

[imagedude]

I've been considering installing one of those jacks under a fly press. The flypress would control the top die and the hydraulic press would control the lower die. The flypress provides a fast moving die while the hydraulics provide the power.

[Torsten]

Nice looking litle press, I hope scews will be strong enouth!!
Looks like M12 good for 14t each, mounted in this way.
Be careful on first try, may this litle beauty knocks you out!


@imagedude
your Idea will may not work, T´d try a hydraulikjack first, for adjust the lower die in mine.
a 25t jack pumped like a bicycle Tire pump.

Bye Torsten

[rarms]

Simple, but very clever idea!

[lilzee]

hmm, may have to try that sometime once i get some form of hot fire.

[Ken Kelley]

Aly,

Elegant job! I like the way you've used flat bar stock instead of square tubing for the uprights. You can make your shield from thin aluminum stock. Bend about an inch of the edges to about 45 degrees then attach the shield to the lower anvil with a couple of small magnets. Saves a lot of drilling and fussing and works very nicely on my machine.

I'm curious as to how you've attached your dies. Looks maybe like you've used socket head screws. I did that and the problem is that the sockets fill with scale making it difficult to insert the allen wrench to loosen them. Also, the dies get flaming hot after a bit of heavy pressing so the chore of changing from the drawing dies to the flattening dies is a dicey job.

Nicely done machine and I'm sure you will have a lot of fun making billets of beautiful damascus with it.

Ken

[Aly]

Its now finished and ready for a test run



The first billet getting squashed



Only problem that I see with this type of press is the heat that is sucked out of the billet by the dies, its incredible how quickly it cools down, even with pre-heating the dies with a big lump of read hot steel and removing it just prior to pressing.

Thanks for looking
Aly

[Colin KC]

With this one Aly, you need to use it's speed to advantage rather than it's power. Take small bites & you'll prolly see a huge difference, about a third of the width of the dies at a time, try it

[DCL]

that is very nice Aly

Daniel CL.

[Torsten]

smaler dies will help a lot, good job Aly

Torsten

[saad]

sir,i am a final year mechanical engg. student,and am thinking of making this my final year project. i wanted to know the specifications of the jack you have used in this setup. thank you.