20 ton Air/Hydraulic Mini Press

[Arcadia]

Here is my version of the Mini Press. It took me way too long to put it all together...but it turned out well. Many used 2" square tubing for the base, but I had a piece of 10" wide channel. It has a piece of 1" plate cut to fit the channel and welded across the center to support the cylinder. Only have 2 sets of dies made up so far but will make a bunch more as I go along. The air valve for the cylinder was put into a foot operated air switch which lets me hold my hot work and operate the hydraulic release on/off.



I had it on a small steel stand but it was not easy to move. So I cut part of the off and mounted it to an old horizontal dolly that I had. Now it can be moved out of the way when not in use.


Now that it's complete I'm thinking I want a bigger hydraulic press.

[bobs409]

Very good! Would like to see what kind of dies you have an are planning to make.

[Al8236]

I take it you are using this as a forging press? How do you find the speed of the air over hydraulic jack for this type of work?
I was looking at this option but thought the jack might be quite slow.

[DIYer]

Thanks Arcadia! We've added your Pneumatic Hydraulic Mini Press to our Brakes and Presses category,
as well as to your builder page: Arcadia's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Pneumatic Hydraulic Mini Press by Arcadia

tags: press, cylinder

[Ralphxyz]

Nice, exactly what I have stewing in my mind to do. I like the size. I do not "think" I need a big press. I do need to mount it outside
I don't have any room for storage. Do you have more pictures? I'd like to see your foot pedal.

[Arcadia]

The speed is kind of slow, but it is way better than hammering by hand. At least with the foot pedal it is faster because I don't have to switch hands around. I've seen one that had an actuator to open and close the jack valve, which helped the speed, but for what I need is too involved and costly.
To compensate for the speed I'll need to make some aggressive drawing dies. The flat dies and the slight curve don't move things fast...although I only played with some 52100 round bar.
I can take a pic of the box that the foot pedal came in if you're interested Ralphxyz.

Some of the other dies I want to make will be specific tooling for integral knives. The ideas have been floating around my mind, I just haven't got them figured out enough to draw them out yet.

I appreciate the comments guys.

[Ralphxyz]

I like pictures!! Also a link to where you got it from. I also need to see forging dies. I have not even gotten around to picturing what I will need
for a specific project die wise. I have lots of idea floating around in my mind about a press. I am wondering if
the jack pressure can be increased with a lever?

Ralph

[Frank S]

I like pictures!! Also a link to where you got it from. I also need to see forging dies. I have not even gotten around to picturing what I will need
for a specific project die wise. I have lots of idea floating around in my mind about a press. I am wondering if
the jack pressure can be increased with a lever?

Ralph

ON those air over hydraulic jacks the pneumatic assist is a piston pump. they are designed to develop full rated jacking pressure using 80 to 90 PSI air. However experience on the ones I have owned will develop more jacking force if I used the mechanical pump handle but in doing so the jacks are pushed beyond their rated capacity at one point the internal bypass valve would vent the gain in pressure on a brand new jack might have been 10 to 15% but on an older jack which had been over pressured several times a significant loss in power could be noted using either system.
If you need more power go to a larger jack.
It would require some trick machining and valving along with very high pressure lines and an accumulator but if a person needed more speed they could incorporate a hydraulic accumulator to build up and store a large volume of pressurized oil much like an air compressor stores pressurized air only instead nof 125 PSI you are looking at as much as 10,000 PSI for some of the better quality jacks
Enerpac and SPX power team make both electric and pneumatic driven high pressure systems up to several tens of 1000 PSI and from very minute flow rates on up to gallons per minute it is simply a matter of how much money one has to throw at them for extreme custom designs.
I've built hydraulic power systems with variable flow rates in the 100's of gallons per minute using 500 HP diesel engines but nothing over 8000 PSI

[Ralphxyz]

Thanks Frank, but why would not a simple lever work? Say a 13" arm 1" off the pivot that would have to multiply the force and keep it within the
operating parameters of the jack. The jack would not see any difference but the lever would multiply the force.

Of course this is all coming off the top of my head I have not tried it yet but it seems like it would work.
Ralph

[Frank S]

A leaver would require the use of fulcrums (pivots)to act upon the distance between work, force, and fixed point.
If the intent is to have more force or power this is done at the expense of speed if speed is desired then power is reduced
the only way to gain mechanical advantage is to have slower movement and vice versa