Building a shop press

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OK this is a 2 part question, 1: Has anyone built or seen any plans for building a 50 ton or smaller shop press. 2: Has anyone built or seen any attactments that would allow you to use the shop press mentioaned in question #1 to bend metal. "Sorta like a press brake I guess."The reason I ask about building one is after seeing what kind of press you get from HF or Northern Tools for around 150 bucks or less I thought I could build a much heavier duty press for less money.Pics of any presses would be great to as I could get ideas from them all to help me.
Reply:Not an endorsement, but a quick search brought up this press that was posted some time back.  You may want to send him a message.http://www.weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread...ydraulic+pressHobart 140 Handler w/ gasHyperTherm Powermax 380 Plasmaoxy/acetylene
Reply:Me and my Dad took the bottle jack type out of his and put a nice air powered one in it and its by far the easyest thing in the world to use. At work someone made a jig for pushing pins out of chain links for our press if you do anywork like that. Just gotta think outside the box and you can do what you want with anything you got. oo i might just put that in my signature! Just an idea or 2 for when you make yours.Nothing Ever Got Done By Quitting, Never Give Up.
Reply:Yep, check out www.northerntool.com  i think they have a 24" press break setup for a press.   Just a thought.  As cheaply as I have bought hydraulic presses over the years You can probably buy one for less than you can build it yourself.I'm a Lover, Fighter, Wild horse Rider, and a pretty good welding man......
Reply:Originally Posted by Hammack_WeldingYep, check out www.northerntool.com  i think they have a 24" press break setup for a press.   Just a thought.  As cheaply as I have bought hydraulic presses over the years You can probably buy one for less than you can build it yourself.
Reply:Either buy or build is a good choice. You will no doubt build much heavier than any of the HF models, but you won't build any cheaper unless you have iron in stock. You'd be a $100.00 in iron alone. Jack and the rest won't be free.  Just drilling the holes would be a project in itself. Wouldn't bother me to build one but it wouldn't be for the "cheaper" aspect.
Reply:Ive been kicking around making my HF press taller, as it wont accomodate the axles out of my 9" to press the bearings off...I just hate paying someone to do a 5 minutes per axle job, and waiting all week for them!
Reply:I bought a cheap shop press locally. Not HF. It has a cylinder and a pump. I have bent some aluminum parts for my boat with it, just using blocks and flat bar. My welder was out on loan, so I did what I could the hard way. Worked out quite well.I work for a steel fabricator, and couldn't build it for what I paid.
Reply:if anyone has any ideas on making a small press-brake to use with a hydraulic press, I would love to hear them.  I went looking on northern tool and they were pretty expensive.
Reply:oh, whoops!  I should have read the link in the second post before asking about the press brake!
Reply:So I just went to see what a press brake is, and I do believe I saw some dies for them at the local industrial surplus place... I will have to see if they got their website going yet!I dunno how common places like this one are, what these guys do is buy up old equipment and supplies etc and resell the stuff.... Lots and lots of used equipment, and tons (literally!) of different specialized raw materials...  Very reasonable too...How long of a press brake are you guys thinking of building?
Reply:I built a 20 ton press a couple years ago.  Had about $50 in it sold it for $250  One thing to watch is drilling the holes in the sides for your pins for your different height settings.  Make sure your drill press doesn't "wander" creating a hole that's 1/16" off or better.  I went to the junk yard and found hood springs-these made great return springs for the jack.
Reply:Pics of my 20 ton shop press are enclosed below.Some things I've successfully bent with this press:- two 2" x 3/8" flat bars at once to about 20 degrees (for my +36" jack stands)- one 4 1/2" x 3/8" spring plates for the rear of my Toy 4runner- 22" x 3/16" plate to about 90 degrees, seat mount for a friend.  This was the first heavy duty bend and it bent my single 3/4" pins.  I've since upgrades the pins to two 3/4" pins on each side.Pics: Attached ImagesLast edited by Albin; 08-09-2007 at 09:50 PM.America's enemies best ally,the Democratic Party!
Reply:50 tons is enough force that I get respectful.And therefore, I looked at the real, commercial units, not the HF ones, and copied one of those. New, a press like this sells for around 5 grand- mine cost  several hundred in  steel alone, and that was almost 5 years ago, when steel was a lot cheaper than now.50 ton cylinder, mounted on a sliding head that moves left and right.Enerpac  pump system.I have used it to bend, hot forge, and rivet- I actually built it for a riveting job, where I had to rivet 5000 or so stainless  rivets. It will cold head a rivet quite nicely.The channel is mostly 12". I copied it from an Enerpac press- they had dimensions in their catalog.
Reply:The channel is mostly 12". I copied it from an Enerpac press- they had dimensions in their catalog.
Reply:Ries,That is what I call a "drool tool"Very nice!