Wanted - Good design for home made hydraulic shop press.

[pharmvet]

I recently acquired a couple of American Made 30 ton Bottle Jacks. I was thinking that I would use one as the heart of a shop press, because I have needed one on several occasions and have never had one at my disposal. If anyone has any really good designs for a home made, general purpose, heavy duty shop press I would really like to see them. Please keep in mind that the more versatile and adaptable to various applications the better. thanks

 

[J_J]

You might get some good ideas from this web site.

Handy Bend | Shop Outfitters

 

[pharmvet]

The jack Im planning to use has a stroke of 7". Is this adequate for most jobs that one would use a press for? Also, are there specific dimensions that I should make sure and ahdere to. For instance, How far from the floor should the bottom of the press be in order to work on "most" axles, drive shafts, etc.? I need to here from those of you who use such a press pretty often. I want this to be a one time build with no major modifications necessary just because I didn't do my research. thanks

 

[BigBoyinMS]

Just a thought... why not go by your local Harbor Freight and take some measurements? It's cheap stuff but the size seems to work for the shops I've seen them in.

 

[JCByrd24]

Just a thought... why not go by your local Harbor Freight and take some measurements? It's cheap stuff but the size seems to work for the shops I've seen them in.

+1...you know the stuff they're selling at HF is the cheapest/lightest they can get by with for the tonnage. Go measure a 30 tonner and don't build anything less. I'm relatively inexperienced with my 30 ton and it has scared the ***** out of me a few times, the last thing I want to worry about is the press itself coming apart. 60000 lbs is a lot!!!

 

[Leejohn]

Here is just one of the things I got going on right now. 2 many hands in the fire right now. But anyways I took the jack off and put this cyl and valve on mine. I'm going to use my tractor right now and see how that works out.

 

[sandman2234]

The jack Im planning to use has a stroke of 7". Is this adequate for most jobs that one would use a press for? Also, are there specific dimensions that I should make sure and ahdere to. For instance, How far from the floor should the bottom of the press be in order to work on "most" axles, drive shafts, etc.? I need to here from those of you who use such a press pretty often. I want this to be a one time build with no major modifications necessary just because I didn't do my research. thanks

Just make sure the base has has pin holes that are less than 7 inches apart and you should be ok. Six ought to be a good distance.
David from jax