Iron Worker Punch Press

[Gale Hawkins]

That was a deal for $1800.

 

[Arc weld]

jwmorris, what brand is your ironworker? I have heard the Scotchman are slow. I used a Peddinghaus 210 Super 20 that was 105 or 110 short tons? It was considered the cream of the crop of mechanical iron workers. It let you lower the punch and then push a button on the end of the handle to punch the hole. Very fast! I punched manways for oilfield storage tanks and sheared all the parts to make hooped safety ladders for the tanks. The flat bar shear wasn't very big but the coper was great for trimming. I also used a 125 ton Kingsland hydraulic. Didn't like the hole punch cause you couldn't slowly lower the punch unless you switched it to jog mode and then had to switch it back. You had to lift your toe up on the foot pedal but you had to have super control to stop the punch to line it up or the punch would lift back up. It would have been better with a control that just stops the punch. What was nice on the Kingsland was that the shear was about 16" wide and could cut over 1/2" thick if I remember.

 

[jwmorris]

It is an Omera.

 

[OutbackL130]

Anybody know about kingsland? Think this is a good one? I can drive down and pick it up.

Hydraulic Iron Worker | eBay

 

[Arc weld]

Kingsland is a good machine. $2100 seems like a very good deal for that one if everything works properly. I'd want to see it working cause the price seems almost too low.

 

[jwmorris]

I will add this, although I prefer a mechanical for punching and shearing I do go to a friends shop and use a hydaulic for bending, if I cannot fit in my press brake and it's too thick for my manual brakes.

The "flip" that a sheet will do wouldn't be anything I want to be around if it happens in an instant.

 

[Stimw]

I have a 35 ton and a 50 ton Scotchman.
First pic is 35 ton, second is the 50 ton and third is the Brake that I made from scrap around the shop for the 50 ton.
I got the 50 ton first, I bought it with 2 other machines, a 6' stomp shear and a 10' Brake.
I sold the shear and brake and kept the 50 ton AND ended up with $600. additional cash!!
I bought the 35 ton on CL for $600. with plans to flip it but when it looked at me with those sad eyes I couldn't let it go!
Besides the 50 ton wanted a little brother! (That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!!)
I am running both machines on one homemade ($45.) static phase converter along with a 15" X 54" Cincinnati Hydrashift Lathe. I never run them at the same time anyway.

I know a guy with a 55 ton Edwards that he bought new. The pump noise goes right through me!! And when he punches thicker metal it goes "BAM" when the punch goes through!! My Scotchman just seems to ease through when punching thick material.
If anyone thinks that the Scotchman are too slow can just go back to their drill press and bandsaw!!

I bought a Buffalo 1/2 Ironworker at an auction. I kept it long enough to power it up and get the DO-DO scared out of me! It had a lot of nice features but was an accident waiting to happen! Most are not OSHA Compliant either.

 

[OutbackL130]

I will be using the ironworker in a shop on my residential 3 acre property. Noise is a factor in my purchase decision. Are other iron workers really that much quieter than an edwards?

I'm confused when people say about the pump noise on the edwards. The only reason I'm hesitant about buying an edwards is from what I've read others say about them. From my experience when I went to see the craigslist 55 ton edwards in action I thought it was an awesome machine. As far as the noise it seemed no louder than what I would expect from an industrial hydraulic machine. This edwards is 10 years old too so I would assume it has the noisy pump people complain about. I stopped using my main tct dry cut sawing station because of the extreme noise level it produced, therefore, I want to know more about the edwards complaints before spending $5k.

Stimw, how loud would you say the edwards is compared to a tractor or lawn mower?

 

[OutbackL130]

I have another question for anyone, how possible would it be to tap into an iron workers hydraulic system to power other hydraulic machines such as my tubing bender?

 

[Arc weld]

I think compared to most ironworkers a Scotchman is a little slower. Still beats a drill press unless it's a radial arm drill press. They are awesome for larger pieces with multiple holes. For punching holes a mechanical ironworker is the fastest of them all. I think Edwards has improved their ironworkers quite a bit but $5000 for an older one seems a little high. As far as going bam when punching, it might be because the die is worn out or needs a little oil on it. It's good to lube the punch every 25 holes or so with a couple drops of oil. Different grades of steel could make more noise too. I've seen where the punch and die don't line up perfectly as well. There needs to be the right clearance for the thickness you are punching.