Shop press

[flingwing1969]

yeah i was a bit embarrassed at the quality of my work-
the old HF mig was giving me some feeding problems when i welded it up.
also the design could be better to minimize the chance of pressure put on the splitter blades edge, I maxxed out the splitter on some bushings that were stuck and IIRC it did dull the edge that day.

mine just grips the wedge by compression of the 5/16 bolts and lock nuts

anyway here are the pics again

View attachment 548047View attachment 548048

also the inside - used a bi-metal blade and saws all to give a little clearance to the wedge edge

View attachment 548059

Thanks looks fine - sticks together and that's what counts.

 

[SPYDERLK]

I found a 45 ton Big Red shop press on CL about 2 years ago and got it for a song. An older guy used it for a retirement hobby business pressing plastic pieces through dies into custom cases in his basement. He was mainly just happy that someone would come and disassemble it and take it out of his basement. I'm sure it's way overkill for anything I might want to do but I'm OK with overkill. I really do need to read up on best practices for how to use one of these things because this has the potential to throw crap out with a lot of force if things go bad. If you were closer to me I'd be happy to let you do your tie rod fix with it.

Mine looks just like this current model 50T version but is 45T:

Rob

I have a very similar/near identical 50T press. The saddle begins to bend with a centered force of ~40T .

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Caught it pretty quick - (1/16 sag) - and fitted a 3/4x18"W plate on the saddle top to spread the force.