Winch mod for my shop press

[BravoXray]

Ever since I bought my20 ton shop press back in the 80s, I wished it had a winch to raise and lower the bed, but never got around to doing it. So a month or so ago I was at the local Runnings store (Think Tractor Supply, only bigger) and saw a boat winch that I thought would do the job. I also bought some 1/8" SS cable, crimp sleeves and 2" pulley brackets. I wanted to make the winch drum larger so the cable wouldn't get deformed into a coil, and after a lot of thought, I designed a two piece part to increase the spool from 3/4" to 3" and 3d printed it. I drilled holes in the metal spool, using a 3d printed template, and ran four 1/4" bolts through the spool and spacer. I also welded three 1 1/2" long pipe spacers to the winch mounting surface, then disassemble it and painted it machine gray. I also made a 3d printed guard for the pulley to keep the cable in place amd welded the pulley to a piece of bar stock to mount it on the press frame on the side opposite the winch. I strung the cable, installed eye bolts on the bed handles and made loops on the cable ends to attach to the eye bolts. I also had to make an entension to the shaft the crank attaches to so it would clear the press frame. I used a piece of 7/8" bar stock I had laying around, drilled and tapped one end to screw onto the winch shaft, turned the other end down, threaded it 1/2" NF and ground flats to fit the handle.
I got it all assembled and adjusted, and it works great, no more fumbling to hold the bed up and trying to get the pins stuck in the holes.
Total cost was about $60.

 

[Smokeydog]

Good job. I need the same for my 50ton press.

 

[sandman2234]

That does appear to be a nice way to fix a problem!
David from jax

 

[dougtrr2]

How is the cable routed? From the picture it looks like it only lifts one side. Does it bind up, or am I missing something?

Why do we wait till we get old to make these small fixes that makes life easier.

Doug in SW IA

 

[BravoXray]

How is the cable routed? From the picture it looks like it only lifts one side. Does it bind up, or am I missing something?

Why do we wait till we get old to make these small fixes that makes life easier.

Doug in SW IA

The cable on the left side drops directly off the winch, down to the eye bolt on the table handle. If you zoom in on the next to last picture, you can see it going down off the winch drum. It's hard to see, but you can also see it in the last picture too, if you zoom in.