You have done a great job ! Thank you for the video to share your very helpful mods and to explain how they work and the great pics so they can be hunted down to add these inventions !!!
One thing I'd like to ask if I could ...? Can anyone tell me what the outside dimension is on the release valve or are they not all the same size ? I have a knob that was lying around for a while and would like to drill out the frozen threaded rod to match the release shaft. Should be picking up my new HF 20 Ton Press soon...!!!
I also have made many mods to my press: winch, knob, air powered jack, casters. One of my favorites, especially before the air jack, is that I drilled more holes for the table pins in between the existing ones so you don't have to pump so long or find long spacers, etc. reach the work. I don't know why they don't just manufacture them that way. I haven't seen any other press mod videos with the extra holes. I added one per space but I think you could put two if you wanted. My other hint is that the air valve for the jack has a wire bail that you can use to hold the trigger on. Of course, when I needed the jack to stop quickly, the lock was accidentally engaged! I removed it right away so that doesn't happen again.
Thanks. I just bought one of those knobs, thanks. Planning on adding the winch. I only have the 12 ton press, but have a SWAG Offroad sheet metal brake for it, and that thing weights a LOT!. I am also going to be adding 3/16 sheets to the entire sides to stregthen the uprights first. I noticed that the 3 inch wide pieces I got are not a fit up and down, that long bolt most likely is pulling the upper ends in a bit. Great idea about replacing those upper bolts with smaller ones on each side. Something else I need to do. Great low cost ideas, which a lot of us are looking for.
Yes agree with everyone else, nicely done indeed. Hoping to duplicate exactly this in due course. One other modification that I’ve seen. The manual Jack that comes with the press - has an ACME thread height adjustment on top of the internal sleeve that winds in or out to position the ram to preserve / increase lifting height when using it to lift a vehicle for eg. I’ve seen a video where the old Jack was disassembled and the internal hydraulic sleeve with the screw height adjustable ram was removed - and welded in underneath in replacement of the factory fixed length ram. So you can wind the Acme thread adjuster ram downwards onto your workpiece by hand without having to use part of your air over hydraulic Jack ram travel to bring it into contact with your workpiece. Of course your 20 ton manual Jack becomes scrap metal once you’ve harvested the internal sleeve to re purpose it as your new ram - so that’s a “cost factor” to consider. Really it’s for safety with your fingers when positioning your workpiece under the ram, because if you use the air over hydraulic to lower the ram into contact position and get a finger caught in the process, your pretty much going to lose that finger with 20 tonnes of force being applied by the air Jack. But if you wind the acme ram down on its thread into contact, then your fingers aren’t at risk, your workpiece is positioned and secure, take your hands away & THEN apply your 20 tonnes pressure with the air Jack. Just seemed like a very common sense idea to me from a safety and convenience point of view. Having that pressing ram adjustable on the Acme thread makes the press even better than with the fixed length factory ram in my opinion anyway.
That is a good idea too. Its too bad the screw ram is not part of the air jack. But the air is very controllable. I use it to bring the ram to within 1/2" of the work. Then the manual pump to bring it in contact with the work. I also have an assortment of steel spacer blocks and such to take up space. The winch makes moving the table up and down a breeze. So its not hard to get it set as needed. Thanks for watching.
@@steveblancard5566 No worries. The winch is brilliant. I’ve been after a hydraulic press for ages but was unable to buy one through harbor freight because they won’t ship downunder, even if I have a drop ship account, in the USA I cant order & pay online and have it posted within the US to my drop ship address because their online website, the presses are marked “in store only” so it won’t let you add the press to your cart to checkout. 🙄👎 So anyway one showed up used on Farcebook market place this morning, locally going cheap (about $100US equivalent so I jumped on it and bought it, & have to go collect it tomorrow. Then my “project” will commence. I’ll buy a 20 tonne air over hydraulic Jack locally and fit that, Then scrap the manual Jack that came with it and harvest the ram with Acme thread & replace the factory ram, then add the winch as you have done. After that it’s add some castors to the feet so it’s easily moveable. Then get all the tolerances sorted out. Make some decent press plates (out of inch plate scrap at my local steel yard which they sell for .50c/pound. After that will come making a finger press brake and so it goes, shelf down low that I can store adaptors on etc. It will be quite the project, borrowing (ok stealing 😂) as many good ideas as I can find from all the myriad of harbor freight 20 tonne shop press improvement videos as I can find. I tried buying the Swag Off-road heavy duty finger press brake option with all the accessories on line to save me having to make it all myself & truthfully it wasn’t too badly priced UNTIL I went to “checkout” and entered my address downunder. $1200 freight / postage 😳😳😳👎 That’s more than the complete finger brake kit with everything included. 👎 I guess I’m back to making my own again. Seems to be a recurring theme these days with anything ex USA to Oz. A paper clip in a envelope if it was going to Oz would be a minimum $1000 postage. 🙄👎 USPS is literally killing the USA manufacturing sector with their stupidly high freight charges. Someone needs to tell them that the pandemic is over, the Evergiven ship is no longer stuck blocking the Panama Canal, shipping container costs have dropped from the Pandemic / supply chain shit down rate of $18k back to near normal $2k Airlines including air freight company’s are all back flying again etc. There’s absolutely no justification for the insane US Postal charges any more. Of course Sleepy Joe at the helm is destroying the whole country what with banking collapses etc. 🙄 I guess this is what happens when you allow the Demonrats to steal an election. 😜😂😂
These modifications are genius!! Very well thought it and engineered. I especially love the winch and release knob. Sir, you are brilliant! I raise my glass to you!
Thank you sir, I appreciate your kind words. I try to think things through before I begin. It usually (but not always :-)) helps to make things come out as I intended.
