74 Weak Press Plates in the Harbor Freight 20 Ton Press? 

I have the same press and therefore the same plates. I had also heard about their frailty and was worried, but after your video, I am no longer concerned. Thank you.

Thanks Robert for another great video. I don't care what video I have watched of your I always learn from you. I am 71 years old and will never be too old to learn. I just wish I would have taken up toolwright when I was young instead of being a heavy machine operator and construction.

They quit the cast iron plates years ago. Ive done about all the mods to mine as you did. Thanks for the vieos on that.. I milled and ground mine flat . I guess because I could. Also made a sheet metal brake for it. I just did a video on CNMG and WNMG on my Colchester lathe video.

Great video, thanks for going through all this effort to test a couple plates that some viewers cautioned us on!!! I was a little concerned as I’m still tweaking my press. Take care and wishing you the best!!! Art

Great video . Some ppl on here REALLY don’t have a clue as to how to make a good one. I like what you’ve done . There are obviously tons ( pun intended ) of these presses out there. I’ve picked up an idea here and there to make mine what I want. One nice improvement was to instal nylon screws to get rid of all the slop on the top ram unit. Simple to do. Drill a clearance hole for a 3/8-16 , then weld a nut ( 6 on each side ) then use nylon hex head screws with a locking nut. I also used a foot pedal for the air over hydraulic cylinder. This allows me to use both hands while using my homemade finger brake. And wow, you used algebra! Never figured I’d need that after high school. And you did it without a calculator KUDOS . Looks like you’re a very good machinists with nice machines. I do have one question though. You as well as almost everyone one on here don’t use a 6 jaw chuck in the lathe. I use one and simply LOVE it over the 3 jaw. The only time I use a 3 jaw is when I reverse the jaws to hold larger dia. Then of course I use the 4 jaw independent when req. DRO on the tail stock …..brilliant. Might just do it to mine. Good job young man!

@21-15 (ish) - it's the same force as preciously, but 4 x the pressure. (Mechanical engineer here.) As you correctly state, the variables are force, pressure and area. The press is a source of force (it's why they're rated that way). The tooling changed the area, therefore the pressure changed. (Like when a high-heel shoe is compared with a running shoe. Same force - different pressure.)

Watching you work all these machines I really miss Junior high school!! That was the only (and last) time I have a full machine shop at my disposal!! LOL

Man, that’s some scary sh*t there! 😂 I was flinching and realized I was holding my breath at one point. I’d probably have set up some mirrors so the camera was out of range. That plexiglass was strictly for psychological reasons, right? 😉👍 I’d like to see a video that addresses how to check press plates to determine what material they’re made of since this is such a potentially dangerous tool if the plates are the wrong material. I doubt Harbor Freight would ever issue a recall, but that’s really what should happen. Send or bring in your press plates for free exchange. I guess they haven’t had a class action lawsuit yet…

Hey Robert, another great video. Great demonstration. Lets me know those plates are safe, without me doing the work myself. Saves me time & money! 'Til next time.

13:46 For O-ring keepers a partial groove in the removable dies helps and when dies get heavy a Spirolox style spring clip ring thing snagged from an 85 Honda Prelude Si CV shaft left behind by a nice lady with an odd grinding Prelude base model in need of help to remove the slightly undersized Si model CV shaft she had purchased in a hurry thinking Honda must have one size fits all of the transaxle splines even fuel injection.. what's that?... Nope, the undersized spline goes in easily but skips and the spring lock seating area must not have access to the taper so it becomes truly FN stuck. All it needed was a skookum 6 foot wrecking bar's heavy end snapping against a chain to a couple of wheel studs to convince the ring to compress and let the CV shaft out. Another happy camper.

I am glad to see this as I have one of these 20-ton presses to press bearings out and in.

I got a 12 ton press. The plates were obviously cast iron. One did fail while I was using it. The ram bent where it was welded to the cross bar. Chucked it and got one with a solid welded frame, and a genuine hydraulic ram instead of a jury rigged bottle jack.

Have a go at making a press yourself. I made mine from old shipping container box steels and a used 20 Tonne bottle Jack. Hooked on a couple of return Springs and off you go. Total cost $5

Just a couple of points: on the second plate it’s pretty easy to see the cutting marks, probably a plasma cutter so not cast. If you touch it with an angle grinder then cast iron shows it’s self very easily by its weak looking sparks. I don’t know why press plates would be hardened in the first place and I really can’t see HF spending an extra 3 cents on hardening them. That said however there is only one way to be sure and that’s to test them the way you did. Thanks for your effort and being willing to sacrifice your plates for science you’re a braver man than me. Cheers Stuart 🇦🇺

The early press plates may have been cast iron or cast steel. I can see the cut marks in these from flame or plasma cutting so they must be steel.

I am quite impressed! Another entertaining and useful video.

Cool vid! Your press plates dont look to be cast iron. Mine do but I bought my press probably 6-7 years ago from Harbor Freight. Also, your lathe turning is always cool. You convinced me to try 4140 PH etc from this vid and your other previous ones

I have the old plates, and mine are cast. Thinking about cutting a new set for myself on my CNC

I actually have a set of the old style plates. They look like black painted hamburger. Lots of pits from garbage material pressed together, heated to bond, then painted black. I’ve loaded them fully, to the 20 ton jacks stall point. Always real aware of the possibility of failure. Not yet

Thank you for sharing the nylon caped 1/4 - 20 set screws for mounting your arbor extension so you leave no marks when tightening it onto the joining shaft, more people should really use them or the brass ones both will help a lot. We also think eBay is great for buying material especially drops that is plenty of material for us anyways. Lance and Patrick. Math class oh no I got nervous right here in the video. Nice video thank you for the share and interesting to watch.

G'day Dudley Toolwright. Many thanks for doing this video. I have what appears to be the same press and the same cast plates here in Oz. I was pressing a wheel stud into an axle flange when one of the plates shattered. A piece of shrapnel about two inches long, with a razor sharp end, hit me high up on the inside of my leg. It could have been particularly nasty or at least given me a squeaky voice, but fortunately I was hit by the blunt end. I was staggered to find that they were cast plates. Who in their right mind would supply cast iron and how do they get into the country like this?

Its a pleasure to watch you do your craft

Very informative vidios . Very professional . I bought a HB press 2 months ago and love it ...I also put caster wheels on mine and a solid shelf at the bottom to hold all of my press extra tools . Thank you so much !

You need to add a gauge to tell you how much force it is applying...

When using carbide most efficiently, the chips should be blue to purple. It can be hard to achieve that easily in a home shop because of power and lack of rigidity.

What size tap is that on your bench next to the wooden box. Looks like an excellent conversation piece! Great content and keep up the good work.

My original plates were cast, they broke really easy. All new plates are cold rolled I think.

That's cool... I feel even safer with my plates... thanks

I purchased a HF 20Ton Floor Model many years ago,from one of their mail catalogs.Cant remember what year,but I'm thinking around 1989 or 1990.I Broke one of the press plates During the Process of Rebuilding a Motorcycle crankshaft,scared the u know what out of me and those older press plates were Def cast iron of some sorts.Very grainey and seemed to have porosity throughout.i still have the other one,but I never use it as one of my buddies got me set -up with some better plates and V-blocks it's been a decent press considering the amount of use but I miss my 80 ton Dake that I had when we sold our Buisness.

Lol. Your intro makes this experiment sound really scary. I’m scared watching. It’s like a Freddy Kruger movie to an 8 yr old scary. Nail biting even.

You mentioned it would be good to have a way to measure the force - measure the ram bore to get its area, put a tapping to the cylinder and high-pressure hose, add a high-pressure gauge and either calculate (gauge pressure x ram area) or print up a new scale for the gauge? This is part of the plan for my soon-to-be shop press...

Aluminum (depending on type) can have a PSI strength on par with some steels. That is why your first experiment was not deforming.

I feel better using my HF press now 😁

robert - new to your channel. one of the things i don't have (yet) is a mill. I also can't find a good replacement ram for the H.F. press that so many people have. What i want is exactly what you made. Do you have interest in building/selling another. Thanks for a great channerl.

You may call the part an "interchangable nose, point or anvil". Just some suggestions.

What is the LARGEST O.D. material you can chuck up in your lathe?

At the 13:57 point, it looks like the top right chuck foot is cracked on the second land inward? You should take a look. Or is it a piece of shaving?

Out of curiosity how much was your saw, I have a Jet horizontal that was pushing 3k when I got it. I use a portaband for my vertical work but it takes a while to cut some of the harder stuff (I don't do machining so high tolerances aren't a problem) I've been considering getting a vertical cut for a long time just not sure its worth it for my uses, Its kindda hard to find a middle ground vertical cut saw, its either consumer grade or full industrial it seems. My buddies shop has a Baileigh with a tilting table can cut 24" but it was like 45 grand. Cool video!

Now I have to make some more tools with my lathe seeing this. I have used a proper press that holds punches and loved it. Felt safe. Now I have a lathe l, mill and 20 ton BS press. Does a lot more than I can

Man I would love to have you make me one of these for my 12 ton

I just bought a HF press this past weekend. How can I tell whether my plate is cast or not?

I don't know if I'm capable of applying 40,000 psi with a 2 lb sledge hammer but I thought you should know that I was once hit in the leg by a piece of trackhoe tooth that broke off as I was loosening the massively compressed dirt around the pins to replace them. It went through my pant leg and into my leg. I had to have the thing surgically removed & the doctor said that it had spiraled in, about 5 inches from the entrance wound. Just remember that the next time you are thinking about what kind of safety equipment to place around when trying something like this.

Well at liest you didn't PRESS your luck doing that and you didn't CRACK under pressure. Lol

got my 20 ton about 15 years ago one of the cast plates exploded breaking 3 ribs lesson learned.

I have 2 sets of broken ones then I cut some 1" steel ones that are bulletproof, I wouldn't let anyone use those cast iron ones, they ought to recall them! KER-Blamm!!!! They just snapped like porcelain dinnerware!

Did the cross arm permanently deform much or did it hold up well too?

the second set castiron hf are ground flat but are bent these days.

Great Video. By the way, what type of Lathe is yours? I know you told me earlier that is an Acra brand, but I've been looking at Lathes for the last week, and I'm not sure what the different types are, Engine Lathe, etc??? Also what size is yours? Thanks in advance.

If you turn a pirimid upside down. How much pressure on the pointy bit? M

It was 6 months old

Be Careful, we don't want to see you hurt !

Breaking those plates be hard. If cast I could see it breaking. Cheap chinasium would break.

that was cool dude i was clinching my but waiting for something to blow haha

So you said that if you wanted the pressure to be greater you would decrease the area I think that’s incorrect you only have 40,000 pounds of pressure By decreasing the area you are only concentrating the 40,000 pounds to a smaller area

My plates were definately cast. One of them broke and I wasnt even trying to break it!

Any interest in sell those? I certainly could use it for my jewelry making.

i dont know why you'd be disappointed - you have 2 good usable plates that appear to be safe under massive pressure

Like your changing up of colored band aids LOL & at the end none , Magnafluxing the plates after the fact would be interesting to see if there was any weaknesses created in the plates that can't be seen by the naked eye.

Nice work

Enjoyed....

Had my press 40 years never broke a plate. You don t no how to use them

i have a 30 ton press need plates do you think 3/4 would be thick enough or should i go 1 tnch great video i just subscribed

God I wish I was that smart. Lol. But I would be interested in a few of these items you made for yours. If you wanna make a few modes I would be willing to pay

had the same problem but now found a supplyer that will do two cuts for free , shipping is allways the same price too no matter how mush you order

I've broken a set of harbor freight 20 ton press plates.

I'm less than 2mins into this video and scratching my head! How do you NOT know the difference between cast iron and steel plates? Even AFTER you already drilled 8holes!? I'm out. And I'm even subbed to you. Don't ever feel the need to justify doing stupid shit to appease your viewers.

I was able to snap both of mine with the 12 ton press

I had one of those plates explode. We were however using the HF plates on a different 40 ton press

Looks like a copy of the Roll - In band saw !!

Don’t forget to mark the 4140 bar again since you cut off the marking! Chinese metallurgy Is always a factor! Their quality control isn’t that good!

At 20 tons I believe those plates would be fine, when it get scary is using a Drake 60 ton press and using plates to press off rear Axel bearings and having the entire 60 tons loaded on those plates with the Ram on the rear axel shaft.

My split..

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

haha 0:23 sec in you say 20 pound harbor freight press. i had my 1st horrible freight press that did come with cast plates my new one has steel plates. my plate are flame cut or crapy plasma cut and seeing yours close up yours look to be to but they cleaned yours up much better then mine mine you can see 1/16 cut marks in the sides

Mmmmmmm piys..... m

Too much time spent videoing making the ram tool.