Bottle Jack Hack - Axe Wedge Press 

This sir is hands down the best repurpose for an old bottle Jack and will be a future build & piddling project well done sir well done!

Watching this gave me an idea to make a bottle jack wood splitter!

I'm sure you got a kick out of the project,it's been done many times before,but you did a top notch job and we'll worthy of my 5 ☆ rating

Great works and craftmanship ! I need a small press just like this. Your design is simpler and cost effective by utilizing a single rectangular pipe and adding 2 bolts to the limiting plate. What I was thinking is basically scaled down version of full size manual hydraulic press. After I saw your video, I realized I don't need side rectangular pipes for a small press having head traveling upto 8 inches. Thank you.

Thanks for showing this straight up without any crappy background music

For future builds (saw you commented about a mk 2 design) your jack would provide greater force if it had equal load across the ram. Meaning due to the one sided adjustment rail, your jack had to push up and over to the right. You could save yourself alot of headache by replacing the square tubing with 2 pieces of 1/2" x 3 x ?? tall, flatstock. Make more of a "H" frame where the "-" is the moveable jig for holding the work. Would be easy to layout spacing on 1 part and drill both at the same time on your drill press. Join both rails from the top or backside (to avoid clearance issues) with equal thickness stock. Then instead of having welded anchor pins, they could be just long bolts or round stock that could be slid in from the side. I believe you will find alot more "oomph" this way in your existing jack. Hopefully this doesn't come across wrong. Not telling you how to do it, or anything like that. Just going off of what life's taught me. Keep creating and nice thought out idea for a very common issue. Simple solution with mechanical advantage, what's not to love!?

Great idea for making a press and nice fabrication. For putting in wedges or pushing out old handles I have two bench vices mounted one in front of the other a foot apart. One holds the axe. One holds the bottle jack. Easy to tap in a wedge and push it in with the jack. To push a broken handle out use a piece of steel that will slide through the eye. Hold on end of eye and push through with the bottle jack.

That's just some brilliant outside the box thinking and design.

Great idea. You now have a useful tool from an old bottle jack, some tubing and plate.

This is a great way of recycling old tools. Can be use for pressing anything really. If it was me I would add a safety chain or something like that to connect to the shaft of the tool being just in case it decides to pop off or snap under pressure. Subscribed as well.

Hey, great video! Awesome talent and craftsmanship. I also appreciate a "shop sights and sounds" video without annoying music.

Very nice tool ,wide range of uses no doubt .Hello from Jamaica

Really interesting idea great project but I was for some reason thinking that it was going to be a kindling splitter a axe press lol

Love the logic I need to install a wedge in an axe handle. I know I'll build a press! LOL once again excellent craftsmanship. Thoroughly enjoyed watching your video.

This is what life’s all about - men in sheds making stuff ! Excellent !

Fascinating! I take it you re-handle a lot of axes? It’s great to see a how-to video where the craftsman is thorough and meticulous, prepping the metal properly and priming and painting the finished project. I don’t need this particular tool, but I’m subscribing to see what else you come up with! Thanks.

I'm genuinely shocked that bottle jack wasn't cast iron and took the weld so well. This is great work. Maybe on the next prototype you add a return spring, but this looks very functional and precise as-is.

When I was a young motorcycle mechanic in Ireland in 1979, I made a press for straightening fork tubes using a bottle jack like this, after much welding and buying of steel I found out that bottle jacks didn't work upside down, if only we had the internet in those days!

Great idea for pressing ball bearings in place! Now I know how to diy such a brilliant and compact device!

For those of us who want to weld, but haven’t taken the time to learn, could you add some brief information about the welding process you used, and the type of rod, if that is important to this welding process in this situation. This could be added to the “show more” box, without adding anything to the video. This is a great idea and a really well made video. Thanks for the excellent tip for reusing a bottle jack for various purposes around the shop, including as a wedge jack when rehandling axes. Consider squirting some glue into the slot in the axe handle in addition to just putting it on the wedge - could result in better lubrication when pressing the wedge into the slot and a better, stronger glue joint when the glue dries.

another awesome piece man, I need a press badly. more so a bigger one for wheel bearings for cars ect. but thats still awesome for the little engine repairs you do.

These videos are so satisfying to watch. They sparking me to do some with my skillz

Wonderful idea. Was wondering the whole time what you were making than blew my mind in the end

Very well made, well done. Also, suggest soaking the axehead in a bucket of water over night. It swells the wood and makes it even tighter.

Excellent welding technique, congrats from Argentina

What happens if the wedge is split? Or is it more of a cosmetic issue?

Looks easier than the Ibeam press to make nice job!

Do you have a rotary phase converter to run 3 phase motor off single phase power?

Very neat, I'm now making a bearing press. Thanks.

Very nice Beautiful craftsmanship

Wow very nice. I'm glad I've got a powerplasma cutter though. I hated cutting plate with an angle grinder.

When polishing small pieces like that i glued a strong magnet to the underside of my table into a square i had nitched out that kept 1/16 of wood from magnet to meterial. Ever since then i havnt lost small pieces ive polished on my table.

Great construction, good setup 👍

Another great project. After watching your chainsaw restoration I came here I see you used this to aid in the pressing of the bearings in that video. This press will have multiple uses. I do think you should have welded a heavy gusset from the base to the tube opposite the jack that would increase the strength. Nice work !!!

I watched the whole video thinking you were building a wood splitter 😂 Nice surprise tho 😉

Nice job & workshop, just noticed the grinder/sander video, so going to watch that. Thank you.

My granny wasn’t Lizzie Borden so I don’t really have a need for this but it sure was nice to watch.

it looks too beautiful to use.....it looks like an awful lot of work for an axe wedge but if i ever needed to make a home made tool or some welding i would love to have you do it for me,,,,,your attention to detail is great.

The square-section uses as a stopper should have cross-bracing. That machine can develop a fearsome pressure and if not used carefully, the square section could bend and give way. Having said that, the workmanship is first class.

That’s a great work. Thank you for sharing.

I think it would be better as a wood splitter,if you attached an old axe head and gave it a wider stance. But still kind of cool. You could press small bearings with it also. I see some potential

Nice job.... You have given me an idea..... Thanks for all your videoing too.. I know that take time to edit...

Nice build and great idea. Cool video too!

Wow, really great idea and job! Well Done!

Золотые руки, молодец мужик, прям с большой буквы МУЖИК!!!

These videos are great. Thanks for sharing them.

Gute, saubere Arbeit - sehr schön !

Out of curiosity isn’t the base of the jack made from cast steel? If it is the Weld’s will fail over time. Can’t see you having any problems since the jack just goes up and down but you could hit the jack side on and it would ping straight off the base plate. Just incase you are not aware of the problems with welding cast steel. If it’s not cast then my apologies and great job

From the comments I see I missed the purpose behind this tool, is it for putting the wedge into an axe handle? I watched the video, payed attention to your work expecting a huge climax but then I got a big tool for doing a little task. I'm one who believes in working smarter not harder and have made several different tools over the years to make different jobs easier. I guess I missed the purpose behind this tool. Excellent work on making your tool either way.

can you run for the president of Turkey ? The country needs you ! Amazing work !

EXCELLENT build Will !!! I try not to read what it is you're building, I try to guess 😁,,, ya had me to the end on this one!!! 😂... VERY NICE!! Thank You for sharing, take care and God Bless you always my friend!!!!!👍👍👍

I love the ingenuity! Turned out well!

Amazing work ! Congratulations !

This was really neat! It's a very specialized tool, I'm thinking. Will it get regular use with axes alone, or are there a range of uses you have in mind? Thanks for the great video, too!

you are an artist

Wow, definitely a well fabricated press, albeit somewhat overkill for pressing axe wedges. Kinda like building a heated 5000 sq/ft garage just to store a tank of gas and a lawnmower. And you really gotta love that lawnmower.

Great work. I wish you would have demonstrated it by splitting a log. Thanks.

Nice little bearing press as well.

Another fantastic job, great video.

Awesome man! Love the magpie @ 12:03.

I like the concept and may utilize parts of the design in the future, but it seems overkill for this particular project. Did you consider just using your 3 ton farm jack first? They are very versatile. I suspect that even a pipe clamp would have sufficed in this instance. Perhaps even a rope loop with a Spanish windlass. I tend toward the simplest solutions.

Very good idea, but and the oil inside the bottle jack after all this change?

I really really like that, you did an excellent job.

Complimenti..bravissimo. Grande manualità e ottimo lavoro!

How many axes do you go through where you have to be constantly putting wedges in them? Maybe all this time and effort should have been spent on building a wood splitter.

Neat idea!

So when the weather is nice hand tool rescue goes outside and works with everything but hand tools? Or is it vice versa?

Your sander is fantastic.

The trick from the magnetic was cool. Thanks for sharing.

Funny, i didn't read the title and figured out what the device was for only when the axe appeared on the scene. :)

do you ever make things for scrap, you know when something comes into your head, something youd like to try and make,

I was thinking you should have made the jack upper plate circular for unscrewing the piston to make it taller, but since you made the pole really adjustable it won't make a big difference nice project

How often do you put new handle on your ax? Maybe the issue is not with how you get the wedge in but rather what are you doing wrong with your axes that you need to re-hang them so often...

birds are sure talkative today.

Great Idea!!! came out really nice!!

Гидравлическая струбцина, для загона клинышка в топор. Это нечто. А есть гидравлический вдавливатель гвоздей в стену??? что б соседей не беспокоить🤣🤣🤣

I think the gloss black and metallic white is the best signature colour for your chanel..

You should be rightfully proud of that mate.

Great job

Great video and a great project, but? Why not just tap the wedge in with the mallet?

Looks easy enough to make....but I'm gonna make my own bottle jack while I'm at it. :)

That was a very nicely done project. I love projects where I can make things with my everlast welder.

That could also make a nice shock absorber spring compressor or motorcycle fork spring compressor.

It doesn't look like you can extend the top of the bottle jack now by rotating it. Did you mean to do that or don't you need that function?

Is the base of the jack cast? If so, does that make welding more difficult? I'm new to welding.

brilliant idea , im going to have to make one now

That might be the tightest wedge I’ve ever seen.

Neat build! I also love it when people speed up their videos like yours. I think it's hilarious

I know you're not going believe this but a hammer blow can have a momentary force that is several orders of magnitude greater than your hydraulic jack. The key to understanding this is time. The jack can sustain force whereas the hammers peaks and falls quickly. Thousandth of a second quickly. Meaning: stick with the hammer and just don't hit it so damn hard.

Amazing work verry nice all ways love your videos

This site gives you more ideas ( Maintenance and Repair)

Very nice and cool!!

Good job friend. Just because i'm new on this what kind of welding is this at 04:35?

Excellent work, thank you !!!

Nice work! Which trade name of welding machine used ? Sorry for my bad english !

Seems like a lot of work when u could just drive that wedge gently with a hammer (which I've done a couple times)... maybe there's something I'm missing

Awesome video and build!

Very nice. Enjoyed it. How can I learn to weld? What’s the best starter welder?

wow, seems like a well thought out build, but how many wedges do you really have to press in? People have been changing axe handles forever without that contraption; while decently built, I cant help but think the time to build is 100x greater than all the wedge driving one does in their whole life.

Estas máquinas reinventarse son fabulosas sigan adelante y gracias por las ideas