As someone who also feels like a home garage hack somedays, you can really level up your welds by grinding the mill scale off of the steel before welding. Also, more heat and more shielding gas helps a lot until it betrays you. Although my older mig welder might be a Lincoln, it is also a struggle as the wire tends to stick in the stinger and not feed.
Thank you for the recommendation. Luckily I don’t actually need to worry about shield gas, because this is a flux core welder. On the other hand, it’s a flux core welder and so it has a butt ton of spatter. As for the heat, everything was at the maxed out voltage and I’m beginning to think that that is far lower than I would like it to be…
Very cool video, I love the concept! Just because i am a new mechanical engineer grad, i can't help but look and think of ideas to make this work! No guarantees, but... something you might try to keep the ram level is to pre tension the vertical members inwards. Maybe brackets on the outside middle of the vertical members, connected by a pair of allthread rods. Then you can play with nuts to get the tension right. The idea being that as you put more force downward with the cylinder, the verts would need to straighten out before they can stretch. Shim the ram prior to tensioning the cross-rod system, and *in theory* the verts will always be clamping the ram. Keep up the great content, I really enjoy what you are doing!
Thank you very much! There are a lot of design cues that I was going to adopt from other coal ironworks presses, (some of which were very similar to what I think you’re talking about) however I assumed I could get away without them and… you know how it ended. I’m contemplating doing a video of trying to fix the press, reinforcing it and slightly changing the ram system, but I also don’t know if it’ll really be worth it.
Well i gotta say it was very enjoyable watching your thought progress and methodology in this build . I'm not sure if its a design of your making or just real bad luck on the build . Personally i reckon you would have had a better welding result with a stick welder as they are more suitable to heavy section material for diy usage . You tube has some great build videos on presses and a fair few have been done without the need to weld however they do require the use of your newest past time .. drilling holes for bolts ..a rule of thumb i use on builds is more movement equates to less rigidity .. I'm looking forwards to seeing if you remake or modify or launch this build into the scrap bin . Gonna subscribe so i can follow .. good luck
Thank you for the good suggestions, I was actually initially intending to use a stick welder, however doing some test pieces, that turned out to have some… Not fantastic results. Entirely on my fault though, as I’m not good with a stick welder and I would need actual instruction to improve. Thank you for the subscription! I’m curious to see what I’ll do too…
@@Anvil_knocker with anything anyone makes for the first time unless you're a skilled fabricator there will alway be some construction issues and self doubt in your own abilities. Hell im still blowing holes with tig welder .. I'm pretty good using a gas mig but its all that hand coordination that gets me with the tig and knowing the way to set it up .like anyting practice does help . See ya in the next video .. plan or not lol
Interesting video, I had heard of some creators making their own hydraulic presses and was quite interested in the process. I see it's not so simple after all. I have some questions about the system. What is the machinery you connected to the hydraulic cylinder, and what's the ballpark for it's cost? A tip regarding your sound quality, which can be all over the place at times. The quality of your recordings can vary depending on the environment, as the sound bounces off the walls. A cheap lav mic may pick your voice up better than your phone or camera several feet away.I've seen Adam Ragusea suggest doing voice overs in a coat closet as the fabrics act as a kind of sound proofing. Keep at it!
Thanks for the audio advice, and as for my hydraulic motors, that is a 2 hp power pack from coalironworks.com I chose that one because I know that it will be useful for me no matter how much other machinery I get, and also it could be plugged into a normal wall outlet
Clean up your welding zone. And on welding thicker material with a little MIG welder. Preheat the metal to around 300°. You'll get much better penetration it Will smooth out and blend in.
Your video was great. Maybe give yourself a break, because you are showing your mistakes, just like everyone else makes. Trust me when I tell you. There are plenty of people out here thinking about making a similar press. That's why most of us are watching. I learned plenty from your video, as I assume others did. And like the comment prior to mine, your tenacity and overall attitude are awesome. You seem like a sharp young dude. Just be patient and think about how much more you'll know in 20 years. Good project, for sure. Thanks.
Thank you! I’m glad that my video could help people, because I feel like knowing what not to do is just as important as what to do. I hope you have more luck than I did , and am still having, but it’ll get done if I have anything to say about it!
I’m glad that I’m not the only one dealing with an annoying welder, and yes because I was running the power pack through a extension cord whenever it would bottom out the lights would dim so much that they were basically off
The guide on the ram is too short, it can jam in the frame easily because of this. Where the guide is short compared to the width of the opening the leverage is too high and it can jam on the guides. Think of a crow bar, you're using the small end on the frame so the leverage is high, you want the opposite.
Unfortunately the only thing in the budget is this sucky fluxcore one, but I’m thinking a worthwhile investment would be a better welder, maybe a stick welder but I don’t really know how to stick weld
I was planing on lubing it after I ran it up and down a few times for the sole reason that on the coal ironworks website that’s how they say to break in their presses, but mine doesn’t have bronze wear plates or paint, so I should have
There was actually a small scene that I ended up cutting out where I talked about my lack of plan, and all of the problems that that created. I’d like to say that next time I’ll have a better plan, but let’s be real, I won’t
