I am in the process of building a new press and wanted to document the progress. My goal was to make a professional grade press with a hydraulic lift. I taught myself how to weld so I could fabricate this beast in my shop. So far so good!
The bottom 2 I-beams are fixed. The top 2 beams will slide up and down within the tube steel guides. I still need to weld on end caps so the beams do not shoot out the sides of the press. I will use manual hydraulic bottle jacks on each end to lift the beams. Eventually, I will replace these with a true hydraulic system. I plan on filling in under the bottom I-beams with 3x6 tube steel so I will have a second press cavity. FYI-I found all this steel on craigslist for $700! more details to come
Thanks Twizz, I took your advice from this forum and bought a Hobart 140 MIG. I added the 75argon/25 CO2 gas as well. I love it and it works so well. Thanks for the advice because I had no idea which welder to buy!
Awesome!!! I'm still loving my Hobart! I actually just picked up a new tank of gas yesterday (also using the argon/CO2 mix), took me nearly 2 years to use up the first tank. I don't do a ton of welding, but I do a fair amount and I'm surprised how long it lasted. Sooo much better than flux core welding! I've got a big weekend ahead of me welding parts for my CNC machine, woohoo!
How are you going to hold the top beams down when pressing? Surely the jacks aren't enough to hold against the firehose?
Good question and I am still up for suggestions if you have any. My thought is to find the rough location where the press will settle down on the mold and drill some holes in the two TS upright beams and place a 1" round rod all the way through that can be pulled when lifting the top beams. I am not welding the pumps to the beam just because they are Harbor Freight and chance are they wont last for years!
WHat about a bladder over the top beam to hold it down? It would require another beefy beam on the top but you could just have a very small space just wide enough for a bladder to fit ad then inflate it to hold the top cavity beam in place.
Initially, I wanted to build a Langzauner style press but for some reason the hydraulics are super expensive. Even a manual pump is like $400-$500 plus all the cylinders($200+ ea.). I am not sure why you can buy a 20 ton bottle jack for $100 but trying to build a hydraulic system is going to be $2,000. I may still try it by pricing out used equipment to make it cheaper. The Langzauner is the perfect system and I don't think they even use an air bladder. The press puts out 200,000 pounds of pressure.