Difficulty Level (Easy, Medium, Hard, Insane):
Medium
Process:
A few years ago I had to change my van's wheel bearing and ended up having to use a friend of mine's shop press to remove the axle from the wheel bearing (it was completely rusted in) so that's the first time I've wanted to get a shop press, but since the Princess Auto Shop Presses are close to $500 bucks here in Canada and even the Harbor Freight Shop Press is almost $300 bucks (with the current exchange rate) I've never taken the plunge to buy one.
So it was about a month or so ago when I got into a bit of a rut and decided that there's nothing better than a "little" project to snap out of it. Hence, the 20-ton shop press project.
I had bought a whole bunch of metal at an auction in March including two 8" c-channels that were 30" wide so I decided to buy the rest of the material and get building the shop press. The most time consuming part was drilling the 1.250" holes into the 3/8" vertical pieces of metal but after about an hour and a half (maybe 2 hours, I wasn't really timing it) it was all done.
The next thing I had to do was cut the horizontal bracing pieces and weld the two uprights. Then I had to drill the movable c-channels with 3/4" holes and make 4 spacer pins out of 1" hot rolled steel (that was fun).
Then I had to weld all the rest together and paint it. The last thing I had to do was take the bottle jack apart, connect a piece of vinyl hose to the pump inlet and then drill a hole into the side and connect it with an old gas tank that I used as an overflow reservoir for the hydraulic oil.
Lastly, I had to bend two 10" pieces of 3/8" square stock, drill and tap it for some 1/4" by 20 TPI bolts and hook it up to some trampoline springs for the piston return.
All-in-all, this project probably took me about 20 hours (I wasn't really counting) and cost me about $200 bucks. In all honesty, if I was really concerned about the time it would probably not be worth building it but would have just picked one up at Harbor Freight next time I was down in the states, but I wanted to work on a project and I still saved a few hundred bucks.
Videos:
Pictures:
The 8" c-channel pieces I bought at an auction
Grinding off the rust and yellow paint
The paint dust on the floor
The c-channel sans paint
Another view
The two c-channel pieces ready for welding
Lining up the vertical support pieces
Pre-drilling the 4 vertical pieces
Close-up of the 1/8" pre-drilling
Cutting the welded pieces to equal length
Welding the upright pieces
Another view
Making sure they're all perfectly square
Cutting the cross-brace pieces to length
The cut cross-brace pieces
One upright piece done, the other one being worked on in the background
Getting ready to weld the vertical pieces to the cross beam
The main beam welded to the support
Close-up of the welds
The cross braces above where the bottle jack will go
Welding casters to the legs
Welding the legs to the frame
The welding all done
Another view
Cutting the lower cross beam to length
Drilling holes into the lower cross beam
Another view
Cutting the 1" bar for the cross braces
Cutting the relief grove on the cross brace
Close-up
Cutting the 3/4" by 10 TPI thread
Another view
Close-up of the thread
Another view
Test fitting the nut
The finished cross brace
Another view
The cross brace with the nuts screwed on
The lower cross beam ready for painting
Another view
The lower cross beam with one cross brace installed
Another view
Getting ready to paint the finished shop press
My temporary paint booth
The shop press painted
Close-up
Another view
Another view
Another view
Drilling the mounting holes
Using a metal bar to unscrew the bottle jack lid
Using a metal bar to unscrew the bottle jack
The bottle jack after the fluid was drained and the outer shell taken off
Close-up of the suction hose
All the parts that came off the bottle jack
Cutting off part of the intake
The vinyl hose attached to the intake
The vinyl hose cut to size
The drilled hole and attached vinyl hose for the hydraulic oil overflow
Another view
Another view
Bleeding the bottle jack of all the air
Another view
Using prussian blue to flatten the bottom of the bottle jack
The high spots are marked blue
The closer to flat it gets, the more spread out are the blue spots
Cutting and drilling some aluminum trim to hold up the hydraulic oil overflow tank
The installed overflow tank
Another view
Close-up of the oil level indicater
Getting ready to install the jack ram return spring
Close up of the return springs and the hydraulic oil overflow connection
Tapping the 3/8" square bar of the piston return bracket
AutoCAD print-out of the piston return bracket
The piston return bracket and springs
Close-up of the right side of the piston return bracket
Another view
Close-up of the left side of the piston return bracket
Under-side view of the piston return bracket
The finished shop press
Tools:
Metal lathe & accessories Metal Band Saw
Drill press
Drill
Drill bits
Measuring tape
Pencil
Marker
Mig welder
Stick welder (for the thicker stuff)
Tap & Die set
Adjustable wrench
Vise
Angle grinder
Ear muffs & safety goggles
Body paint spray gun
Socket set
Materials:
28' of 3" by 3/8" flat bar
4' of 1" solid round hot rolled steel
2' of 1.250" solid round hot rolled steel
4 casters
6' of 2" by 2" by 1/8" angle iron
5' of 1" by 1" by 1/8" angle iron
5' of 8" c-channel
6' of 6" c-channel
1 old lawn mower gas tank
2 L of hydraulic oil
2' of aluminum trim
4 screws for the tank
4" of 3/8" vinyl hose
1 brass adaper
6 trampoline springs
2' of 3/8" solid square steel
2 cap screws
1" of 5/8" brass for the spacer bushings
8 nuts (3/4" by 10 TPI)
Painters plastic
Black rust paint (1/2 L)
Cost:
$200.00
Time:
20 hours
Savings:
$100 to $300
Conclusion:
It works great. Now it's probably gonna sit in my storage room for the next year or two before I use it again. But just like a {fill in the blank}, better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Very nice to see your project. I have built a small bench press just using the jack in the normal upright position. As I only have small projects, I only used a 4 ton jack. Thanks again for sharing your project.
I really enjoy seeing the ideas and execution of individually designed hydraulic presses. I designed and built a bench top 12 ton model but I can easily swap out jacks for something a little heavier..
Thank you for sharing and for the superb documentation of your project.
I inverted the bottle jack because it has less moving parts that way. with the HF press, there's a cross bar with springs and a piston underneath the jack; with mine, I just have the jack. Less wobbly that way.
8 comments:
Very nice to see your project. I have built a small bench press just using the jack in the normal upright position. As I only have small projects, I only used a 4 ton jack. Thanks again for sharing your project.
I really enjoy seeing the ideas and execution of individually designed hydraulic presses. I designed and built a bench top 12 ton model but I can easily swap out jacks for something a little heavier..
Thank you for sharing and for the superb documentation of your project.
I never get bored looking at your projects.
You Amaze me 99.9% of the time
Out of curiosity, why invert the jack? The HF style press keeps the jack in the normal position, so you don't have to replumb it. Very neat project.
I inverted the bottle jack because it has less moving parts that way. with the HF press, there's a cross bar with springs and a piston underneath the jack; with mine, I just have the jack. Less wobbly that way.
Great job, thanks for sharing. What is the web thickness of the 8" channel?
Great job, thanks for sharing. What is the web thickness of the 8" channel?
@Rich Menzel, I think it's 1/8" thick at the center
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