20 ton press

[fordbroncodave]

looking to buy a 20 ton press but unsure on what my dollar amount should be.

i have seen the 20 ton at harbor freight for $200 and the one at northern tool and equipment for $400

there is one on the auction block locally. it is all red, no name jack, bolt together frame. size is 63" tall, 32" wide and 26" deep.

i think the bigger the frame the better.


any help would be appreciated.

 

[Jagmandave]

What you're going to use it for will determine how big and heavy you need to go. I've had one of the 20 ton HF's for years and it did everything I needed.....

OTOH, if this was for a production shop where you're making your living with it, I might consider buying up....

 

[bobcatdan]

The hf is junk in my book, did only a few wheel bearings and it is tweaking all to hell. I have been looking at Arcan press from Northern, I have seen some in person and they look decent. I'm holding out for a nice Dake on craiglist for cheap.

 

[v7guy]

The 20 ton harbor freight press has a pretty good following on pirate 4x4 and there are a variety of add ons from a vendor over there. Most people seem to like it. Bobcatdans complaint is the first I've ran across... but if there's one complaint it would probably be advisable to do a bit more reading on it. Harbor freight seems to cheapen product quality as often as they improve it.

If it's a production environment you might want to look at a pricier unit.

 

[amolaver]

you might also want to look at garage equipment supply - they've got a couple 20 ton units including at least one with a pressure gauge. from their pictures, they look better built than the HF, but i haven't used one (just considering a purchase). i've been trying to find a decent one on CL for a while but no luck. no connection to GES, just a customer.

ahm

 

[alan camby]

Building your own is a fun project

 

[LSU]

Building your own is a fun project

Looks nice. How about a few little details on how you built that and, if you can, post some frontal pictures.

Thanks.

 

[CJinPA]

I have the HF one and it has served me well so far. Don't use it every day but its been a life saver more than once. Well worth the price and its easily paid for itself by now.

 

[alan camby]

- 20 ton bottle jack modified to use upside down
- main frame is all 3x6" crate steel my employer threw out
- 1-1/4" holes drilled every 4"
- 1-3/16" cold rolled steel pins for bed w/ eye bolts welded on the end.
- Old SMC air cylinder used as oil tank
- All bolts holding the frame together are 3/4"SAE L.E. USA
- four 6" casters
- Caster frame made out of 2x2" 3/16" wall square tube.


Will post some pictures shortly

 

[alan camby]

Here are a few pictures

 

[alan camby]

And here is the metal brake attachment. The pictures show it bending 2"x3/8" flat

 

[fordbroncodave]

basically looks about the same as the one alan camby made except the jack sits in a tray. gotta use a stick to jack it down.

i would make one but i am impatient. i plan to add 6" wheels on the bottom aswell and a board or shelf with a bunch of old bearing races and bearing cases (they are good to press bearings)

can you cut the c channel steel with a chop saw or did you have to use a plasma cutter? also, did you use a drill bit or a hole saw to make all those holes in the c channel?

 

[BD1]

I have the HF one and it has served me well so far. Don't use it every day but its been a life saver more than once. Well worth the price and its easily paid for itself by now.

Ditto,you can use 20% off coupon and drops price down to 159.00. I don't think you can buy material for that. There are lots of reviews on it. i made a brake for mine and have no problem bending 1/4 x 3. Never had to brake anything larger.Good luck

 

[fordbroncodave]

i saw there is a $89 shipping charge on top of the $199...

 

[Hiball]

Like the Inovation on the Resevoir.. Most of your Bottle jacks that need to work in odd angles utilize a Pickup tube inside the reservoir from the Pickup port to the desired Low point.

 

[alan camby]

Hiball, I already owned this jack. That is why i did not look for a jack that functions at any angle.

Dave, I used a carbide toothed hole saw. Kind of turned my bench into a large table for my drill press. This worked out awsome. The table on the drill press screws up and clamps to the bottom of my bench.

Here is the only pic I have of the drilling

 

[Hiball]

Hiball, I already owned this jack. That is why i did not look for a jack that functions at any angle.

You can make any jack work at any angle, Instead of using gravity to keep the reservoir full on your bottle jack with the external Reservoir you could have simply put a "Pick Up tube" Inside the Jacks Reservoir connecting the Pickup port to the Low portion of the Bottle Reservoir. Very Nice looking Press.. Just offering another Solution to someone wanting to make something similar.

 

[alan camby]

You can make any jack work at any angle, Instead of using gravity to keep the reservoir full on your bottle jack with the external Reservoir you could have simply put a "Pick Up tube" Inside the Jacks Reservoir connecting the Pickup port to the Low portion of the Bottle Reservoir. Very Nice looking Press.. Just offering another Solution to someone wanting to make something similar.

Thought of this. Could not find a tube to push into the pickup tube hole.
Thought of drilling it to size but did not want to introduce metal shavings into the jack. I just unscrewed the huge nut on top of the jack, took the outer steel shell off and welded a steel coupling to it. Was easy to keep the insides clean since the outer tube was welded away from the jack.

If I were to do it again would have just tapped the fill hole to 1/4" NPT once i removed the shell.

Of course there are many ways to skin a cat

 

[Hiball]

Thought of this. Could not find a tube to push into the pickup tube hole.
Thought of drilling it to size but did not want to introduce metal shavings into the jack. I just unscrewed the huge nut on top of the jack, took the outer steel shell off and welded a steel coupling to it. Was easy to keep the insides clean since the outer tube was welded away from the jack.

If I were to do it again would have just tapped the fill hole to 1/4" NPT once i removed the shell.

Of course there are many ways to skin a cat

Absolutely.... Normally i just slip a piece of tubing inside the port with some Rubber Sleeve on the Outside (Good Seal). I then fasten it to the cylinder with some Zip ties, Slip a Wire Screen Mesh on the End and works like a champ.

 

[fordbroncodave]

ok i think i found the model it is. dimensions match exactly as what the auction listed in the description and the pictures look the same. still gonna go and look at it before bidding.

sunex 5220

 

[venturesomerite]

I have a HF 20 ton one, I got it for $130 with tax, because my local HF mismarked the price, and then I also used a 20% coupon.

 

[Ted J]

I have a HF 20 ton one, I got it for $130 with tax, because my local HF mismarked the price, and then I also used a 20% coupon.

Where can I find one of those 20% coupon's at?

 

[venturesomerite]

They give them out like they are candy. If you go to a harbor freight, or to the website, they have a thing you can fill out and get a catalog every now and again with various coupons and ****. If you direly need one, just PM me you addy and I'll mail you one.

 

[oldtools]

If you need one quickly, get the HF and save money for the right one to come up on CL. Then sell the HF for half price. If you used it several times, then it pay for itself already.

 

[gsport]

here's a coupon for it, good for a couple more weeks.... i doubt you'll find for any less than this even with a 20% coupon.....

 

[Charles (in GA)]

I have a Dake 25H that I bought on Ebay a number of years ago. Of course I had to drive 900 miles one way in my Ranger to pick it up but for the price, the time spend driving, wear and tear, gas, motel room, etc, it was still a bargain. It was selling new for $2750 at the time.

Charles

 

[GTO_442]

I just got a Sunex model 5220 20 ton hydraulic press from Enco. It has an all welded frame that is made in America. It comes with a Chinese made jack. It was on sale at Enco for $359 and I was able to apply a discount code to the sale price to bring the price down even more. With the shipping costs, it was $407 to my door. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but it seems like a quality piece.

FYI - I just checked and it is still on sale for $359 - you can apply the spd22 discount code to that and get the price down to $305.15 before shipping. Seems like a pretty good deal for a brand new American made press (except for the jack).

 

[oldtools]

Which brand is better? Dake or Enerpac. I would think Enerpac but don't have experience with either.

 

[ovilla]

This thread is very timely as I'm also considering the HF press. Where did all of you get the different things needed to press out things like ball joints and u-joints ? Do other presses come with these other pieces?

 

[NC-Fordguy]

This thread is very timely as I'm also considering the HF press. Where did all of you get the different things needed to press out things like ball joints and u-joints ? Do other presses come with these other pieces?

Always used a ball joint press for that application.

Press use..

U-joints I use an impact socket between the ram and the u-joint

Bearing splitter for removing axle shaft bearings

Also use a press brake for bending steel

If you get the harbor freight press get some good quality forged steel arbor plates. The ones that come with the press are cast steel and can fragment under heavy pressure---don't ask me how I know

 

[venturesomerite]

This thread is very timely as I'm also considering the HF press. Where did all of you get the different things needed to press out things like ball joints and u-joints ? Do other presses come with these other pieces?

To get my ujoints, ball joints etc out, I just used various sockets that I had, and some pieces of piping that I also had. Just had to figure out the right configurations.

 

[Steevo]

Building your own is a fun project

I like your wheel setup.
I am going to copy that.
Thanks.

 

[BD1]

Harbor Freight has the 25% off coupon good only on Sunday 4/8/12. Good day to buy that press.

 

[ovilla]

Thanks for the heads up on the 25% off coupon. I'm leaving right now to go buy it.

 

[Sharpest]

Is there a write up on how to modify an average bottle jack (like a HF 20 ton) to work upside down? Does using an air over hydro jack make any difference? Thanks

 

[Hiball]

Is there a write up on how to modify an average bottle jack (like a HF 20 ton) to work upside down? Does using an air over hydro jack make any difference? Thanks

You simply need to add a extension on the pump intake so it runs to the top of the reservoir, Or the bottom when upside down depending on how you look at it.

 

[alan camby]

Is there a write up on how to modify an average bottle jack (like a HF 20 ton) to work upside down? Does using an air over hydro jack make any difference? Thanks

You either need to flood the jack like I did in this thread or install a pick up tube that will **** from the top (now the bottom) of the reservoir. see Hiball post here for more ideas on second option.

If you want to flood. Tap the fill hole on the side of the jack to npt. Install a npt to hose barb fitting. run a hose to a vented reservoir with enough volume of oil to keep the jack flooded with ram fully extended.

If you want to install a pickup tube. Take the huge nut off of the top of the bottle jack and remove outer shell. Find the pickup in the base of the jack, mine had a screen tube looking thing that acts as a filter. Pull out the screen and find a way to extend the pickup to the top. You might be able to find a tube that will press into the hole?

What you are trying to do is keep a constant supply of oil to the pump part of the jack. You should be able to make any jack work upside down if you can keep the pump in oil.

Just like any bottle jack press, you will need heavy springs to return the ram to the retracted state.

 

[alan camby]

I did a quick google search.

Here is a picture of a pickup tube extended to the top of the jack. The tube looks like brass to me in the picture.

I retrieved the photo from post #6 here.
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/hydraulic-press-upgrade-200213/

 

[Wanna Ride]

I have the HF one and it has served me well so far. Don't use it every day but its been a life saver more than once. Well worth the price and its easily paid for itself by now.

Same here. When I brought mine home, I added about 2' to the height of it, and mounted casters on it so it's easier to move around the shop. Never had a single problem with it. Works fine for everything I've ever used it on.