ACCO 40 Ton Press Power Source

[jeepinerdeep]

Keeping things simple..........I happened upon an ACCO 40 ton shop press in overall very good condition.

The issue is that the hand pump has been bastardized, and converted to work in theory on air or hand pump action. The guy I got it from states that pile of booger welds is unreliable. It also seems overly complicated and takes up space. Main ram is dry and has that nice handwheel/acme screw.

I want to establish whether I can just use a air/hydraulic foot pump from a port o power. That would allow me to control the press nicely and also use it for other rams when needed.

If I do some rough calcs, the little Blackhawk or OTC units are 10,000 psi. If I were to actually achieve that in the 4 inch press cylinder, it would be 60 tons. I have my doubts you could actually push that pump that hard on 120 shop air without noticing. It does have a dial tonnage gauge.

What say ye hydraulic experts??? Can I do it?

 

[bigredmf]

Do it. You can limit the pumps output by dialing back the air pressure or most of those pumps have a adjustable relief valve buried internally.

Red


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[jeepinerdeep]

Do it. You can limit the pumps output by dialing back the air pressure or most of those pumps have a adjustable relief valve buried internally.

Red


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I see that the enerpac units have a much lower air inlet pressure. I think that might work good regulated if need be.

 

[bigredmf]

If you don't have a unit feel free to pm me.

Red


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jeepinerdeep]

I don't have anything yet. Likely want to go enerpac. Not sure the model yet. I really wouldn't mind the hand lever version.

Maybe this week I'll get a list together of everything I want to buy for the whole project. I've got some drawings to make of brackets and such for it.

 

[jeepinerdeep]

UPDATE 2019-

So I am open to pointers and links as I'm not super pleased with this setup.

I put an OTC 10K psi air/hyd pump on this. It will achieve full tonnage, but EXTREMELY slowly. I assume this thing has a teeny tiny flow rate, as the spec is not actually published. It moves so slow that the extended time required to move enough oil to overcome the friction of the packing, makes it jumpy ( no load, under load is fine ).

The press mechanically really is very nice, it was free and I have some money in tooling. I'd like to pimp this one out.

I'm looking for suggestions on electric solutions, like a power pack or lift power unit. Problem so far is I calculate I need 6800psi, and I assume 1+ GPM. Everything I googled is much lower. What should I be searching for?? I was hoping for a $600 ish budget.

 

[Strouty]

Find a used enerpac hydraulic unit, then you can get 10,000 PSI, looking at it again, they might not have enough fluid for what you want to use it for.

 

[mtnkrake]

Keith fenner on YouTube built a nice electric press. Check out what he used.

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[ybnormal70]

I am in this same boat with my old 40 ton Manly press. It is hand operated and works great but I would like to convert it to air over or something.

I'll be watching this.

Kevin

 

[jeepinerdeep]

Find a used enerpac hydraulic unit, then you can get 10,000 PSI, looking at it again, they might not have enough fluid for what you want to use it for.

The electric enerpac units I believe would work. There are some with 1 gallon reservoirs, not sure on the flow spec. I pretty sure I need just a bit more than 1/2 gallon to run full stroke based on my experience with this OTC. Lots going on in the 1200-1500 buck range. There are a lot of chineseium copies on the other end of the spectrum. I was hoping to split the difference.

 

[jeepinerdeep]

Keith fenner on YouTube built a nice electric press. Check out what he used.

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He appears to be using surplus industrial stuff, which is a little more plentiful. Unfortunately most of that is 3 phase.

 

[matt_i]

A limitation of the industrial stuff is its typically 2500-3000 psi. The enerpac is unique in its 10ksi max pressure, and the tradeoff is it has a much smaller duty cycle.

A 2 speed system would probably be much nicer where you used simple air over hydraulic (a pressure tank more or less) to quickly extend and fill the cylinder (at ~100psi) until it touches and then you switch over to the slower & higher pressure pump.

Its also possible to build a force multiplier for the 2nd stage where you use say an 8" dia air cylinder hooked together via opposing cylinder rods to a 1" dia hydraulic cylinder, your multiplication is roughly the diff between the piston areas, so 8^2 / 1^2 = 64. So your 100psi air can become 6400 psi hydraulic. The problem becomes the volume of fluid that can be stored in the small dia hydraulic cylinder.

There's probably an automatic-control (full mechanical) to switch between stage 1 and 2 but probably the simplest is to have 2 manual controls on the air-side. It would take some thought as to how to refill the two hydraulic parts on the spring return stroke...that part isn't clear in my head right now.

 

[Strouty]

He appears to be using surplus industrial stuff, which is a little more plentiful. Unfortunately most of that is 3 phase.

3 phase at that HP is cheap and easy to convert. I bet you could buy a VFD for $100.

 

[jeepinerdeep]

I think I might have found the right thing. 2 stage flow, 10K ulitimate, with adjustable relief. I've got a little more thinking to do on how the valve operates, like does it have a center hold position? Might have to give them a call. It's clearly imported- but it does have a 1 year satisfaction guarantee as well as a 5 year warranty, so it seems the risk is low.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Electric-H...h=item41b4833865:g:h2AAAOSwoM5bs6Fm:rk:7:pf:0


What do you guys with the hydraulic guru creds think?

 

[Hiball]

I'd keep it simple, I'd definitely cover the basics in regards to capacity to get to full stroke just in case, in reality with the speed wheel the need for 2 stage units/air over might be overkill. If memory serves, the hydraulic cylinder on those units has a adjustable relief valve built into it, plus the pressure gauge should = golden.

 

[jeepinerdeep]

I'd keep it simple, I'd definitely cover the basics in regards to capacity to get to full stroke just in case, in reality with the speed wheel the need for 2 stage units/air over might be overkill. If memory serves, the hydraulic cylinder on those units has a adjustable relief valve built into it, plus the pressure gauge should = golden.

So far, this unit ticks all the boxes and is not stretching the budget by any means, so if you guys think it looks OK for weekender use otherwise, I'll probably pick it. It is in fact their most basic electric unit.

For regular pressing, yes the wheel is awesome to take up stroke. If I wasn't for the wheel, I would have converter this thing to another ram already. For using my brake though, I need stroke to run against the spring returns that allow me to fetch out my freshly bent parts.

 

[jeepinerdeep]

I finally got an electric pump, which works great and solves the slow actuation/low flow issues I was having with the smaller pneumatic pump. Happy with that. Really trying to shine this old gem up, it's so nice.

Now on to solving the sticky and slow return issue. It really acts like the packing is too tight or too dry. If I slather the cylinder in heavy oil, then cycle it a few times, there's a huge improvement. I wonder if this little port hole is supposed to have oil in it or not, maybe to keep the wiper lubricated?

 

[ybnormal70]

Do you have any pics of your new setup? I would love to do this to mine and my pump looks just like yours. Mine also had the sticky return that ended up being so bad that I could not get it to return without using the hand wheel to press against something to get it to return. I had to have it completely rebuilt and that solved my problems.

Kevin