Weather has slowed down progress on the workbench build so I have been trying to knock out some other small projects that were put on the back burner until now.
One of today's project was the conversion of my HF 20 Ton press from a manual jack to a air/hydraulic jack. I purchased the new a/h jack on sale from HF. The jack was on sale for $99 but you can use the 25% coupon which brings it down to $75. I attached a PDF to show the discount.
The first thing I did was to change out the 3/16" plate to a 1/4" plate. When removing the old plate I noticed that the solid round push rod (ram) was not (in typical HF fashion) welded to the cross frame. While structurally it may not need to be welded I went again and tied the two together and ground the surface flat again.
I drilled three holes into the jack and then tapped the holes in the plate. I ended up having bolts that were long enough to extend through so I also attached a lock washer and nut to the bottom. The bolts are there only to hold the jack into position on the cross piece.
Due to the actuator of the jack I had to move the spring hold downs. I might have gotten away with only one but I found that the angle of both actually keeps the ram aligned better so sometimes you just get lucky.
Next I fabricated a piece of plate and a piece of angle to hold the switch and the jack key which is used to relieve the pressure on the jack. I cut down the pipe that came with the jack and converted it into a "T" handle and now store it on the press next to the switch.
Notice the Switch has a lock button that keeps the button depressed until squeezed again which shuts off the air. This switch has the benefit of allowing you to use both hands to hold and position the work in the press.
I added a HF air filter just to help reduce any remaining moisture (this is Humid Houston after all) and connected a short piece of air hose also from HF to the jack switch.
I can add this to the list of projects that I should have done much sooner. It is much faster and less tiring to use than having to manually pump the old jack. Additionally, I can be more precise in bending material as I use both hands to hold the work which has helped in thin sheet stock today.
Next up... finishing a restoration of a Kurt 6" (and a 5" ) vise I got at an estate sale recently.
