Shop press find

[Nortonscustom]

Found an old 30ton shop press on Craigslist for cheap that happened to be close by. On the way home stopped at the farm store and grabbed a 20ton air over hydraulic bottle jack.


Spent the rest of the afternoon sandblasting and painting.
Next day got on the lathe and made some cable pullies, press tooling and a new release knob for the jack.









Had a Harbor Freight hand winch laying around from a different project that just happened to fit the frame of the press perfectly. Makes raising/lowering the bed effortless.



Added casters and a wooden box to catch pinion gears and such that I tend to drop out the bottom. Overall it'll be a pretty handy addition to the shop.

 

[RivennHewn]

 

[Renegade1LI]

Nice find! Great job on setting it up!

 

[Mgdoug3]

That knob is an awesome idea I never have thought of. Did you make it a press fit, slips on or machine a new screw with a knob?

 

[Mr_B]

that's how HF should get them made lol.
nice result, love your hands , they done some proper work ...

 

[Nortonscustom]

Mgdoug3, just hammered out the factory cross pin from the valve screw and replaced it with an 1/8" roll pin after installing the knob.

 

[Rinspeed]

Great job, looks awesome.

 

[anndel]

Nice score!

 

[msharley]

Fantastic!!

 

[Kscardsfan]

Amazing transformation. Looks great. Your additions to it are genius.

 

[Vwpower]

Very nice!

 

[469 runner]

Dang, that is nice now.

 

[930dreamer]

Nice work on the press.

 

[wayne55]

My smaller press I made is not nearly as nice as yours, but I also added wheels and a winch, which really helped the useability of it.

 

[619DioFan]

Good looking press. Mine is a 40 ton but currently has a 20 ton ram. I also added a hf winch. It has saved my **** many times on projects. Paid for itself many times over.

 

[signcrafter]

Nice job. Really like that knob and your tooling you made. That was pretty much exactly what I was thinking I wanted to do with mine. Now just have to find a lathe to do up some tooling. LOL. Is it tippy at all on wheels? I've thought about that also but figured they are a little top heavy so wasn't sure how pushing one around the shop would go. And what is that wood crate on the bottom used for? Just general storage?

 

[Nortonscustom]

Nice job. Really like that knob and your tooling you made. That was pretty much exactly what I was thinking I wanted to do with mine. Now just have to find a lathe to do up some tooling. LOL. Is it tippy at all on wheels? I've thought about that also but figured they are a little top heavy so wasn't sure how pushing one around the shop would go. And what is that wood crate on the bottom used for? Just general storage?

Nope, its plenty stable moving around the shop. Have no concerns of it tipping over. The box has a 1" rubber pad in the bottom to keep things from being damaged hitting the floor if I happen to drop them.