Drilling the core diameter for a metric M12 (12mm) thread into the die holder. The whole ram / guide is a bolted construction - reinforced by some welding. That's a 10.2mm drill bit, straight into a 25mm (1') piece of steel (120mm wide, 220mm high (so the drill press is pretty big ), 25mm thick). Feb 04, 2008 Hi guys I need some specs for a hydraulic forging press 35-40 tons, H frame. Xbox 1 controller drivers windows 10. Can somebody help me with a 'shoping list' form Nothern Tools or so: what do I need. Also some plans for the frame would be good.
Budget DIY 20 Ton Forging Press With a forge handy, the knifemaker naturally progresses toward making pattern welded steel. These billets are made from two or more types of steel and forge welded together. One tool that really helps pressing the steel is a hydraulic forging press. The real deal is very expensive and out of reach for the low budget guy like me, but there are ways to get the job done on a budget.
Having seen T.A. Toler's design where he uses a relatively inexpensive 20 ton air actuated bottle jack and welded steel frame, I got to thinking that I could make some basic tweaks to his design and document it a bit. This press is by no means perfect, but it is a good solid unit made for a reasonably small chunk of loot.
I made it with some material that I had in-house to save costs. The bottle jack is a generic 20 ton air actuated unit. Compressed air runs an actuator on the back of the jack that causes the ram to go up. While these types of jacks are slow and notoriously hungry for air, my goal is to get about five presses before having to put the steel back in the forge for reheating.While the steel is in the forge, the compressor can recharge the air supply and be ready for the next pressings. I went into this with a 120 psi 11 CFM air compressor system with an extra air storage tank in place already.
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Keep this in mind as most garden variety air compressors likely won't have enough capacity to happily run a press like this. The press needs to be small, sturdy and accommodate a few different types of dies to get a variety of tasks accomplished. Another feature I was aiming for was foot controlled operation. I want both hands on available for holding the billet when pressing. Toler's design, I wanted to place the jack on top. In this arrangement, the jack and associated air hoses are well out of the way of falling hot scale and anything that drops from the die area. Note: This information has been made available, free of charge, for educational purposes only.
The author or publisher assumes no liability for the use or misuse of this information. A hydraulic press involves extreme pressures that could be hazardous to your health. Basic operation of this press involves a hydraulic jack pushing the ram up and a handle of some sort to open the release valve causing the springs pull the ram back down. As I wanted to make this foot switch operated some additional controls were required. A simple two position foot switch would not work as this would mean the ram is either moving up or down.
There would be no 'stop' or 'neutral' position where the ram stayed put. We certainly don't want the ram to move all the way back down each press as we'll be wasting a lot of time and a lot of air every press. I needed to find a way to make the ram stop when it's not explicitly commanded to go up or down.
In trying to keep the design inexpensive and fairly simple, I went with two foot switches. Using one foot switch at a time means that only one action can be happening at a time.