Selecting a Hydraulic Press - Jewelry Discussion
Selecting a Hydraulic Press - Jewelry Discussion
Hello Don,
View Details
I started out with a Harbor Freight 20 ton shop press, @ 5 feet tall. It took up a lot of space. It worked. I did have to rig up a platen by putting a hole though 4 or 5 3/4" plywood rectangles and slid them up the plunger, level to its bottom. I drilled & threaded a hole in the plunger to accept some Bonny Doon tooling. Some B.D. tooling cannot be used with this kind of rig due to how the tools need to be attached. If you have a compressor H.F. sells a decent pneumatic / hydraulic 20 ton jack for not too much money. VASTLY cheaper than the Bonny Doon electric! Pneumatic is worth it if you do more than a little work at a time. Pumping a lever can get old very fast, and not fun on the shoulder. I gave the H.F. press to a friend, bought a Bonny Doon 20 ton deep draw. I installed the pneumatic jack in place of the B.D. I wanted to use their deep draw tooling, but the cost-to-likely-sales ratio killed that idea. Even with the large pedestal that comes with it, the deep draw press requires a lot of jacking, manually or by compressor. While I like the press, if I had it to do over, I’d get the regular instead. I use their bracelet forming sets, a discontinued (or out of stock) B.D. set that has 18 approx. 1-2" variously profiled rounds to form hoop earrings @ etc. Bonny Doon presses (and likely Potter’s) will accept all B.D. tooling my rigged up H.F. could not, via holes in the top cross bar. Since I switched jacks I don’t have access to the B.D. pressure gauge. I thought that would be a loss, but it doesn’t seem to be vital. I generally go by the results I see, and when using urethane, by how deeply the die presses into it, when doing multiple pieces. If you are looking for more details, kindly visit tpypress. I have large disc cutters (up to 2" circles) and use the press to cut large discs rather than use a mallet or my 2 ton arbor press. Much nicer, easier with the B.D. I have pushed the original H.F. press to the limit of it’s hydraulic jack. After a certain point more pumping does no more - I’m sure there is some valve that bleeds off the extra pressure. I’m not pushing the pneumatic jack in the B.D. that much anymore. I assume it also has a pressure limiting function. At a local community college they had a home-made press built by students in the welding class. Seemed fine, and is smaller than the Bonny Doons. I hope some of this helps. Regards, Are you interested in learning more about How Hydraulic Press Works? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!
Neil A
Comments
0