new member, couple of projects.

[cam]

g'day all,
havee been a reader on this site for quite a while, but have only just signed up. bit of background, im 20 years old, living in sunny queensland, australia, working as a boilermaker. mainly do chassis for transportable buildings/houses. but occasionally get to make some creations of my own.
first one is a press i made yesterday, and a little brake i made today, both not completely finished in the photos, lacking some springs and other bits and pieces.
bender successfully bends 75x8 plate (3inchx5/16) and 25x12 (1 x 1/2)
half inch rod etc. with 10tonne jack.
also attatched is a couple of photos of the auger stand for our 3tonne excavator.

cam

[Daniel]

Nice job bud. Now tommorow I wants you to put some guard on both side of this press, for those days when you need it.

[nocheepgas]

Welcome, and that looks like a serious press.

[Goodhand]

Nice job bud. Now tommorow I wants you to put some guard on both side of this press, for those days when you need it.

I've been considering a shop press, but haven't seen any with guards. Would you explain how guards are employed on a press like this? Thanks!

[m.k.swelding]

I've been considering a shop press, but haven't seen any with guards. Would you explain how guards are employed on a press like this? Thanks!

The kind of gards I have ever seen is stand to one or the other side the press untill you take pressure of ur press

[Old Sporty]

The kind of gards I have ever seen is stand to one or the other side the press untill you take pressure of ur press

Same here. I've never seen a shop press with guards. Like to see some pics of some though.

Cam - Good work. Looks like both will do their intended jobs very well.

[Leons2003]

I agree, that is a serious press, thanks for sharing and welcome to the sand box.
L*S

[madmal]

hi everyone. over here in wales it's raining again (surprise) so i thought i would share my thoughts on having a guard on a press, seeing as some are wondering about it. my friend used a press with a 50 ton capacity (the biggest you can buy from machine mart over here) to try and take a bend out of a drive shaft for a tractor mounted tool, but after taking the tool too it's maximum about 8 times, not only did the shaft resist the pressure, the FRAME of the press bent and the DIAL GAUGE broke (along with a loud bang) this was the only damage too the press, so i would say that you do not really need a guard on a tool of this type. i should think that the only thing you need to worry about in this regard is when you have something small taking the pressure and of a shape that MIGHT be squeezed out on one size from under the point of maximum pressure, if it is not central under the jacking point for instance.
i have used a 200 ton industrial sized press in the old steel works i worked in (now a golf course) and that had a guard fitted, but it was for stopping workers putting their hands under the blade while it was in use. (it had a 12FT long blade and could crush a 24" pipe with a wall thickness of 2" very easily)
so as a rule of thumb i would say not to worry to much about it, just be sensible about what you put into the press, and treat the tool with respect. like you would with any tool with this much power behind it.

[madmal]

since joining this forum, i have now recieved 3 e-mails from UPS asking me to go too their nearest depot to pick-up a parcel i have sent via their company
can anyone tell me which depot would be the nearest too me here in 'sunny' wales, as i want to try and cut down the length of the swim i will be taking to carry out these instructions could someone also let me know the sailing times of any supertankers in the atlantic, as i wouldn't want to ram any of them and cause damage. thanks.

[SmokinPRanch]

Where I work now we have a 50 ton vertical press. It sits against a block wall so access is basically from one side. On the operator side there is a pretty handy plexiglass guard arrangement. It is made of a frame of unistrut with the plexiglass sliding inside. A pulley and counterweight system raises and lowers the plexiglass for working with the press.

I'm no big fan of guards. Figure most of them are there for children and lawyers. But this one I kinda like. It's really easy to operate, gets outta the way quick when it needs to, and does work. And there are a few scars in it where it has justified it's existence.

I've worked on a lot of presses. Portable, stationary, vertical, horizontal. We used to press out shafts from large electric motor rotors, pull large couplings and stuff like that. Seems the larger stuff is safer to work with because of the large surface area of contact and the workpieces having so much mass if something does go wrong they don't move much.

The small stuff tends to want to become a projectile when things go bad. But if your set up is sound and equipment in good shape there shouldn't be any problems.

Al