So apparently surfing Craigslist at 3am for things you already have, pays off! I typed in "Press." I already have a fine drill press, and a really great hydraulic press, an arbor press I converted to a valve spring compressor and a good sheetmetal brake (press brake?). To be honest, I don't even know why I searched "Press" but I did. And this is what I found, for $75. It's a kick-press. The throat is about 4-inches deep... maybe deeper. The stroke is easily 6 inches as-is, and in looking at it I believe I can move the pivot pin and affect that--moving the pin will also affect the amount of pressure the thing delivers. There's an adjustable screw on top that acts as a stroke limiter/stop as well. The action is smooth as silk, but the return is just a little slow. I believe a counterweight on the back of the pedal's arm will solve that. I'd rather not put a spring on it, but that would probably work too. I think overcoming a counterweight will be smoother than overcoming a spring. This should give me really good reach for shrinker/stretcher jaws, and the leverage will be excellent. With the counterweight, it should make for very well-balanced operation. The whole thing weighs about 250-300 pounds... no light weight, that's for sure. The press body, the table and the arm are cast steel, the frame is heavy angle iron with a steel plate top... pretty well constructed--everything is cut precisely, and glued together with nice welds by guys who took pride in their work at the plant. The guy I bought it from bid on them from an auction at his workplace--they currently make switches and other electrical parts for Kubota. Some are set up as presses, some as crimpers for wire ends/terminals, and some as shears. He sold one to a blacksmith, and I beat a leathersmith to this one--guy said he might be able to get a couple more. There's a sticker on this one that says "KP10" so I'm guessing there were at least 10 of them in the joint. I'm pretty pleased. I've been putting off getting a shrinker/stretcher... now all I need to do is buy a set of jaws, rather than the whole tool. Two years ago at Carlisle, I saw a brake shoe riveting machine that had a foot pedal and a deep throated head... I thought that would have made a good shrinker/stretcher frame as well. Fortunately I was out of money, and we were out of space in the car! -Brad
I remember them, they were in a huge place and there were a couple rows of them. Very handy tool right there. You can get all kinds of dies for it as long as you stay around 18ga: round, square, slotted. curved slot. Gotta nail it to the floor, mine weight over 500lbs and she'll scoot right across the floor if i get to whacking away with it, it'll put an 1 1/8" hole in 16ga like right now! and that is the biggest set that i have for now. I just got a 3/8 X 1" slot set on ebay for under $15, so you might reconsider and use it as it is made for. Congratulations!
... now you'll have to reorganize the entire shop to create the proper feng shui with the new addition...
You funny, funny man! Yeah, I have no idea where it's going to go. If I'm not careful, I'm gonna need to start actually putting stuff back on the cars and getting them on the road, just to make room for the tools and parts I keep bringing home. -Brad
It doesn't look like the angle of the swing on the foot pedal would be very comfortable for repeated use...do you wind up pushing back more than you push down?...that's a damned neat tool, though...I bet there's a bunch of uses you could make dies for, all kinds of shaping and punching operations could be done on there...good score!...
It did go back pretty far... Last night I moved the pivot pin to the other hole--it shortened the stroke on the ram considerably, but I don't have to kick back as far either. It still strokes a couple inches, which is more than enough for a shrinker/stretcher. -Brad
I have a Marchant model 12 shrinker stretcher that I bought at a Navy DRMO sale. I thought the stretcher jaws were missing untill I got it home. I had priced them with Marchant. OUCH Glad I found them hidden in the bowels of the machine. They are scarry expensive. That may well be your case too.
I've heard the authentic Marchant jaws are very expensive... I'm thinking I can go through a lot of Harbor Freight or Eastwood jaws for the price. -Brad
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