I've had mine so long, it's orange. I don't know what I'd do without it. Also, check out SWAG Offroad's accessories for it. The press brake is very handy for bending thick steel bar.
WEAVER!!!! I just bought one yesterday, 28 Ton with the Hi Speed feature. It's seen better days but still works great. Do you have any close up pictures of the bottom brackets that attach the C channel to the feet (are they plate steel or cast). The feet are welded to the uprights (and on the wrong sides), the cross plate pieces are gone and someone changed the flat plate rests with C channel....no big deal.
I have the 12 ton model in orange. It’s been a great tool. It’s definitely one of those things that you didn’t realize how much you needed it until you got it. I’ve got mine in the ba*****t for use on Harleys, but I’d like to get the 20 ton model and put it in my shop for car/hot rod stuff. By the way, you haven’t lived until you make a 100 ton OTC press jump off the floor 2” pressing out Hendrickson walking beam bushings!
I have a 80 ton press in my shop in town. It needs to move as I am moving out of that shop. Thinking I would sell it in place so I don't have to move it. Got a 30 ton at my home shop.
I replaced all of the bolts in mine with grade 8's. I was more skeptical of the bolt quality than the rest of it. There are some videos showing that it won't stand sideways thrust. The ram under the jack is hollow.
I bought a used 20 from a shop closing down , way over kill , deep throat’s on the bed , I can press big bearings and crown and pinion units easily . $100 bucks as buddy just wanted it gone . for home use or light-er use the Chinese presses are fine I find on most of them tje bed is narrow and when your pressing larger stuff you have to get creative with plates and adapters etc .
Yours looks like a 32 ton press. Mine is a 20 ton. That is all the pics I have at the moment. I can get more the next time I go to the ranch! Bones
It's amazing what you can bend, with some tooling made from remnant angle iron, round stock, and tubing.
I'd think for 90% of us that HF unit would just about do everything we wanted to do with it in a home shop. A buddy of mine had one that may have been a twin to the one Boneyard51 showed in post 27 that he used for all kinds of stuff including bending tubing with some dies he had made.
Thanks. Mine is the 28 ton, the 32 on top is the width between the channels. The 28 ton had 2 widths to choose from, a 32" and a 42". The 20 ton only came in the 32" wide version. I need to find the Auto Ambulance or the Auto Twin-Jacks.
I have a air over hydraulic 20 ton press. This was a replacement to my home made hydraulic bottle jack set up like HF sells. I used it for 20+ years . It worked for the basic pressing jobs. My new one is foot pedal controlled , hands free set up. This has taken my press projects to a new level. I rebuild 2 stroke cranks . Have made several types of finger press brakes for bending heavier material , Straighten bent parts , Dimple die holes in material, and a lot of other functions. I use mine 3-4 times a week. Was a bit expensive to start with but quickly got over that. Vic
Swag off road has a finger brake and a plain brake that you weld it together yourself (or extra for them to weld it) made for the HF 20 ton press. https://www.swagoffroad.com/products/swag-20-ton-finger-brake-heavy-duty-diy-builder-kit
Was just looking at presses the other day for some bushing i need to do. I have the bench top HF 6 ton and a friend broke the bottom part doing his a-arm bushings. Been meaning to get a floor unit but space. That friends brother has a HF 20 ton, that seemed nice enough.
Dad built one out of the frame of a one way disk . The cylinder was a front landing gear off a airplane . The manual pump is a manual hand pump to drop the landing gear . I’ll get pictures tomorrow
I picked up an old used 40ton at an auction. I use it regularly. Has a unique counterweight system to help raise and lower the work table( channels). Comes in handy when you are old like me. I have the swag bending die set also. It is really nice. As has been said already please don’t use cast iron die plates, cast iron has very little ductility and therefore won’t bend much before it snaps in two and sends pieces all over the shop.
One of these days I'll **** around and make sheet metal parts with my log splitter. No, I'm not kidding. I have a power pack too, suppose I could air-over with the right porta-power cyl...
My SuperCheap Auto press (think Harbour Freight) is maybe 2’ between the uprights. The two horizontal C-channels for the throat are set up like 1oldtimers in the post above. They are supported on two ~1/2” bolts, with multiple holes in the uprights to change throat depth. The bolts are short, so although the throat is 2’ wide it only opens about 3”. If you summon your inner redneck, you replace the bolts with two lengths of 1/2” round rod, about 18” long. Now the throat is 2’ x 18”. The round rod is in shear, with the load spread over four points. Takes a ****load of force to shear round bar. They bend first, and then you cut them out and try again. Chain the c-channel to the top bar to minimise bending. If you go full-bogan (full-redneck) you put the press up on four milk crates (two each side) so that it is long enough to fit axles. If the axle bearings are banjo ones that were last touched by a GM Holden ***embly fitter in 1962, you may not have enough grunt. Take those to an axle shop, and watch them say bad words when they finally let go. Couldn’t get those ones out with a slide hammer and 8lb sledge, or the press. Cheers, Harv
I have had a number of presses over the years. For various reasons some got sold and I gave one to my brother. The last time I was looking to get one for my shop I looked at HF and also read reviews. At the time the 20 ton had two configurations, one with welded top cross supports and one with bolted. I bought the bolted one as some reviews noted cracking issues on the welded one. I replaced some hardware, added some gussets, swapped in an air over hydraulic jack, and made a swing open shrapnel guard (not OSHA grade), and like all things in my small shop it's on casters. I like the air jack for initial positioning, but like the feel and control of the hand lever for breaking things apart. The air also works nice with the finger press attachment. So far I can't say anything negative about the press.
One of the things I bought a press for is to press off axle bearings unless the side beams are wider than the axle wheel flange Its a no go.
I have the orange HF 20 ton. Didn't come with plates. A year or 2 ago I bought a grey one for my son in law for Christmas and it did come with the plates. Dave
The air/hydraulic 20T jack is currently on sale at HF, through 1/8/23... very tempting to get that while I wait for space to be made for the actual press.
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