hydraulic press

[Smitty]

Hi,
I just registered and want to thank all of the people who's effort makes this forum available. It is the best resource I have found.
I got one of Harbor Freight's 20 to hydraulic presses. I will be assembling it this weekend. Can someone advise me where to get dies for the press. I will continue to weld with hammer and anvil but would like to use the press to draw my billets out. I would be willing to make my own dies except I don't have much in the way of tooling and would need some sort of tutorial.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Smitty,

[Bob Warner]

Smitty,

Welcome to the forums.

Most of us that have presses make our own dies. There are three main reasons to make your own dies, one reason is you get exactly what you want and second, you don't have to wait on it and third you make it so it mounts on your press. When a need comes up for a die, you just stop what you are doing and make the die. When you buy a die you have to either make your press accept the die, or modify the die to fit your press.

If you go to www.dfoggknives.com/Dies.htm you will see dies for sale. Go to the bottom of the page and there is a link to a second page of dies.

Let us know what you end up doing.

[Geno]

Yes, as Bob said, most press makers become die makers too.

But that is as much fun as making .........

[Don Halter]

Where are y'all getting the big hydraulic rams/cylinders? I can find pumps and such easy enough, but searches for the other parts gives huge industrial 400-2000 ton equipment parts! Will parts off a a backhoe or front end loader work?

Any of y'all use Batson's book on press building?

[Bob Warner]

Northern tools is where mine came from. Mine is off of a log splitter but they sell them individually for about $220. Double acting. 5" cylinder, 2" ram, 12" travel, 49079 lbs pressure.

[John M Cohea]

Don, My cylinder is also from northern,as well as the pump, oil tank,and control valve and filters.I had thought of using Baston`s plan,but after much research on Don Fogg`s sight, I came up with my own design, which looks very similar to a vertical log splitter on a two legged stand.I started this project about a year ago,and it is close to compleation.It`s just a matter now of mounting the power unit and and valve and hooking up the hoses.I hope to have it up and running soon, and will try to get some pictures posted.

[Mike Sader]

Don, a company called Surplus Center has a catalog but no web-site.phone # 1-800-488-3407.They have good prices on used cylinders, another company called Bailey sells all of the parts new and will custom build cyl. their pumps are cheaper than Northern or any others I have found.Baileynet.com or 1-800-800-1810.They are also worldwide. Good luck,Mike Sader

[Don Halter]

Thanks for the tips. We're hoping to buy a house by August. After that, I can start building the "real" toys. A press is definitely on the list of things to make in the next year!