tentacles Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 Look in the big ass rocket thread for pics of cplmac's press. I think his is rated to 30,? but has major deflection around 20T. It's the HF air over model with pressure gauge. It has a seperate hydraulic cylinder and air over pump, and a force gauge on top. IMO, they would be an excellent candidate for conversion to electric hydraulics, but the deflection issue might become a problem some day... if you want to press 3" rockets it will need reinforcing. I think cplmac has reinforced his in some way or other. It's a nice press, though, because the hydraulic cylinder is fixed to the frame, and the platform is pinned in, so there aren't problems with it skewing to one side under pressure. That's what destroys tooling quick. It's hard to find that press though, as HF doesn't always sell it. Princess Auto in Canada also sells it sometimes.
Swede Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 LaDuke's press (this one) is intriguing. http://www.pgi.org/PGI2007/images/P8060172.JPG Looks homemade, and very well done. The supplies for that sort of press are easily available, but NOT cheap, and that is the problem. Companies like MSC, Grainger, Northern tool have a large assortment of hydraulic rams. What you'd need at a minimum would be a suitably powerful ram (pick your tonnage), hydraulic lines to and from the ram, suitable actuation valves, and then an electric power pack, unless you like to pump by hand or foot. The good part is, you can easily monitor the hydraulic pressure with such a setup, using a "tee" in the downforce line. But the bad news, off the shelf components could run close to $1,000 for a modest bench press. Something like that would be a great project for surplus materials off ebay. I'd definitely buy some REAL heat treated, high-quality threaded rod for the uprights, and do the engineering to calculate the yield (the force at which the rods will plastically deform) and make it probably 3X to 5X overstrong. I'm jealous, that's an awesome press for pyro. You could even make a fancy base to custom fit and handle your rocket tooling.
FrankRizzo Posted July 31, 2008 Posted July 31, 2008 I don't believe that is Steve's press; at least that's not the press he had at the convention last year. His presses are *much* beefier.
jacob Posted July 31, 2008 Posted July 31, 2008 (edited) Here's some more for, inspiration. http://www.pyrobin.com/files/dsc01707.jpg(^This was built by DaveMP on Passfire) http://www.pyrobin.com/files/~7315701.jpg(^Not sure who this one belongs to) http://www.apcforum.net/forums/uploads/1217005379/gallery_509_7_295422.jpg(^don't know about this one either) http://www.apcforum.net/forums/uploads/1217005379/gallery_509_7_13797.jpg(^Don't know who that is, but it looks like he might own the press steve was posing with) http://www.apcforum.net/forums/uploads/1217005379/gallery_509_7_86565.jpg(^This might be Ned Gorskis, but I'm not sure) Interestingly the first two presses in this post are, I think "Laduke inspired" hinged blast shield, solid frame, ect (although if you're going to make a hinged shield I'd recommed makeing sure the hinge is pleanty strong ) Also, the last two presses (well, definitely the last one, I think both) have foot pedal controls so your hands stay free, cool huh. EDIT. Here's a pic of my press. http://www.apcforum.net/forums/uploads/1217005379/gallery_509_7_313187.jpg The picture's pretty dark but it was built from mostly ebay components for quite cheap, although as I found out the hard way, that route is definitely hit and miss, there were plenty of headaches in that project. Edited July 31, 2008 by jacob Converted the gigantic pictures into links.
Mumbles Posted July 31, 2008 Posted July 31, 2008 I've never been to Steve's shop, but I've worked with a LaDuke built press. Number two is a dead ringer for the one I worked with. Well, almost. The one I worked with has a hydraulic pump completely covered in duct tape.
TheSidewinder Posted July 31, 2008 Posted July 31, 2008 Heya Jacob,Those pics would go well in the Gallery. They will be automatically resized to the max of 1600 x 1200, and anyone can view them with the Lightbox (click on the pic itself when inside the Gallery) at that resolution. You'll also see hotlinks to the pics to the right of each one, which can be pasted in a post.
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