I got a 25t hydraulic press, could i put it to good pyro use?

[oldmanbeefjerky]

hi all,

 

i recently found myself a 25t press and was wondering, what are the potential uses here?

i know a press can be used to make stars and tube shells, but what about one such as this? i mean, are there any special things you can only do with an immensely powerful press, otherwise impractical?

 

[ddewees]

Make comets...

[dagabu]

Pffffffffffttt! "Potential uses..."

 

Rockets, really BIG rockets!!!

[Arthur]

Bigger versions of anything that you would press with something smaller! 3" rockets/gerbs, Huge comets,

[oldmanbeefjerky]

so pretty much nothing then? nothing special i can do with this press, that one wouldnt be able to with whatever the normal weight press people generally use then?

[nater]

It is all about size. My press can press 6lb rockets with just enough working height, larger if you make short cored whistles. Large star plates and comets get harder due to the surface area. A 5" comet would be about my limit. Currently, the biggest rockets I make are 3lb and the biggest star plate I have is 1/2". The largest single stars I make are pumped 1", but a small arbor press is perfect for them. I have never made single comets, but lately I have been thinking about wanting some to fire out of consumer 1.9" ID mortars and 3" comets. I think those sizes would suit me well for some time.

 

A heavy duty press is really needed when making large comets, gang pressing fountains or whistles, large batches of stars or really big rockets. If one wanted to make a 3" ID BP rocket, you would need a strong press. If one were involved in commercial production, they would need a strong press.

Edited July 4, 2014 by nater

[oldmanbeefjerky]

im not sure i understand what you mean by size, unless your press cannot be adjusted in any way.
But just so i can be clear on this, aside from making bigger or bulk stars, theres nothing special i can do here, nothing that can only be done with such an immense amount of pressure, even for just a single thing?
Thats a shame, especially since i probably wont ever make such big rockets or need to do bulk star pumping for a while yet.

[MrB]

Larger pucks for corning your BP ?

 

Bottom line is this. You can apply your pressure to a certain area. A 5 ton press with a 1inch tooling gets a lot less force in to compacting the BP then a 25ton press with the same tooling. However, a 25ton press with full pressure on a 1inch tooling wont only take it to the extreme, it's also going to bypass it, by a large margin. People talk about needing supports for the tube they use when making rockets, at this point i think we could start talking about support for the supports...

 

25 ton... Yeah, i think 3inch stuff could be made reliably. Comets, rockets, matrix stuff. Wouldn't know, i don't work in that size. Slightly higher pressure and you can work faster, not having to rely on dwell time to get things compacted. So it's still a good press. Just find your sweet-spot.

Good luck.

B!

[ddewees]

Bring it over. I'll give you my ten ton press in exchange. I'll put it to good use.

[MrB]

Just thought of a use that wouldn't suck at all. Starplates, if you use em. Just bring a good solid backing element, so you don't bend stuff.

All the surface area on starplates adds up, getting good consolidation wouldn't suck at all. I'm using rolled stars, so i got no starplates at all, but that has to be where it shines.

B!