100ton/25ton press project

After seeing the press thread I thought Id post pics /start thread of a big press im building myself. All parts are made in house including the hydraulic rams.

Heres the start in machining the top hat for the main 100 ton ram which will be screw cut then welded onto the cylinder tube. I flame cut it out of 50mm thick plate first , pic is of first op machining it true, it looks small in the pics because its a big lathe, its 475mm in diameter

Now there's a decent sized lathe. Is it good for small work too?

With high pressure presses it's certainly worth making your own if you have a lathe available, because over about 20 tons or so they start getting seriously expensive.

How are you going to get a seal between piston and cylinder? Make it the right size for a standard seal to fit?

Brown said:

Now there's a decent sized lathe. Is it good for small work too?

With high pressure presses it's certainly worth making your own if you have a lathe available, because over about 20 tons or so they start getting seriously expensive.

How are you going to get a seal between piston and cylinder? Make it the right size for a standard seal to fit?

Click to expand...

Yes its good for small stuff as it goes to 1600rpm, I have a big swift lathe with a three foot chuck that only goes to 150rpm so no good for small stuff.

Making piston to suit standard seals, Ive gone to a large bore to keep to low 200bar pressure which allows me to use a gear pump instead of a expensive piston pump and to use standard seals on the piston instead of expensive multi layer jobs

pressbrake said:

Making piston to suit standard seals, Ive gone to a large bore to keep to low 200bar pressure which allows me to use a gear pump instead of a expensive piston pump and to use standard seals on the piston instead of expensive multi layer jobs

Click to expand...

Yup, thought so!

pressbrake said:

After seeing the press thread I thought Id post pics /start thread of a big press im building myself. All parts are made in house including the hydraulic rams.

Heres the start in machining the top hat for the main 100 ton ram which will be screw cut then welded onto the cylinder tube. I flame cut it out of 50mm thick plate first , pic is of first op machining it true, it looks small in the pics because its a big lathe, its 475mm in diameter

Click to expand...

oh dear, looks like being back at work
is it a bigger colchester lathe with quick change toolbox and digital readout box top left of picture?
read of your swift lathe, not heard of them?
I loved being on my old lathes, but used mainly VTL`s from 36inch to 120inch tables,
and spent time on really long bed lathes all cnc powered.
also spent a few years on a 60inch T lathe, that ran in reverse as normal ?? just NC powered but german quality..
(tooling was reverse from "normal" )
I then retrained for multi axis machining centres,
needed a different head on my shoulders then, as the tools done most of the moving, the job moved less---lol..
mainly alloy landing gear componants for airbus, but done magnesium gear cases for RR aerospace, plus titainium and other critical componants for shhhh-military..
they say a real engineer walks with swarf in his shoes eh...lol

love your aproach to, feck it, I`ll just build it.
thats propper engineering,
thats what made Gt Britain great all those 100`s of years ago eh..

If you like home engineering this is quite an interesting thread (USA based but a guy in Germany)

Project Mini Hägglund - Expedition Portal

tacr2man said:

If you like home engineering this is quite an interesting thread (USA based but a guy in Germany)

Project Mini Hägglund - Expedition Portal

Click to expand...

wow, had a quick look through, i like his thinking, nice..

easye1 said:

oh dear, looks like being back at work
is it a bigger colchester lathe with quick change toolbox and digital readout box top left of picture?
read of your swift lathe, not heard of them?
I loved being on my old lathes, but used mainly VTL`s from 36inch to 120inch tables,
and spent time on really long bed lathes all cnc powered.
also spent a few years on a 60inch T lathe, that ran in reverse as normal ?? just NC powered but german quality..
(tooling was reverse from "normal" )
I then retrained for multi axis machining centres,
needed a different head on my shoulders then, as the tools done most of the moving, the job moved less---lol..
mainly alloy landing gear componants for airbus, but done magnesium gear cases for RR aerospace, plus titainium and other critical componants for shhhh-military..
they say a real engineer walks with swarf in his shoes eh...lol

love your aproach to, feck it, I`ll just build it.
thats propper engineering,
thats what made Gt Britain great all those 100`s of years ago eh..

Click to expand...

Where did you work on the vtls? been trying to get one ,but because of export prices are high.
I teach cnc programming occasionally , its funny Im known for lr bits but my main business is machining and precision sheet metal
Google swift lathes, these days they concentrate on big cnc oil country lathes.

tacr2man said:

If you like home engineering this is quite an interesting thread (USA based but a guy in Germany)

Project Mini Hägglund - Expedition Portal

Click to expand...

just read all that thread,fantastic piece of engineering.he is one clever bloke.

Will be very interested to see how this goes as I'm making my own press at the moment too. Have the uprights all drilled so far so need to make the top plate for mounting the ram next. I have a ram but not sure what pump I'll use yet. Possibly an electric powered gear pump and have a manual pump as well for finer adjustment


I'll post up some pics of mine too as I go along if ye like too and if I'm not hijacking the thread although I doubt there'll be any fear of that when yours is off to such a start by making your own rams

The presses you but off the shelf are either **** weak. Sure, they'll press upto 20-30Ton which might be enough in a lot of jobs but there's no telling what way, what is normally a 10 or 15mm bar at the end of it that's expected to do the pressing!

Some progress

Gland

pressbrake said:

Where did you work on the vtls? been trying to get one ,but because of export prices are high.
I teach cnc programming occasionally , its funny Im known for lr bits but my main business is machining and precision sheet metal
Google swift lathes, these days they concentrate on big cnc oil country lathes.

Click to expand...

sorry mate, only just seen your post (months ago)
I used to work on the Hainault Industrial Estate, near Hogg Hill.
was General Engineering co (ilford) ltd
started there when I was just 15, worked there on and off most of my life.
another one time bug name was Yewlands Engineering, then was on the same estate, before he sold it then started at Stansted by the old terminal
there one time hainault factory I worked a twinn headed Webster Bennet VTL that would swing 12 foot dia mainly thin ally rings for aero space stuff.
like this -
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=w...eering.com%2Flargeverticalboring.html;640;480
or this -
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=w...s.co.uk%2Fwebsterbennetts%2Findex.htm;480;640
Found my old W-B 36 inch chuck on a long time sold aution site the other week, non cnc, not even nc, but hands, digital readout & hydrolic copy attachment.
worked that at Boulton & wheatley engineering the other side of HAGONS a few doors from GE.
ended up multi skilled at GE, working cnc 4axis maching centres
this one

Oerlikon Sirius HM3 MPI Horizontal 4 axis Machining Centre - 1st Machinery

but did work a wierd T lathe that had a short bedway, big chuck/faceplate but run in reverse as the norn..
not this but like it-sort of
1 Wohlenberg CNC Sinumerik 810 T, Max. 900 Rpm, V 1000 - CNC, 2 Axis, CNC Turning Lathe - Machine Tools - Second hand machinery - Wotol.com

In the end, before it closed, I could go in to work, get a list of what had to be out of the door by morning, then do a few hours on a VTL, then a few hours on the T lathe, then back on my 4 axis..
feckin head was spinning with all the different types of machines I worked,
but....
that was what I was paid for

http://www.thetimenow.com/united_ki...the_general_engineering_co_ilford_ltd-1327881

you wont find anyone there now from GE,
as the site sells jaguar landrover & rangies.
shame but thats life - we were middle of the top 10 of the prefurred subcontractors to R/R & airbus aerospace bits..
seems an age ago now, but was only 11 years...
oh well, thats life....

pressbrake said:

Gland

Click to expand...

nice bit of work there matey