My Harbor Freight 20-ton press was just taking up too much needed space in the shop and I decided to make it into an effective tool that would earn the real estate that it held. Over the course of two months or so I did the following:
- Welded a base frame on
- Installed Castors
- Made a plywood bottom
- Welded together a SWAG finger press break kit.
- Made some pin extenders and a mount for them
- Altered the beam support pins for safety
- Swapped out the manual 20t jack for a20t air/hydraulic one
- Primed and painted everything
I am most proud of the press shaft extension pins and the pin holder. I did some initial concept sketches and then opened AutoCAD for some part design. Next step was to have SendCutSend cuts my parts out. The parts arrived in 4 days and a week or so later and I welded/bolted everything together on a Saturday. I don’t show it in the video, but the bottoms of the pins are drilled and tapped 1/2”-13 so that I can bolt in shaped dies and also smaller diameter pin extensions for pressing out u-joints, freeze plugs, and such.
Total cost was $610 for all the parts, material, paint, castors, hardware, hoses, and foot pedal. Not the cheapest option, but this thing is MINE and will last me the rest of my working life. I also feel that in the month since I finished it, that the press has finally earned THAT real estate in the shop – seeing action a couple times a week.