Harbor freight press with an enerpac

[B-rock]

Im wanting to place an enerpac 20 ton cylinder on my 20 ton arbor freight shop press, (this will also be getting the swag off road brake) My question is I have a lot more confidence in the 20 tons of enerpac cylinder then I do a 20 ton harbor freight press. Am I asking for trouble putting a real 20 tons to the press? The cylinder is 12" tall with 6" of stroke. I have enerpac air over hydro foot controller OR the electric enerpac pump that will power said cylinder.

 

[Wheelerfreak]

I've got the same HF press and put an air over hydro 16ton jack in place of the jack that came with it so I could be far away from it if shit went sideways. Putting only I'm guessing half that 16tons on it one time it sure was creaking and groaning. I doubt it could take a full 20 tons. I'd say if you do just make sure you're out of the line of fire when putting the full 20 tons of pressure on something

 

[B-rock]

I was thinking of welding on some gussets, Needs more triangulation.... This is intended for the SWAG HD finger brake. Worst case is I loose out on an 80 dollar press. I was thinking of extending a bracket down that would allow an additional set of pins to engage the Vertical posts.

 

[I Lean]

The top is what will bend first. Reinforce the top channels, then I wouldn't worry too much about the rest. Or beef up more, extra gussets never hurt anybody. :)

 

[GGRR 4555]

With the stock cylinder I bent the lower beams trying to press wheel bearings on a yukon semi float shaft (yukon sent me the wrong bearings and fucked everything up). I would guess a better cylinder would bend the bars for sure. But some gusset work might be perfect. I'd do it!

 

[bgaidan]

I have an old hf 20 ton air over hydro setup on mine. It's a little leaky and beat up so I doubt it's making a full 20 tons either. I can see the top beam flexing when I fully load it, but that's about the worst I've done so far.

Bending the lower beams will depend on how you load it. Pressing a bearing off like ^ will put a lot more force right in the center of it. Putting 20 tons in to my little press brake insert spreads that over 15".

 

[B-rock]

I have some 4x8 I beam that I can cut down and weld on top. Good point about point loading. I could order up some solid 3/4” chromemolly to replace the pins.

 

[TrikeKid]

I have some 4x8 I beam that I can cut down and weld on top. Good point about point loading. I could order up some solid 3/4” chromemolly to replace the pins.

If you've got that kind of steel laying around, and you can fab, why fuck with the HF press at all instead of building your own?

 

[dnsfailure]

I have the older orange 20t press, after the first jack went out, I have a 2nd air powered HF 20t jack. After 6 years or so, I notice the top starting to bow slightly. I don't use the press every day. I would say if you're gonna put the beans to it, beef it up a bit.

I'm going to weld on some extra plates on mine on the top, and maybe just for some security beef up the lower adjustable shelf.

 

[B-rock]

If you've got that kind of steel laying around, and you can fab, why fuck with the HF press at all instead of building your own?

thats a fair question. I asked myself the same thing. But I don’t have a way of making the side beams with the proper holes spaced evenly.

 

[dnsfailure]

If you've got that kind of steel laying around, and you can fab, why fuck with the HF press at all instead of building your own?

For the price of steel, I don't think I could build the press for less than what it costs to buy it. But yeah, if you have beams laying around, would be simple enough.

 

[Toreadorranger]

I picked up some 5" (I think) C channel to weld to the top of my HF 20t. I noticed the same bowing on the top of it and figured I would get ahead of it before it got bad.

 

[B-rock]

For the price of steel, I don't think I could build the press for less than what it costs to buy it. But yeah, if you have beams laying around, would be simple enough.

Thats a big part of it also, Im into this all of 80 bucks.

 

[vetteboy79]

With the stock cylinder I bent the lower beams trying to press wheel bearings on a yukon semi float shaft (yukon sent me the wrong bearings and fucked everything up). I would guess a better cylinder would bend the bars for sure. But some gusset work might be perfect. I'd do it!

I have the 20-ton HF one as well, top is a little bent after trying to get a bearing retainer onto a 9" axle...but I also put another 12-ton bottle jack in parallel with the 20-ton one my usual rule of HF stuff is to buy the next biggest one from what I think I'll ever need. With the factory jack I've definitely had times where I'm hanging on the jack handle extension and it's not budging.

 

[OHV Wildcat]

Well, I know it will handle 20 tons. Because I put the HF 20 ton air/hydro bottle on it, and nothing broke.

 

[MigGunslinger]

Mine would twist under load too making funny noises and press brake work weird. I ended up welding the angle iron feet square to the legs, boxing in the bottom and making a shelf and putting it on small locking casters. Really helps to keep the whole thing square and now I can roll it outside of the garage If I need to.