thoughts on using harbor freight arbor press

[country gent]

We did a lot of forming and bending in the ahrbor presses at work. We would make a small die set with lead posts clamp it down and feed stock. These little die sets did yeomans work like this. Ours were 5 ton mechanical presses. We also pressed shafts bearings and other parts in them. The drawback to the hydrolics is the number of pumps on the handle it takes. An air over hydrolic or electric pump set up is better but the ram still starts and stops as it moves

[TheDoctor]

Keep in mind that air compresses. If something lets go, you can have a HUGE amount of stored energy.

[Mauser 98K]

to draw jackets with an arbor press id first make a die and punch holder to go in the press that has guide rods to keep everything centered so that one side of the jacket does not end up thinner than the other and it makes things go a lot easier.

this setup can also be used to swage the bullets too and was what i used b4 i made my pneumatic swage press.. all it does is mount to the press and the ram squishes the springs and they push the pieces back apart.. this is just a rough drawing to give an idea of the design and the drawing dies you will use will be the ones mounted to the die plate.

[Mauser 98K]

Attachment 208515

this is another design that would theoretically work with an arbor press. it is as simple as i can figure out and it is machined out of a solid piece of tool steel and a notch is cut in the side to allow the jacket material to be put in the bottom portion drawing die. the top part and the bottom part are one piece and will guide the drawing punch into the bottom die. the thing about it is still you got to figure out how to machine the bottom drawing die portion and how to remove the drawn jacket off of the punch afterwards.. the easiest way i know of to do the bottom drawing die is to make it a separate insert that is machined separate from the main die body and then it is put into the die body after machining..

[clodhopper]

Clicked on your attachment with eager anticipation, Rats, it does not work.

[Mauser 98K]

well that was weird... here the second one is again...

[country gent]

One problem with springs is they take away from the presses total force compressing them. we bolted the top of the die set to the ram with a shoulder bolt. to raise and lower it on the dies rods.