building a hydraulic press

[coyote]

I was looking on google at rotary presses and I don't see how they work ,they look like they are made for punching sheet metal .
Maybe I didn't see the type of rotary press you guys seem to be talking about.
How would you setup a punch and die in one of those things maybe someone can link or post a picture of one.

Oh and for the guys who are worried about my fingers I don't feed anything with my right hand so my trigger finger is safe lol.

[bohica2xo]

If you don't know anything about a punch press, I would urge you to be cautious & install a two hand control.

This is a video of someone with several punch presses. He will eventually have fewer fingers:

Punch Press the un-safe way

The next video shows a press equipped with a proper two hand "anti - tie down" system. This requires you to push & hold both buttons to complete the press stroke:

Presswork the SAFE way.

Having watched both videos, do you see why that foot pedal will lead to missing fingers? Good.

With the buttons close to the machine, you can't crush a finger - but you can safely load parts. The systems are not terribly expensive - Renco Valve under 300 bucks. Even cheaper from Decker, but you would need to build an enclosure for the buttons & valve.

I would recommend two hand controls on any powered press. The same system is actually running on a hydraulic press in the second video.

B.

[coyote]

Well I picked up a hydraulic cylinder today and will probably start some machining over the weekend if I can get my firewood done .

I was talking to a hydraulic technician a few days ago and the simplest way to make the press a 2 hand opperated would be to install 2 valves one valve would allow the oil to pass to the second one which would operate the cylinder.

The cylinder I bought has a 2 1/2" bore and a 6" stroke it should be plenty strong and the stroke would allow any lenght of jacket to be drawn.

The valves could be installed on each side of the press in a boxed opening with no chance of getting any fingers crushed.

[Bambeno]

If you want to up your production rate with a hydralic cylinder you could build a press that swages on the push and pull stoke with two swage heads. Just a thought.

[Rock]

Have the ram act against a rotating cam, the cam works the swage punch. That would give you a punch on the push and another on the pull.

[BT Sniper]

Just watched the two quick videos B posted. Think I'll be having two hand pushed buttons should I ever have a press. Yes the foot pedel made me cringe a bit.

[coyote]

Just watched the two quick videos B posted. Think I'll be having two hand pushed buttons should I ever have a press. Yes the foot pedel made me cringe a bit.

Those videos are mechanical punch presses a hydraulic press is much slower .
If you watch the videos that are on the bullet factory you will see a hydraulic press in action .

[a.squibload]

Just watched the two quick videos B posted. Think I'll be having two hand pushed buttons should I ever have a press. Yes the foot pedel made me cringe a bit.

Yeah, suppose he starts tappin' his foot to the music? YOW!

[bohica2xo]

Those videos are mechanical punch presses a hydraulic press is much slower .
If you watch the videos that are on the bullet factory you will see a hydraulic press in action .

Powered hydraulic presses have claimed plenty of body parts (and lives) over the years. A false sense of security in the relatively "slow" motion leads to folks thinking they can "just hold it in place", or correct a poorly placed blank with the ram on the way down.

A punch press that runs 200 strokes per minute @ 2" stroke completes that cycle in .3 seconds. If you shift your weight on a stool or lose your balance - and hit that pedal it is over in a third of a second.

B.

[akajun]

I built a cheezy little hydraulic press a while back to swage a few little things into shape. It worked OK, but it wasn't fast. If I were going to try to draw enough jackets to shoot, I'd probably opt for a set up more like an arbor press. If I were going to try to do something that more closely resembled commercial quantities, then I'd go for a rotary punch press. My little cheezy press is shown below. In this picture, it was extruding lead wire.

Maybe you could substitute the hydraulic jack with one of those air compressor powered bottle jacks and set it up with a food pedal and springs to actuate the air and springs to pull the ram back.

Bohica, you are right about the flywheel press being very dangerous. My FIL has a sheet metal shear that works the same way with a flywheel. Even with rebuilding the linkages and trigger mechanisim, it will still go off on its own for no reason every once in a while. No fingers have been claimes but flywheel equip is very dangerous.

[coyote]

[QUOTE=bohica2xo;1057328]Powered hydraulic presses have claimed plenty of body parts (and lives) over the years. A false sense of security in the relatively "slow" motion leads to folks thinking they can "just hold it in place", or correct a poorly placed blank with the ram on the way down.


The way my press is going to work is with 2 valves that require both hands so even if I have to adjust a blank the press will stop as soon as I let go one of the valves.

As far as punch presses go if I was going to set one up I wouldn't wan't to use a foot pedal or hand controls I would automate it with a hopper and feeding mechanism.

[257]

you can also set up a hyd. press to have a rapid down to a switch and then slow thru the rest of the cycle. our presses have adjustable switch that you can set on a slide bar

[HTRN]

Oh boy, where to begin...

Okay, you want large volumes of jackets? That means a punch press like others have mentioned. Something nobody has mentioned here is coil feeders. a 10 ton OBI, with a die setup to use say, a pneumatic feeder and a coil unwinder. No manual loading - just a coil feeder. Easily capable of 500-1000/hr.

This is, of course, not cheap. Easily run you 5 figures by the time you figure into the price a used OBI press, getting the die made, getting a feeder, getting a coil unwinder, etc, etc.