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DoN. Nichols DoN. Nichols is offline
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Default Cheap Attachment for Hydraulic Press to Flatten Soft Metal

On 2008-03-23, Will wrote:

[ ... ]

I have flattend 4" X 16" pieces of 16 ga steel successfully with this
method using my 20 ton HF press.
http://www.spaco.org/Press.htm


Going to your web site, I have basically the same Chinese press you do.
Doesn't anyone make some kind of die set that would fit the ram of such a
press as an off the shelf piece of equipment?


Since most people don't use these for flattening things, and
those who do are usually capable of making custom tooling for their
needs, the answer to your question is "No".

It seems like a real hassle
to to have somehow balance two thick pieces of steel, then get a third one
between it.


Once you find whether you *can* do the job with your press as
described, now is the time to build your own fixtures for attaching the
plates to the press.

My application is flattening rackmount rails on equipment or fixtures that
slide into rackmount equipment. I need to have both hands on the piece I
am working with and really wanted to avoid having to balance the plates on
either side of the equipment.


So -- make up a way to attach the lower plate to the support,
and the upper plate to the ram of the press. There should be dozens of
ways to do it, depending on what tooling you have.

I'm willing to pay up to $200 for the die set.


And I'm not willing to make it for that -- especially since I
don't have the press to test it, or the tooling to weld up the fixtures
which would be the best way to do it. I suspect that the same applies
to most of us here -- at least the "not willing" part. This is a hobby
newsgroup -- we are in it for fun, not to make things for money.
You might find someone who will.

Where are you getting rack-mount rails that are this badly
distorted? The worst that I have seen could be fixed with a pair of
duckbill vise grips. :-)

Good luck,
DoN.

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