SomeBody wrote:
I'm about to move forward on a manually operated hydraulic press project
and was wondering some of the things that can be performed with such a
beast?

Hole punching? metal bending?

Know of any information out there that would be helpful?

What about making your own dies?

Tonight I used mine to straighten a (fixed) caster which had been overloaded so
the forks had bent over to one side. Easy as pie.

I also have recently used mine to press things together and also apart.

My father-in-law brought over a piece of his tractor mower guard which is bent
badly. It's made of quite heavy gauge sheet metal, and I'll use the press to
straighten it.

I envision using it to straighten out warpage when butt welding two flat bars
which I want to stay flat. If the weld warps, I'll straighten it using the press.

Some guys make press brakes and punches from hydraulic presses. I might do that
too.

GWE