Hydraulic forming presses in Europe?

[caroleallen]

My Bonny Doon is 20 ton and I've not yet used it to its full extent. I think I'd be a bit scared.

[Exsecratio]

20T wouldn't be too hard to do and would allow a reduction of the plate to 16mm thickness (that would get the price down quite a bit)

Ahh I see what you mean Peter,remote would work from an enerpac but I'd guess it would be expensive to do or upgrade.

I used to Polygonal rifle barrels from round blanks in one hit and swage chambers, it worked quite well but was limited to big calibres like the FatMax,throat erosion was always a problem even then (the actual FatMax didn't come out till Barnes did them a few years later). It was also used for forming dies so I could do big cases at the same time (much of the M110 casings billet supplies were steel) drawing that down was the main reason for the big press pressures.
These days I take it a lot easier and mostly produce gaming accessories through the company and contract engraving / cutting.

best wishes

Dave

[Dave Willis]

I just bought one of these:

http://www.sgs-engineering.com/hydra...ydraulic-press

When I get round to re-engineering it and using it for jewellery making, I'll share some photos and a detailed description of how I set it up for jewellery work.

I may even make a Youtube video, so you can all have a go.

This British-made press cost me just £208, compared with approximately £600 (at least) for a press from the US.

It's an imperfect solution, but it should get me started.

[Dennis]

It looks like a great buy Dave. All you need now is some large blocks to squash things between. I have a number to almost fill the gap, because I understand that the less you have to pump it the better it will perform in the long term. Dennis.

[Dave Willis]

Yeah, it has a big gap between platens, so I might experiment with some wood or delrin blocks (or something else that might be suitable). My Dad has some blocks of boxwood and lignum vitae that might do the trick.
It's hand operated, so working with it will be a little slow until I can afford to buy a suitable compressor. I'm just dabbling at the moment, so it'll be a while before I spend more money.

[caroleallen]

Mine's got 2 big blocks of acrylic which fill the gap.

[ps_bond]

It wouldn't be,

£50 worth of laser cut 20mm plate (hot rolled would do it) (Even plasma cut would be fine)
£10 worth of fixings (screws / bolts etc)
£99 Sealey SJ50 bottle jack
£10 Powder Coating

Time to build 90 Minutes max.

£799!! errr not in this lifetime

Dusting this off... If I were to sort out a flat-pack kit for a Bonny Doon compatible press that required a competent welder to make 6 fillet welds as the worst part of assembly, would there be any interest? I'm thinking in terms of the press frame + plattens, no fixings, power source or tooling.

It's hypothetical at the moment, partway through doing stress & strain calcs to check sizes.

[mizgeorge]

I'd be interested Peter.

[Dave Willis]

I think that would go down well - I think there is a big gap in the market here.
You might sell a few hundred.
Too late for me though, as I have just bought a garage press.

[ps_bond]

OK, some design considerations:

250mm between plattens.
Total cost to user of < £500 + VAT (which means I'll need to get some representative quotes for the welding). Why £500? Cos that's what it costs to buy & ship a Potter bolt together, and if it ends up more expensive than that then there's not much point.
150mm x 150mm platten surfaces.
Base and upright in 13mm mild (it's bound to end up looking a bit like a Potter as a result, although I have a few ideas on making the assembly easier).
Top platten drilled with 3 11/32" holes per Kingsley, although I need to do some more digging to check as it sounds as though they're used with bolts rather than pins, which would mean they'd need to be threaded. *** OK, looks like these are actually 5/16" threaded - UNC?
25T rated (with a huge safety margin factored in, including not counting the first 12mm of each weld for calculations)

I'm not looking to make hundreds, nor to keep stocks - just to be able to have small batches made up relatively quickly in the UK.

As well as doing the drawings & calcs, I need to get a handle on designing for cutting like this - whether I should relieve internal corners that I want sqare, that kind of thing. The ideal is to keep it to one operation per metal thickness if possible - no machining other than cutting, no drilling, no fettling (Apparently a bit of tapping, so may need to drill too)