Hydraulic Press Size

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I have a friend who has ordered a 16 ton Coal Iron forging press. I was looking over the specs to wire his shop for it and was surprised to see it had a 2Hp motor that runs off a 120VAC 20 amp breaker. I looked at the maker's videos and reviews … it seems to work fine … maybe a bit slow, but it definitely looked like it gets the job done.

I have always been with the bigger is better crowd and considered a press needed a 5HP motor and 20 or more tons to be of use in knifemaking.

What are you chaps opinions on using a smaller press. Anyone used one of these or a similar lower HP press?

 

[jdm61]

Yeah, an Imagination Xpress (Carlisle) 16 ton and it is slow and inadequate at times. I think that DIES are the key with any press unless you have say a 50 ton plus rig. With hammers, you hear that you should buy a hammers that will do most of what you want to do on flat dies and then go from there. I don't think that its the case with a press. I really need to round drawing dies made for like half of a big 1018 round and some widthwise spreading dies made for the same material. A warning for C-frame presses, Unless they are set up like H frame presses where you just slide die "plates" in for the side, you are gong to be unhappy. Mine slide in from the end on "carriers" and that makes life more difficult as ever dies has to be on a full carrier ad the dies still move side to side which will make things like spreading and squaring dies more clumsy.

 

[kuraki]

We discussed them at length in another couple recent threads. I think the consensus is they work, they're just slow. And like jdm says, require narrower dies. Which is just another product of being slow (working on less area per cycle).

I feel like I've outgrown my 5hp press in a year. Not because it can't do the things I need to to do, but because of how quickly it can do them. I think I would have been extremely unhappy with a 2hp press, considering the cost difference in components is rather low. Jumping up into 10hp range from 5hp is a bigger jump if you can't source cheap motors, so to me, 5hp seems like the best realm of value for most people in work:cost ratio terms.

 

[Barry Clodfelter]

I have a 16 ton Coal Ironworks press and have made quite a bit of Damascus on it during the past year. Is it slow? Perhaps a little compared to a larger press. The press works as advertised and I am extremely happy with it. Making dies for it is a little harder because of their design but no big deal as long as you have the ability to weld 1/2" plate. It is relatively quiet compared to some of the larger presses I have used. The amount of squish is not as great as a larger press so you have to learn how to maximize your heat cycles. And just like any other tool in your shop you have to learn how to best use it. All in all I like it well enough that I would buy another one just like it. Nate and Andy quickly responded to my inquires and I got a really good feeling about them and that they were making the best presses they could make. There is no room in my breaker box to add an additional 220 circuit so in addition to the cost of a 5HP or larger press it would have also required a panel upgrade. Plus I like being able to roll it around in the shop and plug it into any outlet and start working.

 

[Don Hanson III]

Most of us makers like to overdo stuff. & then there is all the opinions written on the internet.
I've used a few different presses with 2 and 3 horse motors that work just fine.

 

[Atlas Knife Company]

I still use my air over hydraulic 20 ton, very slow but does what I need. It's probably fine until I get to spend time using a bigger press, then I will hate it.