Bob maybe contact Al Lawrence directly. I imagine he can help you get where you want to go.
I've spent time with one of Al's 24-ton presses at my buddy Dan Graves' shop. It's a solid design and has been reliable and predictable over the 4 or 5 years I've been around it. It is well suited to this scale of work.
Top and bottom die plates both slide into welded angle-stock channel guides and are held in position by offset tabs that swivel on short studs mounted into frame face. This setup works well enough, but there is some rattle and slop that maybe goes with the convenience of quick change designs. Could be a minor thing though. For perspective, Dan relies on that press, squashing A LOT of damascus as a full-time smith, and he has yet to modify the original design.
