Will a 20 ton bottle jack small scale press work

B

benjamin2515101

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Oct 1, 2011
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Since I'll only be working with steel <3" square, I pondered on building a small rigid press with a 20 ton bottle jack. Would I be disappointed?
 
If just using it for simple tasks, any vise or press will work. If you are talking about doing damascus or forming knives, it won't work. It would be far too slow.
 
Do a search for mini press on you tube,I built one, they are slow but if you know iits limitations it can be a big help.You may only get 2-3 quick mashes on a billet before you loose your heat,but sure beats drawing out billets by hand.

Check out this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwZ-GYUZZEY

Stan
 
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Stan, can you upload some pics of yours? I'm almost done with mine but I'm not sure which way to go with the plates and dies.
 
I don't want to offend Stan or zaph, but IMHO this sort of thing is a waste of time and money that could have been put toward a better press.

Setting a weld on a damascus billet is NOT the hard part... drawing the billet out is the hard part. A manual bottle jack would be hopeless, but even an air over hydraulic jack isn't going to be much better. I have personally watched one of these in action, and it moved just fast enough to piss you off. :foot:

My Carlisle press moves about 1 inch per second, and there are times when I wish it were faster. But that's a pretty solid speed for most tasks I use mine for.

Not trying to be Debbie Downer, just giving my honest opinion on it. :)
 
I have a 'real' forging press and it too slow most of the time.

That's why I use a 100 lb little giant 98% of the time. :D
 
I'm sure it's true that they are pretty slow. The 25 ton press I'm building will have 2.1 inch per second hi stage speed, way faster than an air assist bottle jack can manage. But, if you want to explore this route fully, and many guys seem to be happy with the ones they've built, there is a big thread about it here. http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=9932
 
Some guys are happy with quenching in bear fat, and some are happy with Parks #50 - sort of the same thing.

A forging press really should run at 3 IPS or faster.
 
NickWheeler said:
I don't want to offend Stan or zaph, but IMHO this sort of thing is a waste of time and money that could have been put toward a better press.

Setting a weld on a damascus billet is NOT the hard part... drawing the billet out is the hard part. A manual bottle jack would be hopeless, but even an air over hydraulic jack isn't going to be much better. I have personally watched one of these in action, and it moved just fast enough to piss you off. :foot:

My Carlisle press moves about 1 inch per second, and there are times when I wish it were faster. But that's a pretty solid speed for most tasks I use mine for.

Not trying to be Debbie Downer, just giving my honest opinion on it. :)
Click to expand...

Ok Nick Now you've done it,I'm really PO"ed:D
Actually I agree with you to a point.It is a poor substitute for a real press and it has its limitations,you can only work small billets and it is slow,but when you get my age it's still way better than trying to draw them out by hand.I built mine about 3 years ago and even with new metal it only cost me around 200 bucks and a couple of days work.For a hobbiest with limited space it can be a help.
When I retire I hope to have a real press and a small hammer but untill then the little press will have to do.

Stan
 
I agree with Stan, I'm saving for a hammer but a couple hundred bucks isn't bad for anything better than hand fullering.
 
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