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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
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    near Rockhampton
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    Cool OT: Metalwork, Automotive bush press adapters

    I hope I have the correct forum to post this here as it is actual metal working

    Over the past few years I have been making press adapters for a mechanic friend of mine that he uses to press in bushes for cars and such. I assume they are all suspension bushes. I have probably made a dozen up over time for him.

    They are dead simple to make, turn the OD a smidgen (technical term) smaller then the OD of the bush, about .5mm as usually OD as the bushes often have a tapered lead section. Drill a hole in the end so the inner part of the bush has clearance.

    Then measure the ID of the lip to an approximate measurement. The ID bit always seem to be full of rubber and you have to make a bit of a guesstimate. Then turn the OD down for about 1.5mm to the lip ID dimension.

    Part off, job done. Not had any complaints yet.

    20151010_082606.jpg20151010_082540.jpg
    Gold, the colour of choice for the discerning person.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    moonbi nsw Aus
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    I have just made (and not quite finished yet) an hydraulic press. I had some off cuts of 150 X 75 mm channel. I'm using a 20 tonne jack. I tried it out on some 20 mm rod by putting a right angle bend in it. It seemed to be no trouble for the jack. My motivation to make it was I had to change bearings in a couple of 3 phase motors. I used a big hammer and drift. I wasn't happy having to be so "brutal" with it.
    I have a WWII Jeep to restore so it will be handy pressing things there. I also will build a pan brake with fingers for it. I have a folder that can handle up to 1200 mm but ends need to fingers to fold at different short measurements. Those dies you are making, RC, will be the sort of thing I will be adding to a box of bits needed to press different sized pieces.
    Do you have any "must have" doovers that will be handy to add to the box of bits?
    Just do it!

    Kind regards Rod

  3. #3
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    I just have a box and bits of off cuts... I bought my press many years ago and had no idea what size to get and found a 60 tonne one. Of course it is way way more tonnage then I think I will ever need. Most I have used is about 40 tonnes pressing a rusted in 2" pin out of a dozer part.

    One thing I have a few of is inner and outer races of bearings that I have turned down a bit with carbid tooling, these are then used to press bearings in and out of things as they now have clearance. Of course you do not put high tonnage on these as they would shatter. But it will really surprise how little force is needed for proper fits. We think using a sledge hammer generates some force, but reality they generate bugger all compared to even a tiny press..

    After seeing that home made "100 ton" press in actions making hex's. I decided to have a go and punching a 10mm hex hole through some 6mm plate took bugger all pressure..
    Gold, the colour of choice for the discerning person.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2011
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    Murray Bridge S Aust.
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    Thanks for the "How To" RC.
    Wonder how long before we get Likes and Thanks buttons??????? We've been asked to keep the "Reply with Quotes" to a minimum,
    but with a "Thanks and Like Button" we wouldn't have to write another reply taking up space, not that I mind showing my appreciation for interesting articles.
    Kryn

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
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    I may be wrong, but I think the issue with using "Reply with Quotes" was that large amounts of unnecesary text and pictures were being repeated. Often this happened many times and with full size photos. There is no need to repeat photos, and text can be snipped to the essentials.

    I would still like those buttons back tho.

    Dean

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
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    Toorloo Arm, VIC
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    If you're doing car stuff, one of these bearing plates can be very useful at times - things like the axle bearing shown, as well as in gearbox overhauls. Available from various places in various sizes. Sometimes you can get away with making something similar out of loose pieces of 3mm plate, sometimes you can't.

    Axle-BearingPlate.jpg

    For other general stuff, as RC says - all kinds of odds and sods. Offcuts of thickwall pipe, various size blocks to pack things up with (carefully!), and 1/2 or 3/4 drive sockets are always handy! Basically, never throw ANYTHING round out - I have bits of cam variators sitting in my press tray among various other stuff. I do have a handful of bits I have machined for one purpose or another, usually with two different size ends, but on the whole I don't often have to turn anything up for an automotive job.

    You can also do more specialised stuff like this, but most people won't have much need for it:

    2015-09-06_10-47-13_288.jpg

    Left to right of the top three is the setup - aluminium piece with an oval profile die ground in the top after boring a round hole through, to keep the pipe round. The length of exhaust pipe in the middle goes inside the aluminium piece, then the wedge shaped stainless piece is pressed into the top. Bottom right is the result - a collector to go from twin 1 5/8 exhaust pipe to single 1 3/4 pipe. I also have one that allows me to expand 2 inch exhaust pipe enough to slide over itself, for making slip joints.

    2012-08-17_11-42-57_369.jpg

    This was something made out of scrap at my last workplace, because I got sick of hammering. On the right of picture is a window wiper assembly, which has a plastic injection molded end crimped into a steel tube. Surprisingly enough, the plastic piece snaps under the load after a few years, rendering the wipers useless. Second hand parts were unavailable, because they all did it, and a new assembly was phenomenally expensive. So we repaired them by making two 1.6mm steel sheet pieces that went either side, welded (carefully) to the steel tube, and then two holes were drilled clean through the steel, plastic and other piece of steel and it was bolted together. Good as new, and never failed again.

    Needless to say, we sold a lot of these on a changeover basis, and by about number 8, I was thoroughly sick of hammering the steel into the appropriate shape. So I created the monstrosity to the left out of scrap I dug up from around the workbenches, a male and female die to create the correct shape. Cut two parallelograms out of the 1.6mm sheet, lay one approximately on one pair of white lines, and press away. Repeat with the second piece, using the other pair of white lines, and voila, you have your two opposing parts, as shown above and sitting in place on the wiper assembly. A minimal amount of adjustment was then needed to get the fit just so, but it was much faster.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
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    Sydney
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    What type of steel are you using those smidgens on there RC? Anything special required or just plain mild steel?

    I've never done much press work. 60 ton is getting up there though, and the opportunity for things to get ugly would be pretty good I'd think.

  8. #8
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    Thankyou very much for the info on "add-ons" for the workshop press. A mate years ago said not to throw out off cuts of steel. So being a diligent listener I have been keeping those off cuts. Its just amasing how often I look for a small piece of what ever to fix what ever. Well now I will go through the little pile of off cuts and re designate them to "press accessories".
    For the pressing of sheet metal I found a knife off a grader blade. It has a slight curve across its width which will be handy when pressing acute angles. It cuts easy with a disc and welds just as well too. I wondered how hard it would be and rubbed it with a file and the file dug in which indicated its not that hard. So would it be just a high carbon steel? It keeps its edge (albeit dull) when I have used it to bend round bar
    Just do it!

    Kind regards Rod

  9. #9
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    With my last post I edited it nearly straight away because I hadn't finished a sentence properly, then, when I hit "Save Changes" it has duplicated the post again instead of just adding the Edit.

    Just thought it may be of interest to the Mods
    Just do it!

    Kind regards Rod

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pete F View Post
    What type of steel are you using those smidgens on there RC? Anything special required or just plain mild steel?

    I've never done much press work. 60 ton is getting up there though, and the opportunity for things to get ugly would be pretty good I'd think.
    Just using whatever I have available. I do not charge him for making them and I get plenty of fringe benefits in return.

    60 tonne is a hell of a lot and you can see the press moving when it is that high.. it is a manual one with a pressure gauge showing force being applied, so you can control everything very easily.

    It has a two stage pump. Fast for low pressures up to about ten tonnes, then very slow from there on. It is made in Turkey of all places.

    An amazingly useful piece of workshop equipment. I have made up press plates for bending short pieces of sheet steel.
    Gold, the colour of choice for the discerning person.

  11. #11
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    Oct 2007
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    Sydney
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    Nice! Yes a press is something I would like to have, but probably "only" about 20-30 ton. Real ton however and not those Chinese "tons".

    Yes I've seen quite a bit of metalworking machinery coming out of Turkey, mainly hydraulic fabrication type equipment.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
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    Laidley, SE Qld
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    I've been drifting, hammering, jacking ,pulling and sometimes even pressing bearings and other things in and out of cars since I got my first car in the mid 60s. But always I was using a potentially unstable arrangement of washers, big nuts, pipe fittings, sockets, threaded rod, water pipe etc.

    One of the things I really enjoy about having a lathe these last 10 years is that when I need to press or pull something I can go to the offcuts pile and make whatever the job requires and do the job easily and safely.

    As I type this I recall a post I made on this very subject 2 1/2 years ago.
    //metalworkforums.com/threads/1...60#post1648060

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