Thread: Opinion of hydraulic presses available

Originally Posted by j.ashburn

Old garage presses Servex are usually old leaking and always expensive at auction or sale. 60 ton and up wards with a sneaker 2 stage manual pump if you want to go 2nd hand.

There is a reason for that in my experience. At one of my old workplaces we had a 60 tonne Servex as described by John, and in the nearly 18 years I was there, I don't recall it ever giving any trouble. It did have an oil weep on the pump, and so looked a bit messy, but it was the go to press for that mine site, the other two presses being a 1/2, or 1 tonne arbor press in the hands of the auto electricians, and a big 500 tonne horizontal, which also saw some use but only once or twice a month I would estimate, while the Servex saw action most days.
They are well engineered, and don't distort under load, and the quick action slack adjustment is a great feature, the handwheel would have a rim about 1 1/4" thick, and probably weighs as much as the hydraulics on some of the imported presses.
If you ever get the chance to own one I would say go for it, I doubt that you would ever regret your purchase, although I do understand that you need something now, not in two years time.

Originally Posted by Ropetangler

TI do understand that you need something now, not in two years time.

Well it has been three years since he wanted it now

You are a necromancer. Raising old threads from the dead. LOL

Originally Posted by .RC.

Well it has been three years since he wanted it now

You are a necromancer. Raising old threads from the dead. LOL

Not sure what happened here .RC but as I'm using an iPad, possibly a stray finger on a hot spot took me back several pages. I failed to notice the date of the OP. and as you said put new life into a long dead thread.
Those Servex presses are still the ducks guts though, and maybe one day... I know, I'm dreaming

I have a 60 tonne servex and they are built like brick s..t houses. It did leak but a new 5 inch bucket seal and its as good as new.
For straightening though I have a Mills hydraulic straightening press. These are designed to move the piston a certain length which can be slowly increased till the desired straightening has occurred. Much easier than trying to judge the required pressure.

I have a Trade Tools 30 ton [$330 ten years ago] jack type, the frame is good and solid, the jack is ok but does float around a bit on it's mount. I bought it to press out Torque Rod bushes in the truck which usually requires all the 30t and a lump hammer to crack them. Would love a Servex too.

With the servex ones, can you put different heads on the ram?

I have a 60 tonne that was made in Turkey. The end of the ram bolts on and I have made a little bit of press brake tooling for it to bend up steel.

Originally Posted by KBs PensNmore

as having one arm that looks like it belongs to Popeye doesn't quite look right!!!
Kryn

We will be wondering what you have been up to.

The last two inches or so of the ram on the 30T Servex is not threaded and a cup can be fitted over this and is retained by a screw that engages in a groove in the ram. You can make up what ever custom tooling you need and swap it on and off in a matter of seconds.

I rebuilt my 30T Servex about ten years ago and a kit including leather cups for both pump and ram and the necessary gland packing was available from Bursons, at the time from memory the kit was around $50.00. Mine hasn't leaked a drip since the rebuild.

Probably the best feature on a press like the Servex is the threaded ram that allows you to quickly bring the ram down to the work and is often sufficient to do the job on it's own. You really only need to use the hydraulic pump for serious oomph.
Cheers,
Greg.

The 10 ton H&F benchtop press is a neat little unit: I bought one. It too has the fixed ram rather than the loose flappy 'powerpack' idea - which I will NOT buy. Awful idea.

"It comes fully assembled" said the H&F salesman. It came looking like an IKEA flatpack. Oh well. I could not lift the assembled unit onto the bench anyhow! So I assembled it on the bench - and bolted it down.

Above 6 ton I do have to lean on the pump handle a bit. OK, still works.

I made a tiny winch with ratchet-stop and two strings (one each side) to raise and lower the bar without dropping it on my fingers. That was worthy while.

Cheers
Roger

The Press in your original post should do the job fine. You will get what you paid for though, but you can always strengthen the frame after it gets bent later on. Or salvage the Ram and Pump off it and build a decent Press frame. Here's two links to presses in sydney that are cheaper than the H&F one, I'm not saying there any better though Workshop Press 20 TON AIR Hydraulic Pneumatic Pressure Gauge Side Shift Head | eBay

NEW 20 TON Hydraulic Shop Press Workshop Garage Tool Floor Bearing Heavy Duty | eBay

Personally I would be going the Air Hydraulic. Unless your going to be doing awful lot of pressing I wouldn't worry about electric hydraulic. There is bound to be plenty of good secondhand presses about like Servex and Ritch but that option also depends on what the seller wants for them and their condition.

Made my press frame from 150mm x 75mm channel left over from a job .

I use porta power rams on a moveable plate so that its a bit more versatile than normal presses.

So far thirty ton ram has not bent or broken anything , normally just use what ever ram is in the shop,15 to choose from .

Michael