New (old) press

[rockaukum]

Some of you may recall this press and the discussion pertaining to it.

I pressed the flange back and welded it into position

The discussion was pretaining to the way the beams were held together. Bolted on the inside flange and how this does not maximize the srength of the flange. I took this into consideration and after making calculations and discussing design options, I started on the rebuild.
Here is the press with the bottom beams in place.

Lifting the upper beams into place.

I wanted a height adjustable press to make loading the lay-up easier. So I used some pins to lock the upper beams into place. Had problems finding tube and pins that mated up good. The pins needed to be in the area of 1" solid.

Here is the pin in the sleve locating the upper beam.

The press cavity is 16" when raised, allowing for easy insertion of the lay-up.

The press in the lowered positon. The cavity height is 12". I want to build a larger (taller) mold or shim it up.

Here is the press under pressure. Started at 10psi and went all the way up to 86psi and held for three hours with no problems or leaks.

Side view...

The next project is to build a new top mold that is adjustable. This should take up some of the space.
rockaukum

[Grizzly Adams]

Damn, thats looking nice and beefy!
Rock and roll

[camhard]

what are the specs on the cat-track material?

[knightsofnii]

they look like 1" x 1" 16ga wall thickness carbon steel.

I got the same stuff.
We just went to 1/2" x 1" cross section for the bars that will be over the curved ends, trying to reduce pressure voids.

That press looks sweet now. Good luck with it!

[rockaukum]

Correct. The cat is 1x1 1/8" wall (or .120 wall) tubing. Purchased at an ornamental iron supply house. I find if they have it, the prices are a bit better than a steel supply house. You can also check with ornamental fence companies.
To help with the "pressure voids", which I used to have at the tip and tail transitions, I now use a HDPE 1/8" sheet which allows the tubing to not bind up. It is not shown in the picture, however when inflating this press, I noticed the void to fill in once the pressure was above 45psi. The standard pressure I use for pressing is in the area of 40psi, therefore the use of the HDPE.
rockaukum

[Craig]

Well I'm glad someone was able to turn all that nice scrap steel into a well built press!!!

(but I think I did pretty good for having nothing but a drill press and die grinder!)

[rockaukum]

Craig,
Yes, I too am very happy with the "Scrap". The press is being put to good use. Three skis and more to come!
Hope all has turned out good for you guys. How is the building going?
rockaukum

[Craig]

Hey Steve,

Great to see you did something nice with that steel, I hope its working well for you. Have any pictures of it in use?

Harry and I have been on hiatus for awhile, he's in New York and I'm in Seattle, but we just got back to building this month.

We haven't been to the forum in awhile (working on stuff now really addressed here), but we've just finished our new press, and hope to get the pictures uploaded in the next couple weeks - we're too busy to post much lately, and we want to have time to field questions about it when we do.

Just a preview though - it has about 50 welds and three hydraulic jacks pressing from the bottom....

[rockaukum]

Craig,
Yes, putting it to good and alot of use. There is a posting with the latest skis. Big fat rockered skis that came out pretty good. Won't really know until they hit the snow...
ra