Dake No.3 Arbor Press Pin Material

[Teggy1]

Long story short, bought a no.3 compound arbor press. The "lever weight " was trashed, been broke and welded, which didn't affect function, but the slot and pin it rides on were junk.

Have replacement part in hand and am wondering what recommendations for pin material would be. Pins/Shafts now appear to be a run of the mill low carbon, pretty soft. It looks like someone mushroomed a couple of the pins as well.

Dake wants 70 bucks or so for a 10" pin. I figured I'd cut my own and replace them all for that. I was going to go something 4xxx series, or pre hard. Or will a 1018 or 1020 be sufficient? I just don't want to have this happen again, which still has me wondering WTF?

 

[JW Machine]

I have essentially the same press, and made replacement pins a few years ago from whatever I had on the rack, most likely 1215 or Stressproof. Everything is still in great shape.

My counterweight had been broken and patched as well, but it still didn't look like yours. Wow. That thing was ridden hard and put away wet on a daily basis.

 

[Teggy1]

Indeed it was. Had a pic of the pin as well, but I deleted it. I can't imagine letting something go that long. All the rest of the bores are tight, so some sand blasting and paint is in the near future. Any idea why the counter weights are broke?

 

[JW Machine]

Only a theory. There is a short worn section on the teeth in the ram on my press. I have wondered whether it was used for one job in a production environment for many years, and after each stroke the operator just let the handle go so the counterweight fell and slammed against its stop. Perhaps that sharp impact over time eventually led to a crack where the entire bottom section had to be welded back on.

The throat where yours shows so much wear was also broken and patched on mine. I've attributed that to abuse.

 

[Teggy1]

Here is the pin and the counter weight, and what I am hoping to avoid in the future.


I assume it must have been a result of a production environment, as JW alluded to.

 

[metalmagpie]

The handle casting is iron, right? So whatever steel the pin is, the iron should wear more than the steel.

If it were me I'd just use CRS.

Famco recommends Vactra no. 2 to lubricate their compound presses. But any oil is better than no oil.

metalmagpie

 

[azmachining]

The handle casting is iron, right? So whatever steel the pin is, the iron should wear more than the steel.

If it were me I'd just use CRS.

Famco recommends Vactra no. 2 to lubricate their compound presses. But any oil is better than no oil.

metalmagpie

Iron wear more then steel, no. Iron is harder then steel, that's why they use it for machines, etc., but it's brittler.
Just use any steel you have and get on with it, it's not critical, I surely doubt you will wear out any steel for a pin you choose to use.

Look at the iron casting, the hole doesn't even look all egg shaped, but the pin is garbage.

 

[matt_isserstedt]

CRS is likely fine, I'd use W1 drill rod in the annealed condition as a +1 and the 4140 suggested as +2. It really has to get used a lot in a gritty environment to be like that imho.