Advice needed on 50 ton hydrauic press recomendations.

[Laverda]

In the near future I will be needing a 50 ton hydraulic press. I have seen what is available USA made but are mostly used and old but still usable. What I am wondering is are the new China made ones complete junk? Should I stick with only USA made or ??????

I don't want a restoration project if I buy a used USA press but also don't want a China made one if it starts leaking hydraulic oil six months later and no parts are available.

This will not be used daily so am not looking to spend a fortune. And I don't want junk.

 

[john.k]

Trouble with presses is people buy too light a frame .....I also particularly dislike the one bar adjusters ,which are endemic even in expensive Turk presses......use three adjusters/side which then act as braces to transfer bending loads.....catch is a whole lot of holes have to line up...the Chinese prefer to punch holes 1/4" oversize to make assembly easy......Ive still got the first press I made ,and there is zero distortion of any of the beams or holes........The wider the press,the more substantial the sections must be.......so get a press that is no wider than you need.

 

[country_boy]

Easy to build you own. If you hunt arround, used 50 ton-10,000psi cylinders are easy to find. Pumps are a bit harder,and you really want a two stage ( or electric or air)

The unbranded Chinese presses defy any principal of structural engineering. Pin bearing is too small, uprights are too small, headframe and bed have no factor of safety.

I built a 50 ton and ran all the numbers through a spreadsheet. Uprights are 1x3 A36 with 1.1875 holes (1.125 4140 pin). Granted I had a sliding cylinder mount- so each side had to take about 40T vs 25T if it was dead center. Bed and head are 12” channel-20.7 lb per ft. Had to weld reinforcements where the pin goes through the bed- cahannel web is too thing.

There are some cheap make in USA press (ARcan or something similar)that certainly appear to have decent engineering. I’d be happy with a Jet too. Dake , OTC and Enerpac are good. Enerpac is just like mine- I’d think most shops could whack one out cheaper.

 

[john.k]

I made something like 1000 presses over 45 years....and not one had full length new bought steel......I had a couple of fabrication places that saved beam offcuts for me , a hydraulic repair place that saved me hydraulic cylinder tube offcuts,and tractor wreckers for big cylinder parts...like 12" bore.....for 50 ton,the ideal is 7" bore at 3,000 psi....None of my hydraulics ever ran over 3000 psi,standard commercial pressure for hoses and pumps,and cylinder seals......All the sizes of beams etc were copied off commercial presses,and the general dimensions custom made for the buyers needs.

 

[DDoug]

In the near future I will be needing a 50 ton hydraulic press. I have seen what is available USA made but are mostly used and old but still usable. What I am wondering is are the new China made ones complete junk? Should I stick with only USA made or ??????

I don't want a restoration project if I buy a used USA press but also don't want a China made one if it starts leaking hydraulic oil six months later and no parts are available.

This will not be used daily so am not looking to spend a fortune. And I don't want junk.

What doo you want to doo with it ?
Bearings ? bending stuff ? shaft straightening ?

 

[BT Fabrication]

What doo you want to doo with it ?
Bearings ? bending stuff ? shaft straightening ?

I usually like bending things that were previously straight, and breaking things that were previously one piece. Or just squishing things that were no use of me when broken anyways.
never seem to remove bearings or straighten anything with it, hmm idk why

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

I don't want a restoration project if I buy a used USA press but also don't want a China made one if it starts leaking hydraulic oil six months later and no parts are available.

Then buy a brand new Dake, OTC, or Enerpac press.

 

[PMD]

First post here, so try to forgive me if I don't harmonize with the tune of the site yet.

The thing with Chinese equipment is that it is extremely hard to support once it crosses the ocean. The other thing is their culture is so different and distant, hard to know who/what is a good name and what is junk. I have built a fair number of 20 ton presses over the years, and have access to a 50 ton daily, but my own desires and designs are a bit different from what I usually encounter - so I had intended to buy a Chinese 50 to salvage an air over hydraulic pump and cylinder - the rest I was going to build. I need clear space around columns (a lot of shaft straightening in V blocks) and need clear vertical path around center. At an auction last year, I found a new 100 ton (TMG IIRC) with damage to the shipping crate and picked it up for peanuts. It has an open frame, but the idiots out a welded in stiffener and the pump covering one side and the winch and stiffener covering the other. There is also a stiffener on table that closes off the center of the table!!!! I will move all of that and have what I consider a workable 50 ton press, with no dillusion that if it fails, I am on my own.

If you want good, pay the price and buy American or make your own. If you are willing to take some chances and do with a lot less rigidity (the absolute MOST important part of a press frame and table) go Chinese at 50% load.

 

[john.k]

I once got given a Servex 100ton frame with a mass of weld where the cast iron hydraulic ram should have gone.....spent a whole day grinding off the weld in the doorway of my shed as a convoy of pure white company cars went by ...now where did all the rusty marks come from...........the Servex presses used a leather bucket in the ram with the strange property that any water in the hydraulic oil would run through the leather,but oil would not.....thats at 10,000psi!.

 

[Ries]

Just bite the bullet and buy a stenhoj.

 

[kustomizer]

Just bite the bullet and buy a stenhoj.

I never heard of them before but they look like really well built

 

[Ries]

I never heard of them before but they look like really well built

euro- made in denmark- they have been a low profile presence in the USA for many years. They are really well built.
It always kills me when the same people who say a Haas is a cheap POS then recommend you buy a Harbor Freight press and a no name chinese plasma cutter.
When you buy quality, it lasts.