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Press brake ram way clearance?

Garwood

Diamond
Joined
Oct 10, 2009
Location
Oregon
I have a WWII era Verson 54" mystery tonnage mechanical press brake. I'm changing the 480v only ram adjustment motor/gearbox out for a Bridgeport powerfeed unit and I had to pull the ram. While I'm getting all the pieces cleaned up figured I'd ask what acceptable clearances should be in the ram guides? Should they be adjusted straight or set to be tighter at the bottom?

Thanks!
 
Nobody knows so I'll take a guess with common sense.
Leave enough space for lube oil or grease whichever it uses.
So .005? If that doesn't work and the slop effects the machines performance, go to .002?
I'll also guess straight not tighter at the bottom.
 
Thanks, that makes sense.

I figured I'd put it together with oil and snug things up with a feeler gauge in there. Cycle it a few times then grease well.

If anyone else is running an old press brake it might really behoove you to pull the adjusters and guides apart if you haven't done it in awhile. The press I have was a war machine before running a production part for Freightliner for 50+ years. It saw very light use for the past decade. Amazingly, everything is in pretty good shape, but the grease that was in it was hard as a rock. I think running it non-stop would have destroyed it in short order had I not cleaned it out.

It's going into production Monday so we will see...
 








 
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