Went to an estate sale a few weeks back, the guy had passed away way before his time. He was a blacksmith not by trade but by hobby. Dude had a 2-car, double deep garage and an add-on shop where he did his smelting and forming. Guy had 200+ hammers and more anvils than you can shake a stick at but that's a different story. Lathes, mills, and other big items were gone, but I saw this huge arbor press and felt it needed a good home. I built the stand for it this afternoon, I think it's a 3-ton but not sure. Check out the slide hammer on the rack, works pretty well. Question is now, what do I do with it? Anyone know from experience how much tonnage you need to work with sheet metal, say...20 gage? Can 3-tons emboss? Louver? Don't get me wrong, I like it, but now that I have it I'm like "damn that thing's huge".
yeah?! ... What do you do with those things? I'v seen'em used in tranny shops to compress return springs in clutch drums, but other than that? I spose' with the proper jig you could press piston pins.
Look on the back left side. You may see a number cast on that indicates the ton rating. 1,2,3 for instance. They have their uses, not as much as you'd think and I still use my vise to remove and replace driveshaft U-joints. I have a 20 ton HF hydraulic press as well. The newer 20 ton presses are smaller physically than the older HF 20 ton I had.. My old one could remove and replace axle bearings. The new one, no can do since the movable base isn't wide enough to let the bearing through. All HF did with this press was to stick the 20 ton jack in it and rate the press @ 20 tons. Getting back to the arbor press, mine's a 2 ton and it pressed Ford 9" pinion bearings off and on ok. It's useful for other stuff, but it won't do it all.
For cutting sheet metal, you need about 1.5 tons for each inch of cutting in 18 ga. , so for cutting a 4 inch louver you need around 6 tons of pressure. Not that the arbor press would be much use for louvers, the press is a little too shallow too fit a hood in there.
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