Press Powered By Upside-Down Jack

Press Powered By Upside-Down Jack FARM SHOP Miscellaneous 26-4-41 "It gives me a much better view of what I'm doing because there's no base plate in the way," says Clifford Brandenburger, Beecher City, Ill., who built a small hydraulic press equipped with a 1 1/2-ton hydraulic jack placed upside-down. The jack's 1 1/2-in. dia. ram can be extended up to 4 in. downward to press out bearings and bushings, etc. "Normally, you can't use a hydraulic jack upside down. But I feed this some extra oil from an outside reservoir to keep the jack mechanism constantly bathed in oil," says Brandenburger. He simply bolted a small oil tank to the top of the press frame and then ran a length of 1/4-in. dia. copper tubing from the tank to the jack. Oil in the tank flows by gravity down to the jack. He made another bracket for the jack and bolted it on upside down next to the tank. By pulling a pin from the bracket, he can slide the jack back and forth and center the jack over the object to be pressed. A horizontal metal platform below the jack can be raised or lowered up to 1 ft. by changing the position of two steel pins. "The oil tank measures 1 ft. long and 1 1/2 in. in diameter, but any size tank would work as long as it's mounted above the jack," says Brandenburger, noting that he used steel pipe and 2-in. sq. tubing to build the press itself. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Clifford Brandenburger, Rt. 2, Beecher City, Ill. 62414 (ph 618 487-5247).

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