Building a Press

woodchopper

woodchopper

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So thinking of a post hunting season winter project and got to thinking about the plans I had to build a big old single stage press

but I can't seem to find them any more.

I seem to remember that the design I had was a 1 1/4" ram and had a 6" stroke

I've got some heavy plate 1" and 1 1/2" thick to play with and the milling machine is ready to make chips

anyone have a good set of DIY plans for a big press, bigger is better :)
 
woodchopper said:
So thinking of a post hunting season winter project and got to thinking about the plans I had to build a big old single stage press

but I can't seem to find them any more.

I seem to remember that the design I had was a 1 1/4" ram and had a 6" stroke

I've got some heavy plate 1" and 1 1/2" thick to play with and the milling machine is ready to make chips

anyone have a good set of DIY plans for a big press, bigger is better :)
Click to expand...
Put one together years back with spare parts from one of my uncle's hydraulic projects. Ran it off of a small pump turned by an electric motor. It was pretty interesting and fun to play with (had interchangeable heads so I could use it for pushing bearings in and out too). Worked pretty well too, though in the end it was too big for anything I really needed it for. Though I did come up with some bushings that let me resize 20mm Lahti casings. Sorry, no plans, my uncle and i drew it up on the back of a cigarette package. - dan
 
it never ceases to amaze me how, if you give a man of common sense a variety of tooling & machines, his common sense just evaporates....perfectly good and usable used press's can be found at any gunshow for $75.

but before everyone dumps on me , I suffer from the same malady occasionally with my shop full of tooling...there should be a "common sense anonymous" available to us.
 
fingers284 said:
it never ceases to amaze me how, if you give a man of common sense a variety of tooling & machines, his common sense just evaporates....perfectly good and usable used press's can be found at any gunshow for $75.

but before everyone dumps on me , I suffer from the same malady occasionally with my shop full of tooling...there should be a "common sense anonymous" available to us.
Click to expand...

well I have a Redding big boss, RCBS RS5 and RS2 all on my bench.....

I guess I'm looking forward to a long cold winter and want to have something to occupy my time with... :)

Oh and I need to order some more chamber reamers, some of last springs projects are still waiting to be finished.
 
woodchopper said:
guess I'm looking forward to a long cold winter and want to have something to occupy my time with.
Click to expand...
I cant argue with the logic of that at all...after all, I'm a guy with a Camdex loading machine on my bench in the basement that need to be brought back to life this winter...like I need a 3500 rnds per hr loader for our 1500 rnd usage a yr. LOL
 
woodchopper said:
well I have a Redding big boss, RCBS RS5 and RS2 all on my bench.....

I guess I'm looking forward to a long cold winter and want to have something to occupy my time with... :)

Oh and I need to order some more chamber reamers, some of last springs projects are still waiting to be finished.
Click to expand...
woodchopper, you're not a spring chicken. Lots of time on your hands, or enough you feel a need to do something with it.

Personally, I wouldn't use a hydraulic ram as an actuator for a press. I also wouldn't build a press using brass sintered bushings, because they will wear too fast and if they're lubed, will attract all sorts of detritus.

The thing is, keeping your mind and hands active, at the same time, while developing a new, better for you, mousetrap, will take you into uncharted waters, which you find stimulating.

Go for it.

The press in the presentation you posted would not last long on my bench, just way too many things can go wrong with it.

I like to be able to have some physical attachment to the presses I use, so I can feel what's happening through the process.

With the set up in the presentation, which was a testament to the fellow's skillset and thought process, there isn't any "connection," and we both know what happens during reloading processes, to know how quickly something can go awry.

I didn't see any controls for stroke length, which is OK if he's only loading one cartridge. The list goes on.

I'm willing to bet you have something else in mind, likely less tedious and more efficient, while still maintaining control at each stage.
 
Yes I was a little surprised to see the brass sintered bearings, I just replaced one in my bandsaw (needed to machine a bigger one to fit as the saw was discontinued a few decades ago) but sintered brass tend to wear and get sloppy. Hydraulic ram is also a bit of a red flag, so many things can go wrong and easy to rip the rim off a stuck case that way.

now salvaging a used shaft off old hydraulic ram to use a the ram is something that I would look at doing, polished chromed ram.... why not.

need some tight tolerances in machining the base and keeping everything lined up.

I am thinking of just welding up a big O frame press.
 
Or, you could just as easily find a big block of steel, ream out a precision hole to utilize that polished shaft for it to move up and down on, or, or, or.

I have a very old press, that will handle three sizes of threaded dies. It's a beast and will make cartridges from 25acp to 50bmg.

It's very simple, but "heavy."

I haven't used it for at least 15 years, but for some reason, I'm reluctant to move it on.

There isn't a name on it, but it's extremely well made, and very rigid. I used to use it for all of the "precision" reloading I did back in the day, for Coyote hunting and gopher hunting.

I never had to worry about run out with that press, which is more than I can say with even my RC and Forster.
 
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