Shop Press - How Big is Big Enough?

Little to add here, I've never used a shop press of the type you guys are working with.

Once upon a time I worked for a civil engineering company and ran the hydraulic press to test 6' diameter concrete cylinders. It went to 500,000 pounds of force and concrete failing at that level makes a big bang. (250 tons for the slow math kids)

I bought my HF 20 ton based on how flimsy the 12 felt in the store...

Edit: I will say one thing about the HF presses: I HATE HATE HATE their arbor plates. I made a set out of steel here at the shop, and it made it 150% better to use. The stock plates got me through a year or two, but I'm much happier with flat ones.

They must make their arbor plates with any bit of recycle steel they can cast down, and then just harden the hell out of 'em, cause they're warped like a taco. I tried to just face down the plates that came with mine to get flat edges, and the surface hardness had to be somewhere north of 85rc. It just destroyed the inserts in the fly cutter I was using, so I just made my own plates.

Get the 20, period. And every time you see a piece of round or flat metal, pick it up and toss it in the large milk crate you'll keep under the press for fixturing stock.

I have the luxury of a machine shop 50' from the press so I can turn arbors for when sockets or old bearings and hubs won't get it done. But there's 75 pounds of "stuff" right below the press thats invaluable.

motomoron wrote: Get to 20, period. And every time you see a piece of round or flat metal, pick it up and toss it in the large milk crate you'll keep under the press for fixturing stock. I have the luxury of a machine shop 50' from the press so I can turn arbors for when sockets or old bearings and hubs won't get it done. But there's 75 pounds of "stuff" right below the press thats invaluable.

Quoted for truth. I've made so many arbors and things, it's amazing I haven't been killed by one of my welds failing. So far, so good! :)

Bearing races are shrapnel, presses are dynamite.

UPDATE: The HF20 ton was backordered, but I needed to get the job done so I ordered the 12ton. When it arrived, 6 days after the scheduled delivery date, I was screwed because three out of the four lower braces were missing, as was one of the arbor plates. Now dealing with HF... I sincerely hope they ultimately believe me when I tell them what was missing...

I'll never do HF mail order again after my trailer arrived. The boxes were destroyed, the axle had a cracked weld, and was missing some nuts and bolts. I was in a hurry though so I had to weld the axle myself. Works fine now.

Ugh sorry to hear that - and for the record, the Arcan press I referenced above has a wider throat than the HF unit - approx 5 1/2" on the HF to 7 1/2" or so on the Arcan. Makes a big difference when doing differentials or manly transmissions like Tremecs.