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3 ton Arbor Press Stand

jcdammeyer said:
Well I'm just plain envious. I wouldn't know where to even find scrap that size to build a stand. My 3T sits on the end of the bench with just enough sticking out so the bucket underneath with the old towels can catch the broach.
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I'm with @6.5 Fan . You won't believe what you can find at farm auctions. The sale price is very often the highest that a scrap metal guy will pay given the cost of getting it their yard and the need to make a profit. Buying it at their yards is also a possibility but the cost sky-rockets. Thick plate, thin plate, beams, box tubing, bar, spring steel, soft steel, hard steel, castings, forgings, etc etc - it's all there for the bidding. Sometimes you can even meet a farmer at the auction with his own scrap yard..... "Jezz, I only want this cuz I need that 1/2 inch 6x6 box beam to make blah blah blah." You might be pleasantly surprised when he says to drop by his farm, bring your torch, and get it off my land before winter comes.
 
My 2 ton arbor press stand is bone -farmer-simple....does that surprise anybody. The press is simply bolted to a 2" thick bench top that is also bolted to the wall. I bolted a couple of 2 x 6's together that are a friction fit from under the bench to the concrete floor for a brace that supports the whole thing . about the heaviest chore I've used that press for was to bend some 11 gauge flat iron into an angle. The bench/ arbor press worked ok for that force wise but was slower than I wanted so a home built Hyd bending press became a reality.
That arbor press gets used sparingly now with the hyd bender and also have a 20T hyd shop press
 
@DPittman - the wheel is about 6” diameter. Made it by heating and bending 1/2” rod around a piece of pipe. Made some spokes and added the centre. Welded it all together and Viola!

The steel came to me from my neighbour who runs a roofing company. His son had some beams and sill left from a house build and, well, things got dropped off.

As I pack for the trip east I have been toting out larger hunks of metal as things are not cheap.
 
DPittman said:
@Brent H
Your stand looks great, mine won't be as heavy duty as I don't have any material as heavy as you used, and l would have to mortgage the house to go buy something similar to that at a steel yard.

I like your wheel, what diameter is that? I'm thinking 10" would be good and 12" maybe better? I'm on the lookout for handwheels on old ancient farm machinery that used to use that sort of thing.

Just picked up materials today for making my stand/cabinet. Already making mistakes as I cut material. My "plans" sort of evolve to accomadate the latest mistake/over sight. I usually have an idea of what my finished product sort of looks like but what I actually end up with is often a wee bit different. Sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes not-so-much. But it is usually a surprise...and surprises are fun, right?!?!

I really need to learn how to use a CAD program of some sort.:rolleyes:
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Well mine is not as nice of a dedicated arbor press stand as @Brent H
stand but I was needing to incorporate some storage in it as my space in my garage is getting cramped.
I also made multiple mistakes mostly due to poor planning and forgetting the "measure twice cut once" rule.

When the kids were younger and they were drawing and blew a gasket because they messed up somehow on what they were drawing, we tried to encourage them to make a "beautiful whoops" out of their mistake by incorporating the mistake and make it part of the picture. I tried that philosophy here and only partially succeeded. I got the "whoops" right but the "beautiful" part needs some work.:rolleyes:
I originally was going to attempt to make the drawers completely from sheet metal but chickened out because I don't have the experience or the equipment to pull that off. I just used sheet metal and some simple bends for drawer and side covers. I made the drawers out of 3/4" shop grade birch. 20230207_135922.jpg20230207_135943.jpg
 
DPittman said:
Well mine is not as nice of a dedicated arbor press stand as @Brent H
stand but I was needing to incorporate some storage in it as my space in my garage is getting cramped.
I also made multiple mistakes mostly due to poor planning and forgetting the "measure twice cut once" rule.

When the kids were younger and they were drawing and blew a gasket because they messed up somehow on what they were drawing, we tried to encourage them to make a "beautiful whoops" out of their mistake by incorporating the mistake and make it part of the picture. I tried that philosophy here and only partially succeeded. I got the "whoops" right but the "beautiful" part needs some work.:rolleyes:
I originally was going to attempt to make the drawers completely from sheet metal but chickened out because I don't have the experience or the equipment to pull that off. I just used sheet metal and some simple bends for drawer and side covers. I made the drawers out of 3/4" shop grade birch. View attachment 30470View attachment 30471
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I wish my 3Ton looked that nice.
 
Now I'm gonna have to move a bunch of junk around ( planning on a major clean-up-purge of the unused anywhay) to get at my Arbor press...That JD green is brilliant looking but what I have is a pail of JD yellow to contrast yours. My yellow is powder coat and because of how good yours looks , Im thinking of trying to powder coat mine I think my oven is big enough for the cook.
 
historicalarms said:
Now I'm gonna have to move a bunch of junk around ( planning on a major clean-up-purge of the unused anywhay) to get at my Arbor press...That JD green is brilliant looking but what I have is a pail of JD yellow to contrast yours. My yellow is powder coat and because of how good yours looks , Im thinking of trying to powder coat mine I think my oven is big enough for the cook.
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Oh that would look really nice!
My press looks better in the picture than it does in real life, it has good shine but I didn't sand blast before painting and the surface is really rough.
 
DPittman said:
Oh that would look really nice!
My press looks better in the picture than it does in real life, it has good shine but I didn't sand blast before painting and the surface is really rough.
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Nice thing about JD Green is that it looks great on a rough base.
 
Nice work @DPittman and @Brent H on your stands and press mods.
Stand builds can be a fun project. Painting makes any project look sooooo much better. JD green is nice but I prefer Kubota orange.
Just kidding - no matter what colour, paint is the icing on the cake.
 
One thing I will change on my stand is the throat depth underneath. Just needs an inch or so to allow larger bearings and such to fit.
 
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