Here is the first 6 mods video I did: ruclips.net/video/YQgMQaAf13c/видео.html And the SWAG Press Brake video: ruclips.net/video/bHmzts6efiQ/видео.html
Waiting for someone to notice the turd polish bottle I threw in there as an Easter egg. This thing is far from a turd though it’s a good press and getting better everytime I get a light bulb! Thx for stoppin in Mike👌
Glad you liked it. Definitely makes it way more useful. Side note, The Land down under sounds warm right about now. Currently is -15f out here with 40mph wind gusts. -45 or so with the wind chill.
@@FlawedOffroad wow, that's cold, I live in Queensland and the weather here today was 29 degrees Celsius, thanks for your reply mate, go and rug up and I'll get around in my short's and singlet 😂
Sometimes you gotta make do with what you can afford. Thanks for checking out the channel and hopefully you like my other stuff. It’s very Jeep related around here, but I get into tools and stuff too.
Great stuff...been using my 20 ton press a lot and everything you've addressed/modded are things I'm super annoyed by. Upgrading the 20 ton press will be a good winter project. Thanks for the video.
I've been planning on doing this with mine. My plan is simply bearings in axles drilled into the crossbeam. The front to back slop hasn't been quite figured out, although I do plan on building my own crossbeam, with a pusher rod built with a threaded hole to accept different size push rods, so that may simply have plates with axles for bearing welded too it. My favorite mod to secure the table support rods in place that I've seen is to weld washers into the bars on one side, so that the washer is captured between the table and frame. No drilling, and under pressure there is no way the pin can come out. My only concern is the affect on the pins strength from the welding.
There’s so much cool stuff that can be done with these presses. Honestly both of my press mod videos have done rather well I’ve considered doing a third one just for fun.
I do like the toilet bolts solution. I have recently been dealing with deflection on my press. Mine doesn't even have the ears around the uprights. It will soon.
I tried to find shorter nylon bolts with no luck and didn’t have time to wait on Amazon haha. I actually had some Teflon strips I was going to use but couldn’t figure out a way to fasten them
Damn all those tools , and you have so much time in your hands , I can dig these upgrades , did you get that sheet metal finger brake from Swag ??. Your welds look better than the welds on the HF press .
Yeah that’s the swag brake, it does up to 3/8” so not just for sheet metal lol. I see the cost of tools as an investment in my hobby and what I can build(which saves money later) Wish I had as much time as you made it seem😅
I drilled my keepers and put cotter pins in, they drilled really easy definitely not hardened steel. I figured if they fail ill just replace them with something better. Ive seen higher end presses with drilled keepers so i figured it should be good
To hold the supports in place, just buy a couple neodymium magnets to attach to them in lieu of rubber tubing. If you found the right size magnet, you could even cut a piece of hose the width of the space and jam a magnet in either side.
Foot pedal for sure. You are going to hate having that shelf where you want to stand to use the press. A back half shelf works great! I do like the video art at 11:53, when you turned out the lights to weld. Maybe there was also a spot light involved. Nicely done. Toilet bolts is a great idea.
For anyone watching this in the future, I wish I had a welder. If I did, my solution for securing the pins holding the press apron up would be to weld something onto the press apron. when the apron is set down on the pins, it can't slide out either side. Specifically, I'd weld a half pipe, sized to fit the pin, onto the press apron and attach a washer to the outside ends of the 4 half pipes. I plan on doing something similar with a 3d printed part.
Great videos, stumbled upon you a while back looking at a Yes Welder…I’m in NW Iowa and enjoy 4x4 too…more of a Toyota LC guy but got a couple Jeeps as well…maybe get together and crawl sometimes MIOBI?
Sound fun! Im part of Tri state stump jumpers and wheel them them often, their properties are mostly near Dubuque. I did make a video at MIOBI a few months ago
Supper simple idea for the rods is to simply put a little spot of weld so they can’t push in too far. They will be at the right location without even looking at them. Like your idea with the plastic bolts though.
I am going to have to do a video on mine someday. You don't need an air hydraulic jack, just put compressed air to the vent with a foot pedal and the ram will come down quietly for about $2 plus the cost of the foot pedal.
Both of the air/hydraulic jacks ive used have failed anyway, massive leakage out of the HF jack the first week. I replaced with a Torin Big Red 20t jack and it did ok for a year or 2. but now its hemorrhaging now from where the baseplate meets the body. I have a few other mods in mind I may make a 3rd video at some point. this video was part 2
You could of used your brake on that shelf and just bent the edges. This would of stiffened up the shelf and made it smaller and nothing could of just fell off either while moving around. Running a 12ft brake for highway i learned how much bending helps to steaghten metal.
i use a tread sealant products called true blue works on oil , propane, water, even anhydrous ammonia "gaseous fertilizer", like the platform would a 2nd shelf on back be nice so you didn't have to lift the brake so far to store it?? INOVATIVE solution for the wobbly top like it . could add a foot valve and just run it through the hand valve would have to put check valves in to use both at same time i think?? great vid, have a diy press made of old bridge angle iron that was riveted together about 6 in wide weights a ton well not quite:)
Second shelf seems like it would get in the way. Usually I just lift the break out and set it onto a rolling stool that sits next to the press so I don’t have to bring it all the way down.
It started leaking after like a week so I went to exchange it but they didn’t have any so they gave me my money back and I got a big red jack off Amazon. Two years later that Jack is leaking also
For your bottom tray I would have rotated the existing rails to form a basin where you could have the bottom tray just sitting on it. Great job though.
the center support angle iron would have had to get removed or redesigned for that to just set in there and be removable. Notice how I tucked the shelf underneath it. It works just fine this way
Why did you switch to the red air jack? Also do you think a 20 pound Jack would fit on a 12 pack of birth? I picked up a really good deal on a 20 Pine pneumatic jack but I only have a 12 ton press
Anything will fit if you’re a good enough at cutting and welding. I switch to it just for when I’m doing thick stuff/ bigger jobs because it’s really nice to just squeeze a button instead of pumping the jack 1000,000 times. When I have to do precision stuff I still use the handle
@@FlawedOffroad yeah the reviews on the harbor freight bottle jacks say that they are bad about leaking. I was gonna go get the press today and maybe the air jack. But I might just get the press and order a jack
I originally bought the harbor freight version and after a week it started dumping hydraulic fluid so I took it back for warranty but they didn’t have anymore so they gave me a refund and I bought this red one off Amazon for about the same price. amzn.to/3CYxvwP
I considered that also but I didnt want it to make noise so I came up with the plastic idea and decided I wanted it adjustable. It's not classy but boy does it work well!
I seriously doubt that the 4 locating pins for the press are hardened. It is made in China. Take a file and run ti across the end of a pin and if it files relatively, "it ain't hardened". Nice ideas. BTW, McMaster-Carr has a good selection of plastics and bolts and hardware. Shipping is high today but if you need enough to justify paying for shipping, it comes quicker than most other places. I have had deliveries made the next day and I am in mid PA and McMaster-Carr is in New Jersey. Usually an order is best placed in the morning. I see a notification on the page stating recive tomorrow if ordered by a certain time. I never have problems with the quality of what I get from them. Beware, it is not a discount house. I miss a historic part of American culture, a genuine hardware store. So many of them have gone to selling everything but hardware or just have tiny selections or blister packs of cheap things (not cheap in price) such as bolts, screws and washers.
Im very familiar with McMaster-carr as I was a machine mechanic at a factory for about 8 years, we lived and died by McMaster at times. I still have a couple old school hardware stores here but they keep bankers hours, I work till 530 and they are already closed when I get off. My solution wasnt the best but almost 2 years later I havent had to touch those toilet bolts they are still spot on.
Please put some safety glasses on your young helper. It is good training anyhow .I have seen what a spring can do to the Human eyeball, it ain't pretty and it don't work no more
they dont need to be, the pessing force doesnt go though the wheels or the base of the press. heck most shop floors wouldnt hold 20ton in a 2'x2' area. the force is between the ram and the surface being pressed
@@FlawedOffroad I do a ton of CNC plasma cutting and using the wire wheel makes very fast work of the removal. It seems to work best when the wheel is hitting the dross from the metal side, not the cut side. With the disc spinning clockwise I hit the dross from the left side
To address the slop in the table, why not: slide (and glue) some pieces of HDPE (high density polyethylene), or even better some UHMWPE (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene), of the appropriate thickness? No drilling or welding needed.
@@FlawedOffroad That's about the same range of temps that I put up with. Then depending on the depth of the plastic, short countersunk undercut machine screws might work.
@@tobygathergood4990 I suppose it would. I’m more of a function over form kind of person and enjoy building and welding. Yeah I could have made it look super slick with jib plates (there’s another video on here with that method) or the way you said. I came up with what was simple, practical, cheap, and what I could find at the hardware store haha. Thanks for watching
I love that you are getting the young lady involved -- kids can learn so much with some mentoring. But I can't help but notice that she was using a pressurized tool on parts under tension at her eye level. At the risk of sounding like a safety nazi, may I recommend you buy her a set of safety glasses?
It was a bit of an oversight. I had taken that thing on and off a few times and the eye bolts were long enough that once loosened there was no more tension. but I think with the added weight of the jack it changed that and it snapped free. Cant go back in time, however there is a more recent video of mine where she can be seen with a mask and glasses doing some work lol
FYI: Teflon tape is NOT thread sealant. It is thread lubricant, to facilitate tighening & prevent galling. Pipe dope or "Thread Sealant" is used for sealing NPT.
Here is the first 6 mods video I did: ruclips.net/video/YQgMQaAf13c/видео.html
And the SWAG Press Brake video: ruclips.net/video/bHmzts6efiQ/видео.html
You have the correct attitude to get projects done. Thank you. Yes it is a skill all buys itself.
Sometimes I do anyway, other times not so much haha. Thanks!
Nice mods! Really fixing up that 20 Ton press 👍 Great video! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Waiting for someone to notice the turd polish bottle I threw in there as an Easter egg. This thing is far from a turd though it’s a good press and getting better everytime I get a light bulb! Thx for stoppin in Mike👌
awesome video, production quality is there man
Nice job I need to take the slop outta mine. I made a foot pedal and a shelf for the bottom. The foot pedal is so nice
Yeah as soon as I mounted mine I was like crap I should have mounted it low haha
Brilliant! Just got my own press and will have to do some of these mods especially the plastic alignment pins for sure!
Great video mate, I've just got a 20t Press and your modifications are something I will do.
Cheers mate.
Greetings from Australia.
Glad you liked it. Definitely makes it way more useful. Side note, The Land down under sounds warm right about now. Currently is -15f out here with 40mph wind gusts. -45 or so with the wind chill.
@@FlawedOffroad wow, that's cold, I live in Queensland and the weather here today was 29 degrees Celsius, thanks for your reply mate, go and rug up and I'll get around in my short's and singlet 😂
Nice job! I wasn’t looking for any of this when I clicked on the video but I stayed for the entire thing. 👍🏻 I will be checking out your other videos.
Well thanks for stopping in and checking it out! I have a little bit of everything
Great video. You bought a cheap press and didn't dog it. You took it home and made a very serviceable press for not much money. Now subscriber.
Sometimes you gotta make do with what you can afford. Thanks for checking out the channel and hopefully you like my other stuff. It’s very Jeep related around here, but I get into tools and stuff too.
@@FlawedOffroad what is this jeep you speak of. We are a 77 FJ40 family lol.
Great stuff...been using my 20 ton press a lot and everything you've addressed/modded are things I'm super annoyed by. Upgrading the 20 ton press will be a good winter project. Thanks for the video.
Right on
You can also tap dross off your cuts with a small/medium hammer. Goes quick. I've also used knotted wire cups on a die grinder.
Yeah there’s lots of good ways to do it. Ion small pieces I find it pretty quick to peel them off with pliers
I've been planning on doing this with mine. My plan is simply bearings in axles drilled into the crossbeam. The front to back slop hasn't been quite figured out, although I do plan on building my own crossbeam, with a pusher rod built with a threaded hole to accept different size push rods, so that may simply have plates with axles for bearing welded too it.
My favorite mod to secure the table support rods in place that I've seen is to weld washers into the bars on one side, so that the washer is captured between the table and frame. No drilling, and under pressure there is no way the pin can come out. My only concern is the affect on the pins strength from the welding.
There’s so much cool stuff that can be done with these presses. Honestly both of my press mod videos have done rather well I’ve considered doing a third one just for fun.
I do like the toilet bolts solution. I have recently been dealing with deflection on my press. Mine doesn't even have the ears around the uprights. It will soon.
I tried to find shorter nylon bolts with no luck and didn’t have time to wait on Amazon haha.
I actually had some Teflon strips I was going to use but couldn’t figure out a way to fasten them
Maybe the toilet bolts are my problem , I keep on missing my target and ended up hitting my toilet water tank , thank you for the tip 😂.
Mine's still in the box but I plan on doing a pedal and wheels. Good video 👍🏻
Good stuff. I think you’ve hit all the spots that can be done. Definitely good notes to take
The plastic bolt setup is slick
It worked lol
Damn all those tools , and you have so much time in your hands , I can dig these upgrades , did you get that sheet metal finger brake from Swag ??. Your welds look better than the welds on the HF press .
Yeah that’s the swag brake, it does up to 3/8” so not just for sheet metal lol.
I see the cost of tools as an investment in my hobby and what I can build(which saves money later)
Wish I had as much time as you made it seem😅
I drilled my keepers and put cotter pins in, they drilled really easy definitely not hardened steel. I figured if they fail ill just replace them with something better. Ive seen higher end presses with drilled keepers so i figured it should be good
I think it’s some type of hardness because my drillbits were having a heckuva time
I'm definitely doing the bar holder. I'm constantly fumbling around with mine.
yeah its handy. and im sure theres better way to make it, I just went with what I had laying around as usual lol
don't worry its only a hurricane. good idea on the retainer bolts on the top. man I almost every time have races and spacers explode all over the shop
That was definitely the inspiration for a few of the mods was keeping stuff from flying to undesirable places haha
Simply outstanding!👍👍👍
To hold the supports in place, just buy a couple neodymium magnets to attach to them in lieu of rubber tubing. If you found the right size magnet, you could even cut a piece of hose the width of the space and jam a magnet in either side.
Foot pedal for sure.
You are going to hate having that shelf where you want to stand to use the press. A back half shelf works great!
I do like the video art at 11:53, when you turned out the lights to weld. Maybe there was also a spot light involved. Nicely done.
Toilet bolts is a great idea.
the shelf doesnt bug me a bit how I made it. Thanks for checkin out the video
@@FlawedOffroad I would hate it on mine, but then I do have a foot pedal.
Love it..drill it right or I'll drill it twice!😂😂😂
So much dam truth right their.
That one is my dad shining through me. He’s the king of 1 liners
For anyone watching this in the future, I wish I had a welder. If I did, my solution for securing the pins holding the press apron up would be to weld something onto the press apron. when the apron is set down on the pins, it can't slide out either side. Specifically, I'd weld a half pipe, sized to fit the pin, onto the press apron and attach a washer to the outside ends of the 4 half pipes. I plan on doing something similar with a 3d printed part.
Solid idea. Honestly I dont really have an issue with them failling out anyway since I never have enough room to roll it around haha
Wonderful video. Very creative. Thx
I need to get my @harborfreight press turbocharged too!!! Awesome ideas!!!!
I started recording with only 2 ideas and came up with the rest as I went haha
Great videos, stumbled upon you a while back looking at a Yes Welder…I’m in NW Iowa and enjoy 4x4 too…more of a Toyota LC guy but got a couple Jeeps as well…maybe get together and crawl sometimes MIOBI?
Sound fun! Im part of Tri state stump jumpers and wheel them them often, their properties are mostly near Dubuque. I did make a video at MIOBI a few months ago
Supper simple idea for the rods is to simply put a little spot of weld so they can’t push in too far. They will be at the right location without even looking at them. Like your idea with the plastic bolts though.
BOA NOITE AMIGO ..GOSTEI MUITO DA SUA MINUCIOSA EXPLICAÇÃO ...VOLTAREI A TE VISITAR ..PARABÉNS ,,JÁU SP BRAZIL 😅
Very helpful video. Thanks for sharing. You are hilarious!
Haha thanks! Maybe some day I’ll make a part 3 but so far I haven’t thought of any more upgrades
I am going to have to do a video on mine someday. You don't need an air hydraulic jack, just put compressed air to the vent with a foot pedal and the ram will come down quietly for about $2 plus the cost of the foot pedal.
Both of the air/hydraulic jacks ive used have failed anyway, massive leakage out of the HF jack the first week. I replaced with a Torin Big Red 20t jack and it did ok for a year or 2. but now its hemorrhaging now from where the baseplate meets the body. I have a few other mods in mind I may make a 3rd video at some point. this video was part 2
probably my fault cause my regulator failed so I have been running it at whatever my compressor sits at, roughly 155psi. oops
Maybe you could have flipped that angle iron your casters mounted to, and saved a lot of effort. You would have had a ledge to put that shelf on.
Well this video was two years ago so not much I can do about it now lol
You could of used your brake on that shelf and just bent the edges. This would of stiffened up the shelf and made it smaller and nothing could of just fell off either while moving around. Running a 12ft brake for highway i learned how much bending helps to steaghten metal.
I think it was a hair wider than my brake so I just used the angles. THe brake is a hair narrower than the press cause it has the columns on the side
i use a tread sealant products called true blue works on oil , propane, water, even anhydrous ammonia "gaseous fertilizer", like the platform would a 2nd shelf on back be nice so you didn't have to lift the brake so far to store it?? INOVATIVE solution for the wobbly top like it . could add a foot valve and just run it through the hand valve would have to put check valves in to use both at same time i think?? great vid, have a diy press made of old bridge angle iron that was riveted together about 6 in wide weights a ton well not quite:)
Second shelf seems like it would get in the way. Usually I just lift the break out and set it onto a rolling stool that sits next to the press so I don’t have to bring it all the way down.
I see you changed out your bottle jack, why? I have the same press and my jack leaks out the box from the pump. I’m thinking of checking the seals.
It started leaking after like a week so I went to exchange it but they didn’t have any so they gave me my money back and I got a big red jack off Amazon. Two years later that Jack is leaking also
For your bottom tray I would have rotated the existing rails to form a basin where you could have the bottom tray just sitting on it.
Great job though.
the center support angle iron would have had to get removed or redesigned for that to just set in there and be removable. Notice how I tucked the shelf underneath it. It works just fine this way
Why did you switch to the red air jack? Also do you think a 20 pound Jack would fit on a 12 pack of birth? I picked up a really good deal on a 20 Pine pneumatic jack but I only have a 12 ton press
Anything will fit if you’re a good enough at cutting and welding. I switch to it just for when I’m doing thick stuff/ bigger jobs because it’s really nice to just squeeze a button instead of pumping the jack 1000,000 times. When I have to do precision stuff I still use the handle
I saw you used the harbor freight air jack in the first video, what made you decide to change it out?
It started hemorrhaging fluid about a week after I put it in and they didn’t have any more in stock to exchange it
@@FlawedOffroad yeah the reviews on the harbor freight bottle jacks say that they are bad about leaking. I was gonna go get the press today and maybe the air jack. But I might just get the press and order a jack
@@chasecalesa1370 the big red jack was almost the same price on Amazon amzn.to/3wzBOe7
Did you change your hydraulic jack again or did you paint it red? If you changed it again, why?
I originally bought the harbor freight version and after a week it started dumping hydraulic fluid so I took it back for warranty but they didn’t have anymore so they gave me a refund and I bought this red one off Amazon for about the same price. amzn.to/3CYxvwP
I made wide bed for mine
That's not called a filter .It is a muffler which eliminates the ear piercing noise of air discharging.
Slot the nylon bolts..
Consider using brass bolts instead. They are strong and wear well against steel.
Might be a little more durable but I have had zero issues with the nylon bolts
Now remove that HF Sticker 😂
I welded 1/8" shims in the front and 1/4" on one side.. she good now..
I considered that also but I didnt want it to make noise so I came up with the plastic idea and decided I wanted it adjustable. It's not classy but boy does it work well!
I seriously doubt that the 4 locating pins for the press are hardened. It is made in China. Take a file and run ti across the end of a pin and if it files relatively, "it ain't hardened". Nice ideas. BTW, McMaster-Carr has a good selection of plastics and bolts and hardware. Shipping is high today but if you need enough to justify paying for shipping, it comes quicker than most other places. I have had deliveries made the next day and I am in mid PA and McMaster-Carr is in New Jersey. Usually an order is best placed in the morning. I see a notification on the page stating recive tomorrow if ordered by a certain time. I never have problems with the quality of what I get from them. Beware, it is not a discount house. I miss a historic part of American culture, a genuine hardware store. So many of them have gone to selling everything but hardware or just have tiny selections or blister packs of cheap things (not cheap in price) such as bolts, screws and washers.
Im very familiar with McMaster-carr as I was a machine mechanic at a factory for about 8 years, we lived and died by McMaster at times. I still have a couple old school hardware stores here but they keep bankers hours, I work till 530 and they are already closed when I get off. My solution wasnt the best but almost 2 years later I havent had to touch those toilet bolts they are still spot on.
Please put some safety glasses on your young helper. It is good training anyhow .I have seen what a spring can do to the Human eyeball, it ain't pretty and it don't work no more
All you needed was some Plastic Strips and some CA Glue
are the casters rated at 20 ton ?
they dont need to be, the pessing force doesnt go though the wheels or the base of the press. heck most shop floors wouldnt hold 20ton in a 2'x2' area. the force is between the ram and the surface being pressed
A wire wheel makes quick work of dross as well
Ill give that a try sometimes. a chisel works too but I always seem to go back to the pliers
@@FlawedOffroad I do a ton of CNC plasma cutting and using the wire wheel makes very fast work of the removal. It seems to work best when the wheel is hitting the dross from the metal side, not the cut side. With the disc spinning clockwise I hit the dross from the left side
Really was hoping for overkill, steel rollers!!! But ok
Dude get a welding cap haha they’re like $9
Nvm you got one 😂😂
I’ve got several I just get in a hurry sometimes😂
To address the slop in the table, why not: slide (and glue) some pieces of HDPE (high density polyethylene), or even better some UHMWPE (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene), of the appropriate thickness? No drilling or welding needed.
Cause glue never holds up, especially when my area varies from 105 degrees summer to 50 below zero like we had last weekend.
@@FlawedOffroad That's about the same range of temps that I put up with. Then depending on the depth of the plastic, short countersunk undercut machine screws might work.
@@tobygathergood4990 I suppose it would. I’m more of a function over form kind of person and enjoy building and welding. Yeah I could have made it look super slick with jib plates (there’s another video on here with that method) or the way you said. I came up with what was simple, practical, cheap, and what I could find at the hardware store haha. Thanks for watching
I love that you are getting the young lady involved -- kids can learn so much with some mentoring. But I can't help but notice that she was using a pressurized tool on parts under tension at her eye level. At the risk of sounding like a safety nazi, may I recommend you buy her a set of safety glasses?
It was a bit of an oversight. I had taken that thing on and off a few times and the eye bolts were long enough that once loosened there was no more tension. but I think with the added weight of the jack it changed that and it snapped free. Cant go back in time, however there is a more recent video of mine where she can be seen with a mask and glasses doing some work lol
Instead of toilet bolts, use old roller rocker arms !
FYI: Teflon tape is NOT thread sealant. It is thread lubricant, to facilitate tighening & prevent galling.
Pipe dope or "Thread Sealant" is used for sealing NPT.
Still helps seal stuff especially when you can’t bury the tapered threads as far as you want
It cost $100 more not, thanks to 7% inflation. lol
Bummer. Keep an eye on marketplace, I see these pop up now and then