How to make a hydraulic press with your own hands?

A hydraulic press is a useful mechanism in everyday life, along with a rod, pipe and bending machine, a vice and a jack... In the simplest case, it compresses organic waste into briquettes that can be used to heat a stove, for example, in a country house.

The main element of the press is the frame, the drawing for which is carried out in strict accordance with the planned load on this device.... The bed is made in the form of a rectangular structure, in which a jack with a pressing component is placed, which compresses the workpieces or already turned parts to give them the specified parameters. The execution of the bed (frame) differs based on the tasks facing the worker, whose activity is limited to the use of the press and other mechanisms included in the production line where he works.

The expansion is directed in different directions - the jack, which works as the main operating mechanism, rests up and down. The breaking action that it has should be half or three times less than the safety factor of this structure. A safety margin is necessary - without it, the entire installation will quickly fail.

The lower part of the frame is manufactured in accordance with the increased stability of the entire bed. The width of the span from the inside is made taking into account the dimensions of the parts and workpieces undergoing the processing stages on this machine. Not the last place is occupied by the overall dimensions of the components of the entire unit.

When calculating the height of the inner span of the bed, add together the height of the jack and the relative lift of its pin, the thickness of the blank to be pressed and the main platform. The production of a press can be represented in several stages.

1. The jack is placed on the lower base, the part is much higher.
2. The pressure from the jack rod to the workpiece is exerted by the dynamic part that actively squeezes.

The working (movable) part of the press moves along steel guides, which prevents its horizontal departure to the side. To return the working part to the unloaded state, springs are used, the lower ends of which are hooked onto the base, and the upper ends - over the movable plane. When making your own jack, you need to accurately calculate the stiffness of the springs: its too small value will not return the site back in the required time, because of which the technological (production) process will stand idle for extra seconds and minutes. An excessively stiff spring will require large energy costs to bring the press to a state of maximum compression of the part or workpiece. The springs must respond quickly and accurately without delay.

The second method, according to which a pressing machine, made by a master with his own hands, is assembled, consists of several important stages.

1. The workpiece is placed on the base from below.
2. The jack is placed on a dynamic platform. Springs are attached to it, connecting it to the top of the bed.

Both methods imply an inlet compartment, for which the jack rod seems to be held, without moving due to the guides. The pipe cut along the inner diameter almost coincides with the diameter of the jack rod - it is ensured that it enters this pipe under significant force, which does not allow it to slip out of it.

A self-made press will acquire additional functionality and convenience when the master implements in its design the adjustment of the free stroke of the pin. This will allow taller, thicker parts to be machined. The sequence of actions is reduced to the following stages.

1. At the bottom of the bed, within the perimeter of its frame, an additional plane is placed, moving along the guides along a screw drive with a steering component. This will allow you to significantly expose the free space for the blanks to be pressed.
2. When the first option does not fit, you can make a detachable stop in the unit, which, in fact, is a removable dynamic platform... You can fix such an emphasis by using bolted fasteners. The frame is cut through holes for them - the width of the indentation between two adjacent bolts cannot be changed. The distance between the holes is not more than the length of the free stroke of the jack pin.
3. An option is possible when replaceable spacers with unequal thickness are cut out of a professional pipe or a bar of steel.

Some or all of these methods are sometimes used in combination with each other. When developing a drawing on your own, take into account the dimensions of all components in detail, including professional rental, used as a consumable for the frame.

A hydraulic machine has an advantage over a purely mechanical one - no reducer, no gears retain the force of impact with the least losses, which occur only when using hydraulics. This has been proven by the automotive industry: braking by hydraulics is much more efficient, the hydraulic system is less prone to wear and tear than a purely mechanical system, while maintaining high efficiency.

When self-manufacturing a press, the following consumables are used, as well as tools:

• welding inverter and electrodes;

• grinder and a set of cutting discs;

• jack;

• a pair of springs;

• channel - "eight";

• professional pipes not less than 4 * 4 cm;

• corner not less than 50 * 50 * 5 mm;

• sheet steel (piece) 8 mm thick;

• steel strip 10 mm;

• a pipe cut of a diameter suitable for the jack rod.

Of the tools, you will also need a drill and drill bits for metal (high speed steel or diamond coated drills).

Before starting production, check the jack for possible malfunctions. So, pumping air into oil should be completely eliminated. There should be no jamming during the operation of the stem, the impossibility of adjusting the valve, oil leaks, etc. Make sure the device is upright and stable - it should not fall sideways on a level surface.

Having prepared the drawing, checking the values ​​indicated on it, mark and cut the steel into blanks. The base for the pressing machine is made as follows.

1. Weld a square professional pipe into a rectangle. You can use both welding at an angle of 45 degrees (oblique cuts), and strictly rectangular (horizontal or vertical pipes remain open at the ends).
2. Weld a steel plate onto the resulting rectangle.
3. Weld the sides and the top of the bed together, controlling the evenness and squareness of the joints... The slightest deviation from a right angle at least in one or several vertices will lead to a noticeable weakening of the safety margin of the press.
4. Weld the resulting structure to the base.

The frame is assembled. The moving component, for which a channel or professional pipe is used, is manufactured as follows.

1. In the center of the platform, weld a piece of pipe that contains the jack rod.
2. Make guides from steel strips. Their length is equal to the width of the bed.
3. Move the movable platform to the inside of the frame.
4. Attach the strips to the sides of the movable platform with bolts.
5. Make a detachable stop. For it, cut holes in the guides opposite the frame racks. The structure will be fixed at the height you need.
6. Install the springs and jack.

The latter is not welded to the machine. It can be removed to perform completely different tasks, such as auto repair.

Attempting to use a titanium alloy will make the product you are using prove to be too expensive in total. Titanium is an order of magnitude more expensive than steel, although it partly combines the lightness of aluminum and the strength of some grades of steel. Basically, titanium is more of a marketing gimmick: high-quality tool steel significantly outperforms it in performance parameters.

The simplest field of application for a hand-made home-made press made at home is the manufacture of fuel briquettes for combustible materials.... It does not require too high compression - materials, from sawdust to peat, hay, paper (waste paper), porous cardboard are so softened that they are not difficult to soften. Briquetted "fuel", like firewood, eliminates the need to collect everything with a broom and a shovel and put it in the stove: you simply put all this material like ordinary firewood.

The briquetting of combustible synthetics, from plastic cans and other utensils to, for example, the remnants of roofing material, wood scraps left after construction work, will require several great efforts. The press can easily handle such material and will reliably serve you all your life.

Non-combustible ramming mass allows you to heat insulate ovens, heaters, refrigerators from excess heat exchange - in order to increase the efficiency of all these units. For this, it is pre-pressed, then impregnated with high-temperature non-combustible compounds. The press will also cope with this task with ease.

After completing easier tests, you can move on to a more difficult task. Jacks develop an effort of about 10-20 tons. If you have purchased a professional dump truck jack, you can try pressing the clay into a “pancake” or “brick” using your press. The fact is that clay can be combined into one block without a single drop of water, but this will require a pressure of 200 atmospheres. It is easy to calculate that a briquette with an area of ​​10 * 10 cm, when using a twenty-ton jack, will experience just a pressure of 200 kg / cm2.

According to the laws of physics, if you reduce its area by half, then for every square centimeter you will get a pressure of 400 atmospheres. This press is able to withstand such loads: the only requirement is the jack's power resolution - designed for the same 20 tons, it will not withstand 25 ... 30 tons of impact.

The most critical stage is the stamping of non-ferrous metal and some steels, including stainless steel.... But they begin testing non-ferrous metal and steels with crimping. If the machine has successfully coped with the task, proceed to stamping.

If stainless steel was used for the press, then it can be used, for example, to squeeze sunflower seeds or seeds of other types, for example, flax, from which edible oil of the desired variety can be obtained. Using rusting steel, for example, to extract juices from fresh fruit can be dangerous - iron reacts with acids.

Next, see a master class on making a homemade hydraulic press.