Latest unanticipated addition to my shop- Who knows Enerpac?

[YY1]

A co-worker told me last Friday about a fellow car guy that passed away.

His dad and some of the local street rod crew were helping the widow sell off some of his substantial tool collection.

Basically I got invited to the "pre-sale".

Sorry to see a fellow motor head go down early, but it sure looked like he had fun while he was here.

He was building a 53 Bel-Air with all sorts of shaved and frenched details, and had a 28 T bucket at a consignment dealer.

I came away with this super heavy duty press, powered by a detachable porta-power including all sorts of press plates and additional rams.

Also the HF 8" grinder/buffer, a Craftsman dial-back timing light, and an Astro no-mar lug socket set.

$180 for everything.

I'm seeing those smaller Enerpac rams for $200 and up, and I can't even find the large ram that's mounted in the press. The smaller ones are 5, 10 even 20 tons, the big one might be 50! C channel looks like it might even handle 50.

The previous owner even fabbed up a cable crank to lift the bridge. VERY cool, I like that thinking, and that's something I would have done!

They sure don't make them like that any more. It almost even looks like an Enerpack brand press!

Glad I didn't buy that HF press when they were on sale

Potential bad news- top of that big ram is leaking.

How much of a pain and cost is it to rebuild a ram like that?

 

[cryplydog]

nice score, easy to rebuild buy oily, all parts/seals etc. should be easy to get at a bearing/seal shop. great tool and good luck.

 

[1969CoronetR/T]

Applied Industrial may have the seals.

 

[Photon440]

Enerpac is pretty heavy duty. We used a lot of their rams in hard to reach places when repairing railway freight cars.

 

[Cranky]

Seems like every time I get my shop clean and organized, something like that shows up and then I have to make room for it and it starts all over again lol

 

[ws27]

Funny I was just looking at an Enerpac foot actuated pump for my press. I have a 45 year old one made in Sweeden ad it needs a new pump. They are available through Ebay pretty cheap. I might suggest you switch to a foot operated one so you have both hands free.

 

[1969CoronetR/T]

Harbor Freight probably has a disposable one...

 

[YY1]

It LIVES!

The big 40 ton cylinder leaked like a sieve. I'll put rebuilding that on the back burner.

Looks like the PO got that far and ran into trouble. All sorts of things welded to it.

I went a different direction, and mounted the 5 ton 7 inch cylinder the other way.

I used what had been the table block to located the cyl under the top cross member to give a better size working window.

I made pilot holes for the 10 ton 2 inch cylinder in case I need to mount that.

I also put in a reinforcement between the mount plate (which looks to be 3/8, and slightly too thin) and the top plate (which looks to be 7/16) made from a trailer hitch #' to 2" adapter vertically wedged between the two.

That way excessive force has to A- bend the plate, B- transfer the force through the hitch tube to the top plate, and C- work against the super strong sides of the top cross member.

Since I used the press block, I needed a new one.

NOT CHEAP and hard to find.

The closes thing I could locate was an articulated commercial mower blade at Tractor Supply 1/2 thick by 8" by 10" and $51 plus tax.

They just developed the lot across from where I work into a subdivided shopping area that currently has only one tenant and structure.

During the lot prep, they ripped up an old railroad spur that served a fruit packer.

I had previously snagged a couple ties for use as parking blocks...

One had a tie plate still attached. It's 7/16 in the middle, gradually tapering to 3/8 and then to 1/4 at outside.

There's also a rail guide that aligns it perfectly with the work bridge and puts the thickest part right in the middle.

I figured where there's one, there's more, so I took my metal detector and trowel with me to work yesterday.

Took less than 15 seconds to locate another one!


Victory is mine!

 

[super-bee_ski]

Great score YY1
I am sure the gentleman that passed away is happy the equipment is in your hands!

 

[747mopar]

Nice score, you did good.

 

[Jeremiah]

That is an awesome score. I don't know what I'd do without my H-frame press. If you price new commercial grade presses you will be very happy with your purchase!