Hydraulic Press Improvement

The 1 inch press spindle below the hydraulic jack wobbles all over the place when you're trying to press on something. Solution is to stabilize the crossbeam holding the jack assembly.

I used 1/2 " drill rod 1 3/8 inches long.I milled a hex on one end for an 11 mm socket wrench. The other end has a 3/8 " hole .650 " deep. I had some springs that would fit inside the 3/8 hole so I made the tail end of the brass plug to fit the ID of the springs. About 1/4 " movement on the brass plugs should be enough to soak up the wobble. The lock nuts were made from 1/2-13 nuts that I split in half.

I used angle iron with 1 " legs drilled and taped for 1/2 - 20 thread and held in place with two 10-24 socket head screws. You will need to drill and tap two holes in the jack assembly cross beam to accommodate the 10-24 screws. Only one of these two jack screw assemblies will need to be spring loaded the other can be solid. The other two jack screws that control back to front movement will both need springs.

You will need to drill and tap two 1/2 - 20 holes in the cross beam ears to mount the jack screws in. Once all the jack screw are mounted you can adjust the screws so that there is spring tension left to right and back to front. If you push the jack assembly rail to one side it should now return to where it was. This has made a big difference in how easy it is to use my press.

Note: You could use teflon instead of brass for the plugs.

Note: The you could use socket head or hex head 1/2 - 20 bolts for the jack screw bodies if you don't want to do any milling. The hex head bolts are softer and would be easier to drill.