Hydraulic press

Several years ago I found this hydraulic jack from trunk of used car that I had bought. That car is now long gone, and propably it has been re-used to build some bridge in China. But what remains, is that bottle shaped hydraulic jack. It is 12 ton unit, so I don't know why it was kept on trunk of some old Nissan, haha! After storing it for years, and trying to use it with my cars, I noticed that it is useless for me because all my cars are much more lower than this jack is high. It does not  fit under my cars, but maybe I could use it for something else...

After few measurements and drawings on backside of some old flyer, (fuck CAD!) I was able to make my "order" for steelparts from my friend.  He bent me some 3mm thick steel at his work... at company time ofcourse!
Springs were found from flea-market, they cost one €.

He also made these... I drew instructions with measurements to place those holes and where to bend this part to make it what I need it to be. If I'd be doing this now, I'd design bigger holes, so thicker stop-bars could be used.
All that metal work what he did, really did cost me something... a bottle of vodka!

Corners were rounded and sharp edges were grinded and smoothed.
If I ever have to deliver this thing in a smaller car than van, sharp edges wont rip up the upholstery.
Someone said that rounded edges makes whole thing look older... I don't know about that, but if it is so, it's always a good thing!

Frame was welded, on the both sides...

To understand what are these parts, see next photo.

So yes, it starts to get shape!
Hydraulic jack can't be used upside down, so it needs this moving part.
Springs return it back up.

Painted it at backyard with rattlecan paint. First goes on primer because it grabs better.
Notice that ring at the higher end; it keeps bootle jack on it's place.
Those other two brackets are for attaching springs.

More primer... Pieces of 6mm rod keep lower end of jack positioned on it's place. And again, brackets for springs.

After primer, whole thing was painted with shining black paint. So now I've invested 4,90€ for can of primer, and another 4,90€ for rattlecan of black paint. Now that is pricey...
One more feature that was not previously introduced are these feet, which can be removed. System consists of two nuts and pieces of 10mm dia. rod. Take what you have laying around...
Wanted to make it this way, so possible moving of garage to another place will be easier, and this hydr press wont take so much space in a car.

So here it is!
At this point it has cost me 10,80€ plus bottle of vodka, which is about 15€.
Sure, you could get these ready from many different stores, but where the fun would be?!

This is how much jack moves. It is enough, because counterpart can be moved.

After few months, my friend Joona visited and we were foolin' around with 1Shot pinstripe paint in my garage. At the point where I had only got paintcans open and some paint stirred, Joona had already painted my lockpliers, bicycle, etc, and started to work on this new hydraulic press.

                                                         Check out Joona's blog here.

I gave him free hands with this, I only want it to be painted with red.

...and this is the result.
Pump me, baby!!

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