Arbor Press Size

[John Winston]

Looking into an arbor press but not real certain what size you are using for mostly CS and SS work. Most my stuff is 4130 straight.

Any direction is appreciated-

[OhYeah Bicycles]

I'm running an old Pipan 1 ton that I picked up on Craigslist for 30 bucks... Just been denting the CS for tire clearance, and it works great... Easy work. Don't have any dies set up to for bending the tubes, but I imagine it's got enough balls behind it to work fine with that.

What exactly are you planning with it?

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[John Winston]

What exactly are you planning with it?

Oh, just general workshop misuse and some smashing..er..shaping CS. I would like to use to bend CS a bit as well instead of using my bender. Seems like I might be about to set a press up and get consistent bends without much hassle. I didn't know if 1 ton would be ok or go bigger, 2 ton. I'm not looking into anything larger than a 2 ton.

[Scheisserad61]

There is an old Atlas #6 arbor press out at the local community college shop that came from the now-closed local Navy shipyard. It is enormous and then some. I looked it up online once and it was listed as a 15 ton model. The 6 foot or so lever arm had a 220 to 1 mechanical ratio.

Might be good for pressing in headset cups.

[Andrew R Stewart]

Seems to me that you might be able to get the HS cups to touch each other with that much force. (joke).

[EricKeller]

I have seen pictures of buckled head tubes. We have a fairly long arbor press at work, it's a Dake. Don't see much of a bicycle application for it though

[edoz]

For chain and seatstay stuff, I don't think it matters whether it's 1 or 2 ton, as both are more than enough. I've got a small 1/2 ton press that I use, and my only issue with it is that there isn't enough vertical space for some of my blocks and things. I'm going to end up cutting the base off and building one more suitable to my needs.

[Dornbox]

Check out the pneumatic ones. They're a pain to dial in but once you're dialed in for the process... precision and ease. Just make sure there's nothing in the press before you charge it... and that every valve is shut. I DESTROYED a nice CS that I was working on that way, pancake. Got mine off Craig's list for cheap too. -chris