tinker toy log splitter

[A.K. Boomer]

The stuff people throw away, at the very least the hyd. jack part can be used for a variety of things,

a two stage shop press would be one of them, always hate fidling with 30 or 40 pumps to get to the work piece and this jack would take care of that, wish it had a rating on it but guess I can just measure the piston diameter and the small jack piston and guess how much leverage a much shorter handle would have on it all...

[Willy]

Yeah with a 10-12 inch handle it would make for a dandy little shop press. Most of the time it may be all you need for the smaller stuff. Surprising what you can get done with a small sturdy press. Get some pressure on it, give it a tap in the right place, and POP! Out she comes.

[A.K. Boomer]

Hmmm just thought of something that would put the kabosh on it, feed ports would be sucking air if you hung it upside down...

not to mention nobody wants to push a lever up for the loading factor lol

[Willy]

Mount it right side up like most small shop presses.

[A.K. Boomer]

yeah that would take care of the problem and in fact that's how my smaller HF is designed (duh)

but it has a long ram rod and a stable cross member with a hole that the RR goes through,

what's keeping the unit in the pic your showing "stable"?

it looks like the sides just are allowed to glide but wow that would get squirrly would it not?

[Willy]

That's the problem with this type of press, precision and stability are not hallmarks of these lower priced presses. However having used these types of presses I must admit that self leveling or stabilizing tendencies do make them serviceable, more so than you first might suspect. I know that the first time I used one like this I wondered out loud WTF? But once the work is lined up and a little bit of pressure has been applied pieces of the puzzle tend to sort themselves out.

Certainly not perfect but they do work fairly well considering the low cost and simple design.
Here's your chance at improving on this design and instilling a bit more stability and precision in your version if you decide to go this route. Lots of ideas and possibilities come to mind.