Quote Originally Posted by Toolmaker51 View Post
It was very clumsy to operate, at first. But once a physical set-up sorted out, some finesse IS possible. All the utility is in tooling it up, like any machine tool.

I wouldn't recommend one as a whim. My favorite press type and most anxious to build is a screw press. The utmost ratio of tonnage and incremental travel. All the others can only be monitored, screw press is full control.
Suppose some kind of CNC control has been applied with linear readers. OK, how is a few thousand $'s of electronics better than a long travel indicator?
The oldest use of screw presses I know of, straightening barrels before and after rifling. The craftsman would peer thru a barrel angled upward, pointed at a thin wire hanging in a window. It imparts a line reflecting off the tubes inside surface revealing every deviation from straight. The barrel is already mounted in a press, so rotating and moving back and forth ironed out everything.
I keep looking for screw presses and think yo myself that it is possible to make one. I would cast the frame in reinforced high strength concrete and the rest is fairly basic turning and milling. Some welding to. I would have to figure out how to make the screw though. They are some aggressive on the thread. And I think multiple start, but not sure on that front.

Thanks for the heads up. Off and on I have seen those larger presses and wondered the finesse that you can apply with them.

Having watched quite a few videos about a screw press I was sold on the idea rather quickly. It's just that I would probably want a 6 ton, and they are not so easy to pay for. Perhaps a 3 ton would be a good beginning and make a larger one if needed.

Mark