I currently use a pen press from PSI and it's only "Adequate", The push toggle flexes up under pressure and theres a little all around slop in the opposite pressing surface. I like this style of press and want to make my own.
Just wondered if anyone has built their own and has found a good heavy duty horizontal toggle that didn't flex and also how flex was handled on the other end. Any pics you might have would be great too.
Yes I bet that works great and I have several friends that do it, As it is though, I get tired of going back and forth from drill bit to pen barell trimmer on that drill press. I don't want to introduce yet another task to use the drill press for. I like having all the final assebly done up on the bench. I just need to look for a really heavy duty toggle that won't flex.
"kcleere" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@d56g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:
I use a simple pipe clamp that is supported up off the bench by blocks and held in place by small hand clamp. Works well and can be disaasembled in just a minute.
You could make one very easily out of an old bottle-capping press. I see them available for a few bux at flea markets from time to time. I have also used a thing from Harbor Freight that is intended for pressing in glasier's points.
I modified my PSI press with an eye bolt, but I've heard of a few folks making their own pen presses out of those can crusher things that you buy for $10..
Also, regarding the PSI press, I also made a few extra slotted blocks for it... the first time that I put a key chain pen kit together and had to use my bench vice, because the press wouldn't reach..
Mt solution to a simple but effective pen assembly press is the wood vice on my work bench. Hold parts in position with one hand, tighten the vice with the other... Been doing it for years and it has never failed me.
I got tired of having to line up the center of the ram with the center of the press block.. like others have said, it lifts and makes the ram go high...
I tried mounting a stiffer plate under the ram but that made it lock up, so I ended up drilling a hole in the base about an inch in front of the of the metal baseplate and putting the eyebolt over the shaft (you have to take the nut and stuff off the end of the rod) with the threaded part of the eyebolt through the hole in the base with a locknut on the end...
The eyebolt is as far from the base as I could get it without preventing the ram from fully retracting, so it adds just a bit of alignment help... but mostly tells me that the assembly needs bending down again when the rod rubs the top of the eyebolt opening..
I read what I just typed and confused myself, so I guess I'll have to drag the camera out there.. *g*
The main problem there for me, and maybe it's because this all started with my Shopsmith, is that we tend to give the lathe too many jobs...
Unless i came up with something that left the pen mandrel in the spindle and such, it would require going to a production mode and pressing them all at once or turning a pen and changing to a press, them back to turning mode... It's just not worth it to me...
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