Shop press "embiggened pusher"

hear

hear

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I have the HF 12 ton shop press I'm using to remove my carrier bearings with the help of a bearing splitter (got the idea off youtube). I got some 1" thick steel plate and made new arbors out of them, drilling holes in them to allow for the bearing splitter & carrier to hang below the shelf. The problem is that even with the shelf at the highest spot, the push rod can't reach the carrier. a deep 32mm socket would probably do the trick (if I had one), but it seems like having some various sized "dies" and like 6" of steel roundstock would solve this in general.

Is there something like this out there or a diy type thing? I mean, it has to be somewhat common to not have the exact right sized die available, and/or the rod not being long enough for certain things.

The other alternative is to drill another set of holes higher up, but that feels like it could be a royal pain.
 
I have a set of aluminum seal/race drivers but something tells me putting them under 12 tons is not a good recipe.
 
I have two shop presses - a 12T and a 20T air-over-hydraulic. Both are Harbor Freight with mods I've done to make them more useful. I used to have access to a 50T with an electric hydraulic pump (when I worked at Polaris 20 years ago). I miss the 50T for sure! I will tell you that you need three things to use a shop press efficiently: 1) a bunch of solid rods of different sizes and tubing of different sizes (sockets work very well), 2) a healthy dose of creativity, and 3) an even healthier dose of safety awareness.

Oh, yeah, one of these universal press supports is helpful, too:

1710873847127.png


It's the only thing I've found to replace wheel bearings easily on my Subaru.
 
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sab said:
I have two shop presses - a 12T and a 20T air-over-hydraulic. Both are Harbor Freight with mods I've done to make them more useful. I used to have access to a 50T with an electric hydraulic pump (when I worked at Polaris 20 years ago). I miss the 50T for sure! I will tell you that you need three things to use a shop press efficiently: 1) a bunch of solid rods of different sizes and tubing of different sizes (sockets work very well), 2) a healthy dose of creativity, and 3) an even healthier dose of safety awareness.

Oh, yeah, one of these universal press supports is helpful, too:

View attachment 510745

It's the only thing I've found to replace wheel bearings easily on my Subaru.
Click to expand...

Nice fixture but it doesn't come cheap at $470
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X1JXYKK?tag=wranglerorg-20

Here's an alternative that's easier on the pocket book at $105
https://www.amazon.com/ABN-Universal-Drill-Press-Support/dp/B079P5499R/?tag=wranglerorg-20
 
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What I'm missing is all the spare steel lying around. I’m also thinking a ball joint press kit would probably do the trick. I was just hoping there was a "press kit" sort of thing that has a bunch of stuff like what you'd commonly need.
 
hear said:
I was just hoping there was a "press kit" sort of thing that has a bunch of stuff like what you'd commonly need.
Click to expand...

There are very limited press kits available, but in my experience, there is no "commonly" about it. It seems no matter how many press doo-dads I collect, I always need something I don't have. That's why having a huge drawer of sockets is good - not only do you have a socket for every occasion, but you also have a good selection of press doo-dads!
 
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hear said:
What I'm missing is all the spare steel lying around. I’m also thinking a ball joint press kit would probably do the trick. I was just hoping there was a "press kit" sort of thing that has a bunch of stuff like what you'd commonly need.
Click to expand...

If you have a steel yard close by, they usually have containers of remnant's of solid round stock material as well as pipe & steel plate.
 
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