Show off your old shop press! KR Wilson, Manley, Lempco, etc (2024)

I just picked up a wreck of a Lempco 400A 60 ton hydraulic press. I'm trying not to be a remorseful buyer as I uncover it's ugly secrets and prepare to spruce it up.

Anyone care to show off their old presses? Especially any resto jobs that could inspire me to really go all out on this thing!

Canedy-Otto screw press. The propaganda says 30tons but I don't believe it. I made up a nose-piece for the ram which takes 3/4" bar, or one of a few different inserts I made up to hold smaller rods or a bolt so fancier tooling can be affixed. Very good for compressing motorcycle forks. The open frame makes it lots more convenient than my horrible old import "12 ton" hydraulic press, and the table is flatter and more square.

It came with a few pieces of original tooling, including the 2 v-blocks in the pic along with v-shaped nosepiece all used for shaft straightening. The arbor press works fine too. The plate sitting on the table is not original but is handy.

Some previous owner scratched the "up/down", which is very helpful

Greg Menke said:

Canedy-Otto screw press.

Click to expand...

Very cool press. I didn't know Canedy-Otto made presses.

Ohio Mike said:

Very cool press. I didn't know Canedy-Otto made presses.

Click to expand...

Me either... there is another PM member with one, and I found an old auction listing for another but thats it. The compounding mechanism isn't particularly unique, though they did a nice job with it and the thrust bearing up inside the head. It was their take on existing screw press designs I suppose. I find it competitive with the usual bottle-jack sort of press, but lots slower than the air over systems- Garwood's fancy press above would be night-and-day better regardless. The handwheel is liable to pinch fingers mightily, so the operator does have to take care. A bungee cord restraining the compounding mechanism so the handwheel doesn't drag it around is helpful.

Those are some nice old presses. Mine is a step down but I stumbled over this one a couple years ago at an estate auction. It was filthy and did not work - the before photo already has some parts removed so we could load it. Thought I had it bought at $45 but then a guy woke up and I had to give $85. My grandson was assisting and picked out the paint color from what was already here. Cleaned it up, rebuilt both the pump and ram and it works nice for my purposes - replaces a crappy abused H frame one I had previously. Rated at 30 tons.

I have never seen another press like this - not that it means anything. Interesting design and since OTC made it I'm guessing optomized for automotive work as performed at the time it was designed. Sorry about the washed out pictures.

Dale.

duckfarmer27 said:

Those are some nice old presses. Mine is a step down but I stumbled over this one a couple years ago at an estate auction. It was filthy and did not work - the before photo already has some parts removed so we could load it. Thought I had it bought at $45 but then a guy woke up and I had to give $85. My grandson was assisting and picked out the paint color from what was already here. Cleaned it up, rebuilt both the pump and ram and it works nice for my purposes - replaces a crappy abused H frame one I had previously. Rated at 30 tons.

I have never seen another press like this - not that it means anything. Interesting design and since OTC made it I'm guessing optomized for automotive work as performed at the time it was designed. Sorry about the washed out pictures.

Dale.

View attachment 381846View attachment 381847View attachment 381848View attachment 381849View attachment 381850

Click to expand...

Nice. I have a 36" otc puller that uses the same ram setup.

Greg Menke said:

Canedy-Otto screw press. The propaganda says 30tons but I don't believe it. I made up a nose-piece for the ram which takes 3/4" bar, or one of a few different inserts I made up to hold smaller rods or a bolt so fancier tooling can be affixed. Very good for compressing motorcycle forks. The open frame makes it lots more convenient than my horrible old import "12 ton" hydraulic press, and the table is flatter and more square.

It came with a few pieces of original tooling, including the 2 v-blocks in the pic along with v-shaped nosepiece all used for shaft straightening. The arbor press works fine too. The plate sitting on the table is not original but is handy.

Some previous owner scratched the "up/down", which is very helpful

View attachment 381172

Click to expand...

As a long time H-frame press user, like mechanical presses, because they have semi-fine increments of control and near-zero backlash.
Next, hydraulics for infinite control and FAR higher pressures. Those with head travel along between upper rails, not available in every press, I see as the biggest feature. Can't see the sense in any press design not having open end frames. Equally useful, the business end of ram should have means to mount tooling.
Haven't done it, but read bottle presses benefit from mods to the pump allowing it to run inverted, adding an external reservoir.
Don't get me started on arbor presses. JK. A few extra bits make those ideal for certain work too. Like most tools, none are good at everything, many are ideal when correctly applied.

Toolmaker51 said:

Haven't done it, but read bottle presses benefit from mods to the pump allowing it to run inverted, adding an external reservoir.

Click to expand...

I've done it on (2) different hydraulic jacks.

DDoug said:

I've done it on (2) different hydraulic jacks.

Click to expand...

The descriptions of inverted jacks and demonstrations are very convincing. Not take much talking to myself into about a 50 ton, with all the features, carriage mounted cylinder and all.