Arbor Press

[nick_sheets]

Hi CD,

We finally got a hand tapper from the other thread, another tool we noticed that many teams had was an arbor press. We have been fortunate enough to have a mentoring team that allows us to use their press whenever we come down.

But since we have the money we'd like to buy our own. We want to be able to press up to .75 to 1" thick aluminum. I read a few of the other threads, and it seemed like a 5 ton arbor would do the job?

Any recommendations? Should we look into a racheting handle?

I found the broaches for 1/2" Hex, where do you get/how do you broach for cims? I'm unfamiliar with the process. I have not seen our mentor team ever broach anything but hex and press in stuff.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!

[sanddrag]

You should be okay with a 3-ton and some muscle, but a 5-ton wouldn't hurt. For the CIMs, we have a broach and bushing from McMaster. 8mm bushing with a 2mm keyway broach.

[Dick Linn]

Make sure you get one that has enough working height to accommodate both your workpiece plus the length of your broach. The smaller presses may have around 12" maximum capacity. That won't work with a 12" hex broach. A press with 15-17" capacity is expensive.