Hydraulic Forging Press:

This is my very heavily-used hydraulic forging press. I designed and built this press to do much of my forging including initial welds and almost all drawing (when using drawing dies--not pictured). The nice thing about this press is that it moves about one inch per second and is electrically automated through the foot switches and double-acting hydraulic solenoid valve. I can control upward and downward movement via the foot switches, or I can set the limit switch on the left below the control box to trigger the yellow adjustable time-delay relay located just above the control box. this allows me to simply step on the "down" footswitch and the press automatically reciprocates between my set perameters until I release the pedal. I set the time-delay relay for one second, so when the ram trips the limit switch, the press will reverse for one second (about an inch of travel). I can draw out a red-hot billet by simply feeding it through the press little by little. I can usually draw about 12 inches per heat.