Really? That’s when he found out? Not when he first looked at them and saw that an old exhaust manifold had a smoother finish?
The friend is not a metallurgist and he had attributed the rough finish to a heavy coat of crappy black paint.
The closest HF to me is almost a 100 miles away. When I’m in the vicinity I’ll sometimes stop in and blow a few dollars; usually on junk I don’t really need. Some of their stuff is not worth taking home (discovered after the fact) and some of it is actually pretty darned decent for the price.
A few years back on a whim I bought a set of cheap micrometers (40 bucks) and was stunned beyond belief when I checked them against my Starrett mikes and Starrett Standards when I got home. All 3 of them were dead on. Who woulda thought… 
If you buy the 12T press and later decide to get a bigger one, you can sell the 12T for about what you paid for it. I know someone that buys off-road construction equipment at auction, uses it, then sells it at auction for about what he paid for it.
I was watching a show on TV the other day about a bunch of guys rebuilding an old steam locomotive. Remember that steam locomotive in the third episode of the Back to the Future trilogy? One like that, from the same batch. One of the tasks was to install some large pins – maybe 3 inches in diameter, 1 1/2 feet long – into the wheel drive assembly. The part that moves horizontally and connects the drive wheels together, I’m sure you’ve seen how that works in old western movies. Anyway, they didn’t even attempt to use a press. Instead, they put the pins in liquid nitrogen for 5 minutes to reduce their size, then just pounded the pins into the holes with a big hammer.
It used to be common practice in the manufacturing industry when dealing with press fits to heat the outer part and chill the inner part.
Youch. With the liquid nitrogen I’d be afraid they’d just shatter.
I did once do the freeze trick for bearing races in a brake drum. The drums went in the oven. The races went in the freezer. Bam bam bam goes the hammer. Of course that was just the races for conventional bearings rather than the sealed units. So there was no pounding on the actual bearing.
Liquid nitrogen would cause the part to fail catastrophically, but hey, it was a good movie…
Like you MTB, I was thinking this pounding on a liquid nitrogen treated steel pin wouldn’t be such a good idea as it might crack or shatter. But that’s what they did. hmm … Maybe it wasn’t liquid nitrogen, but it was in a big thermos like container, and steaming up a storm when the lid was off. And the workers were wearing eye shields and gloves, and holding the cold pin with big tongs. So it must have been something really cold.
Edit: Ok, I found an internet vdo of a short segment, the container says “liquid nitrogen”, this all occurs at about the 2 minute 20 second mark. On this part of the vdo they aren’t ponding though, just guiding the part in. But I’m pretty certain there was some pounding involved in the full PBS version. You may be able to watch the whole thing on the PBS website. Here’s the website for the short vdo I mentioned above.
The movie no doubt presented it as liquid nitrogen. In truth, the thermos likely had simple dry ice. That’s a few hundred degrees F warmer than liquid nitrogen. Still not something to play with, but nowhere near as cold. Not cold enough to embrittle most metals.
I’ve had my 12 ton press for thirty years. And its never failed to press out bearings/hubs/ball joints or whatever else I threw at it.
I once used it to straighten out a horse buggy axle. Because the axle was made from tempered steel heat couldn’t be used to straighten the axle. So brute force had to used to straighten the axle.
Tester
Good note of confidence Tester. Thanks. I also know that the guts really amount to the jack itself which can easily be replaced. I may just have to do some extra work on the frame. I also know a pro welder if the ram needs adjustment. I am going for it and am supposed to end up with the press tomorrow AM, but at an ambiguous time - correspondence with some people via craigslist is always a little - well, weird.
Its amazing too, how many things in garage suddenly look like something that might come in handy for pressing, though no need to warn me about the safety end. I"m pretty paranoid.
I’ll let everyone know how it all goes. Thanks so far…
If the press comes with an angle iron bed ask your friend if they can find a section of C-channel for the bed. Much stronger under 12 tons.
You can see in my image that there’s a C-channel bed instead of an angle iron bed. That’s all I replaced.
Tester
@Tester I’d venture to say that a shop press made 30-40 years ago is probably made out of better quality steel and better manufactured than the made in China press you’d buy today.
Well, it is a Meyers press. Found in a ditch by the ole man.
Tester
I’d pay twice as much for a press like that than I would for a new one from Harbor Freight.
Personally, I wouldn’t pay anything for a Harbor Fake shop press
The reason . . . I don’t think I could ever trust it
Then again, a Harbor Fake shop press is better than no press . . .
"Then again, a Harbor Fake shop press is better than no press . . . "
Probably true - since I’ve been tempted by the freeze + heat + BFH method. If it was easier for me to get to a machine shop with my car all torn down I wouldn’t think that way. But standing around with a steering knuckle in your hand on a Sunday afternoon…
WTH is wrong with a nice bolt-on hub/bearing assembly? Sockets and torque wrench I’ve got. The first time I did one of those I cursed the parts cost. But that was a long time ago and before I had to face the pressed bearing.
Anyway, I’ll make it work - or I won’t. Life’s like that.
The Harbor Freight press should be strong enough within the force limits imposed by the included jack. It would be easy for the original US seller check it out to reveal weakness; just run the jack to max pressure to try to bend the adjustable crossbeam. It would also be reasonable to assume that there is a safety factor in its design and that the press has been tested with an even stronger jack. Enough steel to make the press sufficiently strong is cheap to include. It would not be easy to cheat the buyer with a simple tool as this and get away with it for long.
LN2, or CO2 ice, will cool plain carbon steel enough to make it shatter with impact. Stainless steel or aluminum will not behave this way.
Well, my whole schedule got delayed, but I have the press and its a perfectly adequate little unit for my needs (so far). Mission accomplished. Of course, they’re quite simple things - a jack designed to squash stuff between two chunks of metal strong enough to handle the force. It is a bit “cheap” in its construction, and I think that’s what put off some of the online reviewers - not a precision piece of machinery, so you don’t expect to just slap it together and have perfection. The ram is not quite square, and I will do some work on the frame to make it sturdier. But for what I need to do once in a while it’s a good addition to the garage considering it pays for itself in a couple of jobs.
So anyway…thanks all for the feedback. It is greatly appreciated.