I dragged the track press home in the back of my Landcruiser Troop Carrier, I'm surprised at how heavy they are in the flesh, there is no way I could lift it myself.

I discovered that the 4 "speeds" of the pump are simply made by adjusting the length of the pump handle with a spring loaded pin, this was confirmed in a old Rodgers Owners booklet that I found on the internet that was for a 6" porta pack from that era, with a similar hand pump, they say on "Fast" speed the pump generates around 20 tons, and on the "Slow" speed it will generate 100 tons.

The unit has been sitting under cover for 60 years not being used, the old oil in the pump and the ram looks good, but obviously I'll change it, and the hoses will need attention, the previous owner had hooked up a old bit of garden hose as a return pipe when he wanted to check the pump and ram both worked.

Yes Neil, or the custodian of yet another boat anchor! LOL

Hello Tony, I've been looking around for at least 5 or 6 years trying to find one, and finally got lucky, what's that saying, "even a blind pig will find a acorn every now and then" LOL

It costs around $US750 to turn pins and bushes here in Oz on D4 chains with the plates removed, plus any parts needed, while new pins and bushes from Berco cost around $US1,200, so it really doesn't make sense to muck around reconditioning old chains when you can buy new for almost the same price, plus the nearest reasonably priced track shop is 1,000k's from me, 600 miles, so there's a lot of miles going there and back too.

Plus the track shops tell me the 2 Ton Cat chains are a pain to do, and more expensive, because of their one piece design, and I have 3 sets of them that need reconditioning, so it was a no brainer to try and find something I could use here in my spare time, I like a challenge, and I like learning new skills.

Were you going down to visit John Gaunt, he mentioned it in a recent email, he lives in a nice part of the UK, my wife Anna the Saint and I had lunch with John there back in 2017.
All the best
Mike

Well I gave the pump a flush out with diesel and added some fresh hydraulic oil, hooked up Eddie's pressure test gauges and after a few pumps saw the gauge working it's magic, initial pressure was around 1,500 pounds on "high" speed, and the more I pumped the better it all got, looks like the pump is producing 4,800-4,900 pounds on "slow" speed, which is about as high as Eddies test gauges go, they max out at 5,000.

That's a promising start, it is possible I could run the ram using the hydraulics on my Case 1490 tractor, I reckon they are 2,000 pounds, might be enough to press out old Cat 2 Ton pins and bushes, and maybe D2, only time will tell, first I'll need to make some dies, adapter and a second set of adjustable jaws, plus a new table top.

there is a formula for working out what force a given size piston will generate for a given pump pressure.
To calculate the force produced, multiply the pressure by the area of the hydraulic cylinder's piston in square inches. This will give you the force in pounds, which you can easily convert into tons. so you could use that to work out if your tractor would generate enough power.

example 6 inch dia : 6x3.141592654= 18.84955592x2000psi= 37,699.11184 lbs divide by 2000 =18.84  short ton remember that is maximum theoretical force actuall force will be less due to friction losses etc

are you sure on those numbers...i didn't know area of a circle is calculated diameter x pie...?

my mistake area is pi x r squared so my figures for area are wrong the hydraulics formula isnt.

the correct example:
28.274x2000=56548divied by 2000=28.27us ton or 25.64 metric tonne

a power pack set to do 5000 psi would be perfect. that air powered unit i spoke of can easily be regulated to only do that as output is relative to air supply pressure so you could still use modern porta-power rams with the same power unit for those other pressing jobs all you would need really is a relief valve set to 5000 psi plumbed to catch tank on the track press to protect it