USED PRESSES

The Tool Everybody Forgets About (But Are Glad They Have One When It's Needed)

If there is just about anything a new shop is gonna need, it is a — call it what you want — a maintenance press, a bearing press, a toolmaker's press, a shop press, a punch press or a turret press. The venerable old shop press has finally made the big time; by golly, they even have two Internet channels, one on Facebook and one on YouTube. Both channels feature people crushing things with a 50-ton shop press. Innocent hockey pucks, bowling pins, and who knows what else are subjected to the immense pressure of the metal press. Well, that’s one way to use a metal press anyway. Whomever came up with that idea to crush everyday inanimate objects (and film it), needs to get more work for their press. Although we don't condone crushing objects in a massive metal press, it does, in a way, show the incredible versatility of the hydraulic press (or, for that matter, any other type of metal pressing machine).

Used Metal Presses of Every Possible Description!

Over the years, Bud's has seen some interesting variations of the shop press, mechanical press, and, of course, the hydraulic metal press come through our doors. We have, on many occasions, seen metal presses come in still loaded with their production die in place. Our service department has become well-versed in both the application of assorted production presses, as well as the service and repair of most models in the field.

If It’s a Press You’re a Seekin', Then It’s a Press We’ll Be a Streakin'... to Get Out to You!

As is typical with all our used inventory, machines like used assorted presses come in and go out at an amazing rate here at Bud's Machine Tools. Typically, we acquire almost all of our used metal presses on trade-in. Because of the nature of these types of equipment, our experienced service team will put the press through its paces before we offer the machine up for sale. If you see a machine on our website you need to call in immediately, confirm we still have the machine here, and then discuss with one of our sales engineers how to put a hold on the machine of your interest.

Used Hydraulic Metal Presses Are a Great Investment!

The power of a hydraulic press can greatly improve the speed of your production line, and used machines from Bud's Machine Tooling are an excellent way to expand the manufacturing capacity of your metal fabrication shop. Adding a used hydraulic press to your shop floor will improve your metal forming and bending capabilities without breaking your budget. While a mechanical press can produce consistent power at the bottom of the stroke while bending metal, the hydraulic press has the capability to apply constant power throughout the forming and bending of metal. This constant application of power enables the hydraulic press to apply force with a "fast approach, slow press, fast return" stroke. This slow press and consistent pressure reduces the risk of tearing of sheet metal, which can lower your scrap rate. The shape of the work table of the hydraulic press also allows for more complex tool designs for metal forming. If you are seeking a used hydraulic metal press, your search is over!

Compare Leverage to Hydraulics, Which One Wins?

Most people, probably not even knowing it, know what a universal hydraulic press looks like and even what it is basically used for. Pressing two pieces together to make one piece of something has to be one of the oldest of human endeavors. Folks from the medieval times and even before them, going all the back to the days of the Roman Empire, were all really good at leverage and how to achieve or apply leverage to get a task done. Much better at applying leverage than the current “modern man.” Know why that is? Because those old guys did not have access to hydraulics!

A Little History of Ye Olde "Metal Press Machine"

The almost indispensable machine tool we are speaking about is of course the hydraulic press. One might think that the history of such a benign machine wouldn’t have much room for glamour or finesse. One might also be mistaken — the beginnings of the modern hydraulic press may have a surprise or two in there for the unsuspecting history seeker. The first verifiable issued patent for a hydraulic press went to an Englishman by the name of Joseph Bramah in 1795. Apparently Mr. Bramah had something of a leg up, as it were, on the design because of his advanced understanding of fluid dynamics. One might ask themselves, 'Gee, I wonder why Mr. Bramah even had any understanding of fluid dynamics back in old 1795 England?' Well, he would have — he’s the patent holder for the first functioning toilet! May I suggest we pause briefly in a moment of silent thanks to Mr. Bramah. (Time to “flush” this line of discussion out!)

What Have You Seen, What Haven’t You Seen?

Over the years, Bud's Machine Tools at one time or another has had to have had every kind of metal press ever conceived. We’re talking any kind of method of operation: hydraulic, of course; we’ve seen plenty of mechanical presses; we’ve had pneumatic presses here on occasion; we’ve even seen a few of the way older — would you believe — foot powered presses! Oh yeah, if it has been manufactured, we have probably seen it somewhere along the way. The interesting thing about used presses is that they can be maintained virtually forever. Let’s face it folks, there isn’t much more you can ask of a production press of any kind to do at this stage of its development. Sure you could make it CNC for various reasons that don’t have anything to do with the up and down motion of its ram. Typically, most any kind of production metal press (hydraulic or otherwise) can be rebuilt unendingly. There is no obstacle in the way of perpetuating the machine as long as its capability is needed.

Used Mechanical Presses — They Sit in a Corner Until One Day They Save Your Bacon!

Hydraulic presses might be all the rage in modern machine shops, but nothing beats a classic, flywheel-powered used mechanical press for sheer elegance and endurance. Mechanical presses used to be called “forming presses” years ago because most of the work that was being brought to the press was for forming metal. The term “mechanical press” is somewhat overused throughout the industry as, on occasion, someone will refer to a pneumatic or hydraulic press as a “mechanical press.” That being said, there are enough variations of the actual mechanical press that one certainly doesn’t need to confuse any more into the mix. The actual term mechanical press can mean a press that includes a lever-style man-powered action, a screw press that has a large circular wheel on the top of the upper ram to apply force. The term also includes a larger machine that may be powered by electric motor involving a rotating flywheel to generate energy that can be applied to the dies (which is a style that we usually have in stock). Most common frame types found on the huge majority of mechanical presses are the “C” frame style and the “straight side” style, both of which offer widely differing capabilities that can easily be customized to meet a company’s need.

Now You Have a Problem, Who You Gonna Talk to?

One day the superintendent of production comes into your office and declares, “We won't be able to make our delivery to our best customer because all of the new business recently brought into our company has sucked up all the production time and put us behind.” You look up incredulously and ask him, “How far behind?” He looks you right in the eye and flatly states, “A month.” This will not do — the company’s best customer is also the owner’s brother-in-law's company and the owner doesn’t want to hear about it on Thanksgiving Day! What will the V.P. of Production do, having just been advised of the situation? Hopefully he will think, “Wait a minute, when we were at the last open house at Bud's Machine Tools, don’t I recall seeing an area of various presses at one end of the warehouse?” At any given time, Bud's Machine Tools could have several assorted presses — many of them mechanical — in stock.

So You Need a Used Mechanical Press, What if You Have a Question?

The process itself, the act of stamping out a part or using a press to remove necessary pieces from one another, is relatively easy. The slightly trickier question is: Which one is the most suited to what I’m doing? With the vast (literally!) selection of all types of presses there out there, one might find oneself wondering which press might be the best for your job at hand. Badda-Bing! Bud's Machine Tools has an answer for that question.

The Right People with the Right Answers!

At Bud's Machine Tools, we couldn’t help but soak up a lot of experience by selling, delivering and installing many used mechanical presses. Over the years we have delivered everything from a regular typical gap frame press, which is one of the least costly mechanical press variants, to straight side presses, which are an option to the gap frame. Straight side presses are typically more expensive because in the same floor space as a gap frame, the straight side press can carry more tonnage. Straight side presses are also considered to be more stable and more ridged than the gap side press resulting in higher quality parts. But the selection doesn’t stop there, another popular variation is the “open back” inclined press which is typically flywheel driven, quite fast in punches per minute depending on the press setup and a few factors that will determine output.

You Call It Press, I Call It Forming Press, Your Shop Guy Calls It Bearing Press — Huh?

As we have discussed elsewhere on this site, there are a lot of variations of terms used to describe the same machine. That being said, we've seen a wide and varied selection of different metal press machines come in — and frequently go right back out to satisfied customers! We often take in coining presses as they are a popular style of press, and there are a lot of these presses out there. Coining presses got their name for exactly what they were used for when they first came on the market. They were designed to make coins, which they did extremely well. With a combination of a relatively short programmable stroke and the invention of good progressive dies, these used mechanical presses have many capabilities for their parts range. On a regular basis we will get in a forging press, usually on trade-in. The forging press is characterized by a few specialty traits that lend themselves to making the press more applicable to the environment it works in. Designed to operate in a higher ambient temperature, it has die and punch/stamp die sets that can handle hot parts which are sometimes formed while the metal is still red hot. If you want to cover all the bases you would even have to include sheet metal tools, some of them are actually hand tools that are used in the forming of metal. We talk a lot about sheet metal benders when we discuss used miscellaneous presses, They don’t just form metal, the also apply pressure to components to get them to separate or come apart.

What Other Kinds of Presses Are There?

When it comes to variations of a theme, boy do we play in that back yard. At any time, we could have a bench press which is just what it sounds like. These are handy devices for a maintenance shop to have, as a workbench mounted bench press is often called on to do as varied a task as you could imagine. We will see, on occasion, an open back inclinable press (OBI), or a gap frame press, or a toggle-draw press, or sometimes a knuckle lever press. We also see cam drawing presses, transfer presses, reducing presses or even an adjustable bed horn press. Does Bud's Machine Tools see a lot of unique presses? You bet we do, and we frequently will have a large assortment in stock at our warehouse.

A Little Bit of our History, and our Vision of the Future

Bud's Machine Tools — purveyors of the finest in new and used metalworking and metal fabrication machinery — are no newcomers to the industry. The family of Bryan "Bud" Jorgenson has been selling machine tools and providing support for said machines throughout the Intermountain West for decades. Following the example set by Bryan's father, Roger Jorgenson, we strive to always put the customer first, knowing that a satisfied customer is a repeat customer (and also one who recommends us to his friends). Roger knew that it was important to have a brick and mortar entity to service walk-in customers, and at Bud's we continue that tradition, while expanding our Internet offerings far beyond anything Roger ever dreamed of (and he's told us so!). This evolution into a state of an integrated Internet/physical presence allows us to serve customers however they find us, giving them the opportunity to browse our wares in person or in a virtual environment. To the serious cash-paying metalworking machinery company that is in the market to make a considerable investment in a new machine, what makes up a trustworthy business partner anyway? We think the answer to that question is all of the following: an organization that listens to their customer while providing the best possible solutions with the customer's budget in mind; an organization that will treat the customer with the utmost respect at all levels of involvement; a partner in production that, should service needs ever arise, will schedule an engineer to quickly resolve the issue; a company that’s not shy when it comes to having the right part at the right time; not to mention a partner that not only can tell you when a different set of tooling might be better than another and also clearly explain why (and then have that alternative tooling available, right off the shelf). Our service engineers collectively enjoy one of the best reputations in the industry. In addition, we have cultivated many associations and relationships over the years with an extensive network of metalworking machine service-providing companies that range from coast to coast. Our vision of the future looks a bit like the vision Roger had those many decades ago when he decided to buy the machinery sales company he worked at and expanded it to include a vast clientele across a dozen western states (as well as many more customers from coast to coast). We will always earn the customer's trust and respect by putting them first, each and every time. If you are in the metal fabrication business (or do any metalworking, for that matter), especially in the Intermountain West, you need to know about Bud's Machine Tools in Salt Lake City, Utah. We offer new and used fabrication equipment of many varieties, along with mills, lathes and other machine tools, and we invite you to call us up sometime and arrange to stop by and see what we look like.