How long should my Harbor Freight shop press hold the pressure?

[furnone]

I bought a HF 12 ton shop press with the idea of clamping 8 layers of wood to glue it. The glue dries in about an hour. My problem is the press loses all the pressure in aout 15-20 minutes or less. I thought it should last until I release the valve.

Is it defective? or is that normal? and I just got the wrong thing for this job?

I do use the press for other things and am pretty happy with it in general. I will go to HF and see what they say, but I'd like some input from you guys first.

 

[travlitt]

I have the HF 20 ton press and it holds pressure until I release it.

 

[AWSubie]

I also have the 20 ton. It is at least 20 years old and it still holds pressure as if it was new. Have harbor freight replace the cylinder.

 

[sandfs]

If a hydraulic jack bleeds off at all something is wrong.

 

[dragoneggs]

I could see a bleed down after a few days but not in 15 minutes. I would try to get a swap out from HF if it is still fairly new.

 

[furnone]

Thanks guys. I bought it in November, I'll go try for a new cylinder.

 

[aczlan]

Sounds like a good time to upgrade to the air over hydraulic cylinder that they sell for their presses...

Aaron Z

 

[dragoneggs]

Sounds like a good time to upgrade to the air over hydraulic cylinder that they sell for their presses...

Aaron Z

Definitely agree! After a couple uses of the manual cylinder, that is exactly what I did. An excellent and easy mod. Now a pleasurable squeeze of the trigger vs. the ridiculous amount of hand pumping the lever it used to take.

Another nice addition is a press brake DIY kit if you can weld a bit. Easy project for a novice welder. I have the 20T version and I enjoy it for making bends in fairly beefy steel.

44

 

[FTG-05]

Definitely agree! After a couple uses of the manual cylinder, that is exactly what I did. An excellent and easy mod. Now a pleasurable squeeze of the trigger vs. the ridiculous amount of hand pumping the lever it used to take.

Another nice addition is a press brake DIY kit if you can weld a bit. Easy project for a novice welder. I have the 20T version and I enjoy it for making bends in fairly beefy steel.

44

Fixed your link, I think: SWAG 12 TON Press Brake DIY Builder Kit

 

[Fallon]

I did the air powered jack upgrade & am happy with it. Had to drill & maybe tap a hole or 2 in the jack for the mounting screws. They were a bit of a pain to get aligned & not hit webbing or the cylinder. Could probably have skipped one or both of the screws as they just stabilize the jack, but didnt want to risk it.