Snooped around the internet and saw that most Chinese track presses are in the 2-4k price range, including electric or hand pump. I was wondering the feasibility of making my own, and what tonnage would be required for D2 pins. I already have a 20 ton hollow ram press and hand pump, so all I need are the two end "castings" and three long bolts, unless I need a bigger ram. My questions are:
- what tonnage is required to press the D2 pins
- what thickness of mild steel for the "castings" on each end - one with a "socket" for the ram to sit in, centered, and the other one for the other side of the tracks with a hole in it for the pin to be pushed out through - I was thinking two inch plate would be sufficient up to 50t (I'm not an engineer so that's a wild guess). I also think that each piece would need to be no more than 12 inches on a side (triangular in shape)
- what diameter through bolts - I was thinking 3 @ 1 inch with fine thread, grade 8

Thoughts? And what would materials cost? I already have a mag drill and would just pick up an annular cutter sized right for the through bolts. I'd have my guy turn down some adaptors for pushing pins and bushings and he works cheaply so I'd probably get a set of those for a hundred clams, a six pack, and my second best dog...
 

Thanks Mike, I have some 30 link new rails that I wanted to put on my 5U but it needs 33 link rails so I picked up 3 new link equivalents and need to get them fitted. I was figuring if making up those bits cost less than say 500 clams, then I'd add that tooling to my repository. If it was more than that, I might just take the rails down to Milton Cat and have them assemble the extra links

Thanks side-seat - do you think 20 tons would be enough? And what plate thickness would be sufficient, meaning like 50-100% over-capacity. What size were your all-threads? Like Jack's at 7/8 Grade 8?
 

That's what I think too! : ) I priced some 2" hot-rolled plate 12"x12" at online metals and it was 230 clams per piece (I have no idea what the best performance/price steel would be so if something has some thoughts, please let me know). I figure another 200 for three 7/8 UNF threads about 2' long so maybe I could get it done for under 700. Would need to throw my guy a bone for some pushing adapters. What sort of steel should they be made from? He made some adapters for pushing and pulling steering hubs and sprockets out of what looks like "mild steel" but I don't know what I'm looking at, so I'll go ask him.

Excellent thanks Scott. I'll start collecting materials. Only thing is that I have a 20 ton ram so I don't know if that is enough for D2 pins. Presumably I can pick up a 30t ram and use my existing hand pump