BSMALL2023 Vanvlak Vertical Hydraulic Press

[has.been]

I think it is coming along fine. Keep it up.
Loving the idea of thousands of these crosses being churned out for the Empire.

[Digits]

Yup cool idea and coming along nicely!

[aircav]

Cracking stuff, looking forward to seeing it all put together

[Vanvlak]

Thanks all.
Getting there - some fiddling with the platens, finding the guards for the front and rear, and then all that's left is to add any final bits to make it look a bit more detailed and busy. I might have found a project I can actually finish at last!

[FreakyFenton]

This looks great, I especially like the power source and the use of guitar string!

[Vanvlak]

It's done! For a change. Hope I'll paint it on time now.

Almost done, to be precise - I kept the guard off for now, as it's mostly transparent and I don't want to get paint on it; and I need to sand down some filler, but the build is done.

Here's the guard - I just could not find mesh of a suitable size, and had no time to order stuff, so I chose a transparent guard instead - another small plastic box with some plasticard added to cover a trade name. This will have the brackets and the white strip painted.


I added a somewhat over-large embossed logo on the base - these are self-adhesive letters intended to decorate handbags or something. HA stands for Hydraulics Amalgamated.

I also added the ram for the lower platen, another seal ring from a TT Combat paint. Interestingly it has 'press' written on it, so it was meant for this build! the daft engineer installed it upside down though...

And finally, here's the complete press, with the guard in front of it. This will go on the front side of the press, more or less at the operator's height.


I have to confess I hadn't thought about designing platens when I started out, and this took more time than planned. The clay in the plastic box shrank on setting (well of course it did, it's what clay does), so I had to seal it with filler, and clean up the two platens too. They are nowhere near as polished as the real thing, but will do.

I had planned an orange paint job but nostalgia for the old presses in the sink factory I had worked in means it will be a very traditional machine tool green. I might make the letter red, for some nice contrast, and the platens were colour coded, so the sides could be any colour. I will have to have some oil leaks, but will try not to overdo it.

[snitcythedog]

This is looking well cool. 

[Codsticker]

That is a lovely little bit of work.

[Lost Egg]

Looking good...I can see it now, two combatants struggling, one pushes the other down and reaches for the controls...ouch!

[marianas_gamer]

Damn fine piece! Shame about the daft engineer 

[FreakyFenton]

Great stuff! I do like the use of the letters, oddly enough, I thought it were cyrillic characters at first.

[McMordain]

That is a really awesome build! Can't wait to see it painted.

[Vanvlak]

Great stuff! I do like the use of the letters, oddly enough, I thought it were cyrillic characters at first.

Now that you mention it, they do!

Thanks all - I still have to paint it up and send the pic to myself of course... 

[aircav]

That’s great