anyone have the 12 ton HF press?

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considering the HF 12 ton press. it would only be used for bearings and bushings on our cars---no trucks. anyone have it? problems? size and strength good enough?
 
Yeah it's great. Use it for bearings and bushings. Power to spare.

Makes a satisfying TWAAANG-CLUNK when it gets the job done.

I have the silvery-gray paint one, which I read is slightly better than the toxic orange one.
 
we have a 20 ton press at work. so far I have been able to press anything I wanted/needed but the others haven't been so lucky. Or skilled, maybe. I take my time to support the item I'm pressing in or out, and fabricate what I need to press stuff in cleanly.

At a previous employer we had a 40 ton press, but there I worked on HD vehicles. That press was great though. Same principles apply though, get everything straight and inline.
 
I have one from princess auto which is the Canadian version of HF. I've used it to install two wheel bearing's. You have to get the hang of pressing bearing's in. Look at YouTube for some videos on how to do it.

I also found that you need a good set of heavy base plates to support the hub's you are working on.
 
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I have one. It's worked great for everything I've needed it for. Don't forget your coupon. It's in their flyers frequently.

The bottle jack works great to use on its own too.
 
I was given a used one by my BIL about 10 years ago and have beaten the snot out of it. Still work great.


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I have the 12 ton. I use it for pressing in saturn wheel bearings. It does fine pressing in new ones. If you have a bad bearing thats really overheated, i have barely gotten them out with the 12 ton. I wish i had the 20. If its not much more, get the 20 ton.
 
My mechanic has the 12 ton HF press, he's beat the [censored] out of it and it's bent but he still uses it. The jack quit working and he put in a 20 ton bottle jack. He used it a few weeks ago to do my Camry wheel bearings. Had a 4 foot extension bar for leverage on the handle of the 20 ton bottle jack and used all he could to get the bearings out, bent the HF press in the mean time even more but it worked.
 
I've pressed bearing before but it was at one of my schools' ag shop and that thing was huge. the 12 ton is $99 and the 20 ton is $154 with the coupons
 
Originally Posted By: joel95ex
I've pressed bearing before but it was at one of my schools' ag shop and that thing was huge. the 12 ton is $99 and the 20 ton is $154 with the coupons


If i didn't already have the 12ton , i'd get the 20.
 
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I've often wondered about the A frame 6 ton for the sake of saving room, but now i wonder if its big enough.
 
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I have had the orange one (pictured above by funflyer) for about 25 years, worked great. About 15 years ago I replaced the 12 ton jack with a 12 ton pneumatically operated jack and now it is awesome. I Just squeeze the air flow lever and I just watch it press.
 
Harbor freight has the 20ton press for $149. with coupon.

I don't care for a lot of their tools, but for lifts , presses and jacks i have bought them.
 
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