Turret Press

[ViperDoc]

I'm certain I'm not the first to do this, but I recently made a turret-setting tool out of an arbor press, some 5/8" coarse machine bolts, nuts and washers. Tube Depot has a similar kit, but the hardware is readily available at any hardware store. I found the arbor press online--a rust-painted-over beauty from China. I'll refinish it when I get bored. I had the ram re-faced (let's just say "square" ain't in that factory's lexicon), drilled and tapped on a lathe by a local metal shop. Then I drilled the turret-holding-hole in the bolt and filed another bolt-shaft to a 45 degree angle with a bastard file on the drill press. (My drill press is a cheap bench top model, so the swage point didn't quite come out centered, but I didn't mind that for this purpose.) Screw it all together and BAM. Turret arbor press. All in all it cost me about $75.





No more drill press traffic.

[xtian]

I think you can BeDazzle your clothing with that, too.

[Colossal]

I think you can BeDazzle your clothing with that, too.

Hahaha! I'd like to see that

Oh...and that's a nice press, Doc. Good job.

[sluckey]

That's great... for doing one lug at a time. But I like to load a board with all turrets and swage all without having to load a turret, press, load a turret, press, etc. This requires the pointy thing to be mounted on the bottom in a fixed position and the piece that the turret will fit into is mounted in the movable part of the press.

I suggest you trade positions with your press tools. Doing so will tremendously speed up this operation. Look at this Hoffman video to get the idea.

[ViperDoc]

Ooooh....Version 2.0. Well, I staved off obselescence for 5 hours and change. I like setting the turrets upside down to make sure the turret is fully seated, but then I think my non-concentric pressing tool might be to blame for past failures. Thanks for the hot tip, Steve!