I have a gas-station style Ramco 50 ton hydraulic press. I love it, but it was a bitch to move the table up and down. So I decided to see how cheaply I could build a table hoist mechanism out of an old 660 pound pulling winch. I used super cheap patio door rollers for pulleys. This is the product I bought at Home Depot.
I used a 660 pound winch made by Dutton Lainson. I bought it years ago intending to make a table hoist for a different press, now long gone. Never made that hoist. The winch went with when I sold the press. I told my buddy who bought the press that I'm looking for a cheap winch and he just gave it back to me. It didn't cost much when I bought it. It's pretty light duty at only 660 pounds, but after I got the thing assembled it lifts the table up and down just fine.
I had a bit of 3/32" aircraft cable. I bought a couple of dollars worth of thimbles and nicopress crimp fittings. That cable is also pretty light, but it seems strong enough.
My design concept isn't original, but a super-inexpensive implementation is worthy of notice. The way my cables and pulleys are arranged, it isn't possible for one end to be higher than the other. The easiest implementation of a cheap table lift is a winch attached to one end of the table, up and over 2 pulleys down to the other side of the table. Crank and the table goes up. But if one side is heavier than the other that side is free to lift up higher than the other. I didn't want that. My design routes one cable from the table up and over and back down to the winch. There is another cable attached to the other end of the table. It goes up to a pulley then goes horizontally across the top, then bends around a pulley with vertical axis. It then routs around that pulley and is attached to the first cable. So when the winch reels in the one cable, both ends lift in tandem. Here's a pic:
I know that image doesn't make it very clear. Here's another:
All of the pulleys were mounted to a single 1/4x3" piece of steel flat bar. The bar isn't attached to the press - it just sits up there on top. It is restrained from going sideways but if the cables were disconnected, it could lift right off. Here is the top bar shown from a different angle:
On the press table, the cables connect to attachment points I fabricated. They are very simple pieces with one hole for a vertical eyebolt and two more holes to implement a pinch clamp. They look like this:
Here is the cable attached to the table. Final adjustment of the cable length is done by threading the nuts above and below the attachment point.
I wanted to make the entire hoist attachment fit within the footprint of the press without the hoist attachment. I did not make that goal. But at least I can still roll the press outside under the shop door.
Keith Fenner, in his video describing his shop-made hydraulic press, says he does not like cable-type table hoists because the cables always fray and tear your hands up. I tried very hard to keep my ends from being able to fray. I slipped heat shrink over the cable, shrank it, then used a pair of dykes to cut the cable, leaving both new ends restrained by the heat shrink. I'm hoping that if the cable never frays from the ends then it won't ever have those needle-like stickies that Keith Fenner dislikes so much. I'm told I'm supposed to keep the cables oiled, too.
The pulleys are just held to 3/8" steel flat bar by 1/4" bolts. Not very strong or robust, but dirt cheap and hopefully strong enough and durable enough.
I've been using the hoist for over a year now. Before I installed the cable lift system, I had a Hi-Lift farmer's jack in the corner. I used to tell people it was a snap to whip out and change the table height with it. In practice, the table didn't get moved much at all. Either I didn't use the hydraulic press or I would make big stacks of thick shims to lift the part so I could do the pressing job without moving the table. Those days are over. This setup is quite easy to use. Since I added it to my press, I like my press a lot more and use it a lot more.
Thanks for reading!