porta powers and pin pullers

[farmerlund]

Looking for a bigger kit for working on equipment. I might just piece it together as I go along. What do you guy like? Electric pumps or air? I have a smaller kit with hand pump.
I am wanting to get bigger cylinders with the through hole in them. 50T-100T What are you guys using? Any brands to stay away from?

 

[John C.]

The electrics work better in cold and bad weather. The air pumps will free up in heart beat with cold moist air. They also need a lot of air.

 

[Jonas302]

I think temco makes a good product for reasonable price I have some of there hollow cylinders and air pump https://temcoindustrial.com/tools/hydraulics/cylinders/

 

[LN Pipeline]

I think temco makes a good product for reasonable price I have some of there hollow cylinders and air pump https://temcoindustrial.com/tools/hydraulics/cylinders/

I bought a Temco double acting hand pump and was very disappointed. The pump would not hold pressure, and the welds on the reservoir were very poor. There was a small holed burned all the way through, and would leak out oil if you tipped it upside down.

I dumped the oil in a bucket to replace it with AW-32, and a bunch of black particles and what appeared to be metal shavings came out with the brand new oil. I emailed the vendor I bought it from and told them I wanted a full refund and to send a shipping label, cause I wasn’t paying to ship it back.

That was my one experience with Temco, and based on that one experience I wouldn’t by anything from them. They were also selling their stuff under another brand name at the time.

Some of their stuff could be good, but that pump was junk.

 

[92U 3406]

I like OTC.

For me, its an air pump. Service truck has air, electricity isn't always abundant on the jobsites.

 

[1693TA]

I have pneumatic, electric, and manual pumps and all work well in their respective uses. Usually have a small generator set with me so the electric pump is my choice. I have Enerpac, SPX Power Team, and a chinese brand "Hydrafore" in various tonnage ratings hollow bore cylinders. The 60 ton Enerpac cylinder is a fresh reman and unused at this writing. Tooling is being fabricated for it now as the 30 ton Hydrafore did not have enough force to remove drive sprockets from two HD-21 Allis-Chalmers tractor(s) recently and I had to borrow a puller setup.

I like the manual pump when doing precise work such as setting a bushing or bearing in a bore with a recessed depth requirement. Something along the lines as a clearance for an oil seal to fit. Personally, I have better "feel" with the manual pump. Most other times the electric pump is the choice.

I've had zero problems with the "Hydrafore" brand cylinder which is a 30 ton, 100mm stroke unit. I had it threaded on the external barrel and made a weldment my pulling arms attach to which screws onto this. It's pulled and pushed a lot of bearings and gears from shafts along with smaller dozer sprockets. Not to heavy to handle and setup by hand either. Getting the setup to an antenna drive deck a minimum of 72' above the ground is another matter altogether however.....

 

[LN Pipeline]

Hydrafore is the brand that appears to have some of the same tools as Temco.



This is the pump I was disappointed with. Would not recommend.

 

[1693TA]

Temco is just another marketer out there with greater markup than some others. Technical support; Nada on most of what they sell is my experience. The one Hydrafore cylinder is the only Chinese produced hydraulic part in my inventory. The exterior fit and finish are as good as anything out there but the open bore of the cylinder is lacking in comparison to the american produced products. Very rough texture and dimension is unequal top to bottom. In my needs it's not a detriment and it didn't cost near as much as an Enerpac for the then test jig being set up. It does work well and does not leak with 10.5ksi pushing on it.

 

[farmerlund]

Looked around town today. looks like the electric pumps are a lot more than the air pumps. $4-600 for air, $3,000+ for electric. Time for some internet shopping it looks like.

 

[Nige]

Enerpac cylinders & pumps always worked well for us.

 

[ahart]

I would say intended use is going to be the deciding factor here. If you’re going to pull the occasional pin a few times a year, then the el cheapo will work great for years. If pulling pins and bearings is something you’re doing on the regular, I’d drop some coin and get the sood stuff. I’ve got 2 pneumatic foot pumps, one enerpac and one OTC, I use the OTC the most. I’ve got 2 30 ton hollow Cat branded rams, 1 50 ton aluminum Cat, and 1 10 ton short cat ram. I’ve got several temco pancakes and a 20 ton and 1 simplex 50 ton steel ram. I don’t see a problem with the temco stuff that I’ve got, it performs well. I’ve used a few hydrafore rams and they’re good for what they cost, if they sh*t the bed, throw them away and get another. Name brands can be rebuilt and is cost effective to do so, the cheapo ones aren’t worth the time let alone the money to rebuild. The name brand stuff tends to handle more abuse than the cheap ones, which is good for field work. This is just my experience with the products. Hope you find something that works for you.

 

[LN Pipeline]

I should have added that I ended up with a Power Team pump and some rams. They appear to be well built and some of the stuff says made in USA. Don’t use it a whole lot.

 

[willie59]

One thing I would add here whatever brand/type cylinder you get, and hollow rams are are freaking awesome. You can still push with them like any ram, but you can also pull, something push rams can't do. Yeah, they're more expensive than push rams, but the added capability of the hollow ram makes the investment worth it. The thing I would add is the threaded rods, keep in mind that threaded rods are available in grade 8 as opposed to grade 2 or grade 5. If you're going to invest in a hollow ram, at least use grade 8 rods as well.

 

[ahart]

I know I’m very biased here but I have only used Cat pulling rods, and I use the biggest one possible for the job I’m doing. You start thinking about 40k, 60k or 100k+ lb of force and that’s a serious projectile. Makes a hell of a missile.

 

[1693TA]

Smart move to use the correct tools. I had my threaded cylinder collars and pulling rods made. Having a friend that works at a heat treat shop, he tells me the steel to order and I have another friend being an expert machinist to make the parts to my needs. Then over to heat treat for finishing. I don't know what all is entailed in the process but I've pretty much copied an Enerpac setup carried on a service truck. It seems to work well. Some of the adjustable tooling I've made myself with Acme rod and nuts welding 3/4" round stock "speed handles" for rapid adjustment. Some are grade 8 threaded rod and nuts but that is much slower to work with. Some of the little hardware such as the pins attaching the pulling arms to their respective ends I've purchased as they can be consumable pieces and I don't want to be down on a jobsite awaiting a special part.

Another area that needs talked about is remaining clear. I have 20' hoses on my electric pumping unit and a 15' lanyard to remain well clear of the area of high force application. I typically throw a heavy blanket over the sprocket once I know the power is being applied where needed myself. I had to watch a few training and safety films produced by International-Harvester made before the days of political correctness and hurt feelings with a rock or piece of ore firmly embedded in a mechanic's forehead when something popped free under hydraulic force during undercarriage work. One of those films involving safety stands in particular has stayed with me.

 

[92U 3406]

One thing I would add here whatever brand/type cylinder you get, and hollow rams are are freaking awesome. You can still push with them like any ram, but you can also pull, something push rams can't do. Yeah, they're more expensive than push rams, but the added capability of the hollow ram makes the investment worth it. The thing I would add is the threaded rods, keep in mind that threaded rods are available in grade 8 as opposed to grade 2 or grade 5. If you're going to invest in a hollow ram, at least use grade 8 rods as well.

I like using Acme thread rod. Its a square shaped thread, similar to what caging bolts use and is much stronger than regular thread.

 

[terex herder]

Acme threaded rod is available in any grade desired. It is not a guarantee of strength. For my 50T hollow ram I use Williams Form bars, which are used to bolt ceilings and walls in hard rock mines and tunnels. Mine were left over from putting floor anchors in for pull pots.

 

[1693TA]

Mine are reclaimed from former house, or building jacks. I don't know the grade but they are very hard. They came from a century old family owned house moving business that is still in operation when they moved over to central hydraulic jacking.

 

[John C.]

My short pull rods are Cat 46A head studs. My long ones are Grade 8 course threaded cut to the common lengths that I needed. If I needed longer I got those long length nuts and joined two lengths together of what ever lengths I needed. I have an old Blackhawk body kit from a retired wrench that included a 40 ton hollow ram and a 50 ton jack. A big H frame strong back was part of the deal and I bought two bearing splitters, mid size and large, to round things out. All that and more went into a steel box that all rode in what ever service truck I was driving at the time.

Whatever brand jacks and pumps you are using now has to be better than the Blackhawk stuff built in the seventies.

 

[Mike L]

I put together a pulling kit with an eBay electric over hydraulic pump, temco hollow ram cylinder and I got my threaded rod from McMaster Carr. Can’t remember the rating on it but I bought it in 7/8” 1” and 30 mm. When I worked at the Volvo dealer we had 30mm rod we got from Volvo specifically for pulling pins. It cost about $900 and our in house machinist said he didn’t know what it was made of but it was harder than a preachers ****. Stuff would take some abuse.