Shopsmith Forums

Good morning, May I ask, why the bottle Jack. Am I missing something here ??? I went out and looked at my S.S. and put it in drill mode ??? Sorry, I'm slow, could someone expain this to me. I did not measure to see if it was 90 degree's, is this why the reason [or support?] for using the jack??? Many thanks. Doug

Doug
The bottle jack was suggested as a way around the problem where your table is too low when in drill press mode and you need to lift it. Usually the problem comes when you try to make a small adjustment. If the table is setting on the bottle jack small and precise adjustments to the height of the table can be made.
Ed

Many Thanks ED, I wonder what the jack would do, and from the pictures this made me more curious. Im with you now. Again Thanks. Doug

a1gutterman wrote:Hey Chuck,
Check this Internet site out: http://www.google.com/products?q=US+made+bottle+jacks&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADBF&um=1&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title According to my search requirements, lots of US made bottle jacks ( I have not verified the source, but if I were shopping for one, I wood!). I favor Blackhawk Hydraulic bottle jacks myself, and I am trying to find out if they are still made in the USA. I will let you know!

Hi Chuck,
So far, I have not heard from American Forge and Foundry. Some of the other jacks shown in my search are from a company that is in Owatonna Minnestota. The name of that company is The Owatonna Tool Company (OTC). I have learned that OTC bottle jacks are all made in China. My favorite bottle jack is from a company called Blackhawk. My personal Blackhawk bottle jack was made in the USA, but...

Blackhawk was bought by Hein-Werner. Hein-Werner/Blackhawk was sold to Lincoln St. Louis, then sold to Clore Corp. They are now owned by Shinn Fu. Most of the Blackhawk products are imports. They also own the Hein-Werner brand which is still made in the U.S.

--
BLACKHAWKPARTS
(423)622-8282 Fax 629-0125
Repair kits and parts for most brands & models of hydraulic jacks, pumps & rams
http://www.blackhawkparts.com

...was the response that I got in return of an inquiry that I made to blackhawkparts.com.

In summary, so far, we have one US manufacturer of bottle jacks
http://www.hein-werner.com/
And one possible
http://www.affjaxx.com/

Along with that we have a Japanese company
http://www.masadajack.com/p1.php
and since you can knot buy from that site (maybe you can if you understand Japanese) here is the link that Nick provided to a US distributor of those Japanese jacks
http://www.hyjacks.com/H21.HTM

An interesting fact: Shinn Fu is a Global company, and one of the brands that they own seems to be
AC Delco]http://www.shinnfuamerica.com/(S(5t344rravkwt04451vxujf55))/Default.aspx[/URL]

Thanks folks! I certainly appreciate all of the surfing work done to search for the jacks. After all that work, I have decided to stay with the two wood blocks rather than going for an adjustable table height. The short bottles are all way too expensive for this purpose, and of course they are limited in their throw distance. I had been thinking in the neighborhood of $15 maximum for a simple purpose like this. Even the 1.5 ton jacks seem like a whole bunch of over-kill.

After seeing Nick's use of his bottle jack, it seemed like a great idea to add a little versatility. It still is! Guess I'm too used to sitting on a stool to do vertical drilling and routing work. Would really have to make adjustments to have the table at chest and/or eye height. The jack idea will probably work for others though!

One very reasonably priced screw jack can be found on the Home Depot site - Minimum height 6.2" and maximum 13.4" http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... 003+90401#

Charlese;

I now understand why you need a "real low" profile lift mechanism. I also understand why you would like to have some precision control over the height of the carriage (table).

I have attached a photo of the lift I use for the bandsaw. I use this to adjust belt tension but the same "principle" might work for the carriage in the drill press (OPR) mode.

Of course, it would require a much larger carriage bolt.

[ATTACH]1688[/ATTACH]

Hmmmm! Good idea Dusty! I'd like a faster movement - maybe like 5 or 6 threads per inch. Would likely require a hand made wood bolt or a vice screw. Thanks for the inspiration. Don't know that I'll get one of those round tuits soon, but will hang on to the idea!

You could repurpose a screw jack from under your motor home. That would be a coarser thread. The ones I have are too long but they could be cut off.

charlese wrote:Thanks folks! I certainly appreciate all of the surfing work done to search for the jacks. After all that work, I have decided to stay with the two wood blocks rather than going for an adjustable table height. The short bottles are all way too expensive for this purpose, and of course they are limited in their throw distance. I had been thinking in the neighborhood of $15 maximum for a simple purpose like this. Even the 1.5 ton jacks seem like a whole bunch of over-kill.

After seeing Nick's use of his bottle jack, it seemed like a great idea to add a little versatility. It still is! Guess I'm too used to sitting on a stool to do vertical drilling and routing work. Would really have to make adjustments to have the table at chest and/or eye height. The jack idea will probably work for others though!

One very reasonably priced screw jack can be found on the Home Depot site - Minimum height 6.2" and maximum 13.4" http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100595201&N=10000003+90401#

Hi Chuck,
I can understand your sentiments exactly. I will just add that I got a response from American (??!!) Forge and Foundry:
[quote]
Tim,

Our automotive series bottle jacks are manufactured in our factory in China and our industrial series jacks are manufactured in our facility in Japan.

Tim Simmons
Inside Sales Manager
American Forge & Foundry, Inc.
1-800-255-0555
Go Directly to AFFJAXX.Com
[/quote]
and with that response, every inquiry that I made had the same results, which almost agree with your findings]

Persistence pays off: http://www.usjack.com/
This one looks like it IS made in the US.
http://www.usjack.com/company.htm