How to Make a Hydraulic Press for Jewelry

Forming metal into shapes requires either patience or a hydraulic press. With its programmable nature, hydraulic presses can produce full tonnage at any point during their stroke.

Learn to use an easily adaptable hydraulic press for jewelry making with Richard. He provides guidance and basic techniques, plus additional techniques for personalizing forms through piercing, rolling and riveting.

Make the Most of Your Hydraulic Press

Hydraulic presses give you the power to shape metal in ways not possible with vises alone. Richard Sweetman provides this online workshop on using hydraulic presses with handmade dies to shape sheet metal into three-dimensional forms using fluid pressure generated from pumps and motors, pushing cylinders at set forces until they expand or retract as required; pressurizing either end will have this effect; for extended cylinders pressurize cap end first (which pushes piston up/down with subsequent platen movements for compress or expand metal forms).

To create your own press frame, you'll need welded scrap steel pieces in roughly the height of your platen and 3/8-inch or thicker pieces of flat steel that you can welded together and weld to a piece of pipe that can attach directly beneath the platen for support of hydraulic ram. Or you could purchase prefabricated frames at industrial supply stores.

Utilize a pancake die or blanking die to cut metal, followed by an impression die to stamp designs or patterns into it and save time and frustration when creating one-of-a-kind earrings or other shapes. An impression die can also create repeatable patterns.

Utilizing your hydraulic press can also be an efficient way to form and emboss metal into freeform cuff bracelets such as those seen in this class from Lynette Potter. Learn to size, anneal, create your own conforming and nonconforming dies from tool steel and use the press as a speedy production machine!

With the Bonny Doon Classic Pro hydraulic press, you can emboss, texture, and bend metal using an accurate press that offers up to 20 tons of force. Designed for ease of operation with self-leveling lower platen for consistent impressions as well as built-in 10,000 PSI pressure gauge for accurate adjustments of settings, you're set up for success!

Making Earrings

Hydraulic presses are powerful tools that allow users to form metal into various shapes and sizes with incredible ease, particularly soft metals like silver and copper that cannot be formed through traditional means like chasing or repousse. Furthermore, hydraulic presses make great 3D jewelry pieces. In this class by Melissa Muir you will learn the essential operations and guidelines of using your hydraulic press before creating earrings from a pancake die, riveting shapes together for eye-catching effects and making three dimensional jewelry items from these processes.

Hydraulic presses are powerful tools for crafting unique cuff bracelets, and in this workshop you will discover their many uses as you learn how to craft one-of-a-kind pieces using anticlastic and synclastic free-form fabrication techniques. Furthermore, explore creative design possibilities using textures, soldering techniques, colors and spaces created through three dimensional wire fabrication.

This course is tailored for intermediate to advanced metalsmiths with some experience using hydraulic presses, including some form of experience forming or hammering metal, as well as knowing how to operate a torch and jewelers saw.

Students using the Bonny Doon Classic 20-Ton Hydraulic Press will learn to emboss, texture and bend metal precisely while cutting finishing time dramatically. With this tool, students can create perfectly formed bracelets and rings quickly as well as bend thin or thick metals precisely, create repeat patterns quickly, form 3D shapes easily. Perfect for small studios such as kitchen tables or RV park picnic benches as well as larger studios (you can clean up later!) This would make an ideal present for the metalsmith in your life!

Making Bracelets

Hydraulic presses for jewelry-making can help expedite the process by allowing you to form pieces more quickly, produce multiple identical pieces quickly, or produce pieces that appear machine made. Unfortunately, large amounts of metal needing to be formed often require expensive commercial hydraulic presses, room and considerable skill - but with our simple yet practical method for hand forming metal in smaller home built hydraulic presses we offer this class as an alternative solution - learning a method for creating free form bracelet kits along with earrings and pendants using this smaller home built hydraulic press!

Melissa Muir, an expert metal smith and instructor, shows students how to use a basic home built hydraulic press to make anticlastic and synclastic bracelet dies using this method of creation. This makes the creation process simpler while still producing professional quality jewelry pieces. In addition to basic forming techniques she also covers silhouette dies for texture printing as well as roller printing techniques for additional dimensional effects.

Forged metal adds dynamic expression and fluid movement to jewelry designs, and can easily be combined with fabricated forms. In this course, you will learn the fundamentals of jewelry scale forging using both directional and radiating forging techniques, as well as creating planes, transitions, tapers with forged metal elements as well as how to connect forged elements to other fabricated pieces.

The iPress Hydraulic Press was designed to be affordable, portable, and put-away-able. It features a lightweight yet strong steel frame housing a hydraulic ram and platen for holding metal you are pressing; both components together weigh less than 38lbs making them easily portable by one person compared with similar presses which often require two people for setup and transporting.

Start learning how to use a hydraulic press for jewelry making in this intensive class. You'll discover the many features of this handy tool and jump-start your project successfully.

Making Pendants

For added dimensionality in jewelry design, hydraulic presses can be an invaluable asset. In this workshop by jewelry maker and metalsmith Richard Sweetman, he shows how you can press metal into tasteful ridges and angles using this press - even providing tips for coaxing two halves together into a symmetrical form!

Once again, David Muir will show you how to use a pancake die to make fashionable earrings, plus new riveting options for eye-catching layered necklaces. Finally, silhouette dies are introduced for creating chic pierced pendant forms. Melissa Muir will lead you through creating bracelets using both anticlastic and synclastic methods as well as fold-form blanks for professional-quality results.

Hydraulic presses can also be used to craft pendants. For this project, you will require sheet metal that measures at least 3/8" thick (depending on what size man you come up with) as the substrate and two pieces of pipe to weld onto the underside of the platen and allow the hydraulic ram to pass through them; furthermore you'll require threaded stock that matches up in length with these welded pipes; finally you will require both cylinder and cap end ports and rod end ports so the ram can extend and retract.

This DIY press weighs in at only 38lbs, making it lightweight enough for anyone to easily install and move. Plus, unlike some brands of hydraulic presses that weigh over 200lbs, this one was specifically designed to be portable so it can be taken along to workshops and events for use anytime!

Heather of Towed Studio is a self-taught silversmith who specializes in large stones, casting and jewelry making using hydraulic presses. Currently residing in Tucson with her husband and two rescue dogs, Heather teaches classes both at Xerocraft as well as her home studio; in addition, she leads workshops at local maker spaces as well as traveling.