Everyone around here knows I love tools and projects and making tools in the shop is always fun. But is it worth the time and effort to build your own tools? Clearly it isn’t always worth it, but sometimes it is and especially when you can’t actually buy what you want. I’ve made lots of tools over the years because customizing something readily available wouldn’t give me what I really needed, or because I just couldn’t afford the high dollar prices of the tool companies. In today’s world tools have never been more readily available at a variety of prices, but I still think that building tools for your own garage can be a worthwhile project, and some great fabrication practice.

In this video from Meanwhile In The Garage, you are going to see one hell of a shop press go together. It is a 20 ton hydraulic press with a frame capable of supporting any load you could want, and with some features, you just might not have thought of. It isn’t air over hydraulic in the sense that you can put a load on something with the air, but it does have an air assist that gets the ram touching the part with the push of a button, and that’s just cool.

There are some cool features to this press that I think you could also incorporate into a store-bought press if you did some customization, but if you really want a press that is going to turn heads and be a badass, this one right here will fit the bill.

Check it out, be inspired, and let us know what you think.