BangShift has been paying attention to the Hydraulic Press Channel on YouTube nearly since its inception. It ha brought us more than its fair share of laughs, winces, and downright “did that just happen”? moments for years. Well the elite team of crushers put together their greatest hits video from 2018 and there are 10 fantastic crushes on here. We’re talking stuff that is visually appealing as much as it is downright fun.
Who’s have thought that this would be a fun thing to watch. Literally just squashing things in a press. Stuff like pipes, car tires and wheels, nearly molten steel, and the list goes on and on. There’s something about all of us that seems to get enjoyment and even some satisfaction in watching the process happen, seeing that happens when pressure is applied, and then witnessing the end result, often with surprising consequences.
Take the first couple of clips in this video for example. Running a cutter down the center of them to see what happens is neat but the payoff is SEEING WHAT HAPPENS. We’d have never guessed that is what it would look like and then to expand with a quadruple cutter was even better. Seeing a water bottle under pressure and how it deforms before giving up in slow motion is amazing.
Here’s to the pressmen!
Although entertaining to watch, Doing this sort of thing can be extremely dangerous. We manufacture industrial hydraulic systems and some of the failures that occur either from over pressure or mechanical issues can have devastating and fatal results. A few years back we had a guy in the shop crush a 15/16 6 point Craftsman socket. After his trip to the hospital with embedded shrapnel in his arm, he learned the hard way to never do that again. He was lucky. I cannot over emphasize the power that hydraulic systems have. So please do not try this with a hydraulic system in any way shape or form.
this particular channel seems to take precautions with safety shields n stuff…oh and dynamite…….
Having first done this-type thing ten years ago I think I may have missed my calling, and a few million YouTube views.
Like anything involving machines including driving a car, or that is fun, the potential for catastrophe is always there. When these guys stuck a common hammer under that press I was appalled, it would have taken some very-thick plexiglass shielding fastened down very well to provide complete safety against what -could have- happened…it was just a remarkably dumb thing to do and didn’t even make a good video. Lots of other stuff they squish is quite entertaining and a hope might be that people can get their kicks by watching instead of trying it themselves, or understand by having watched that a jackstand etc. has limits.
There are other ways to get hurt around hydraulics. The gauge on my 200-ton press goes to over 10,000 psi and I don’t even want to be in the same room with that kind of pressure, a plumbing failure of any kind or even a gauge failure could be deadly in the worst way . I’ve never ran it much over half capacity. Even around tractor hydraulics and such, a failure at a couple-thousand psi could potentially inject fluid straight through your skin and there’s no medical fix except to remove the affected flesh.
Yeah I’m happy to let the guy with the funny accent do the press experiments, hopefully anyone with access to such a machine will have somebody like Glen around to give ’em the wisdom.
Buzzkills. You guys have a career as OSHA waiting for you telling the rest of us that the sky is falling.