Manufacturing Class Project
For my sophomore manufacturing class, my team designed and built a hydraulic press stand — a solid design challenge that would also be useful for the Baja team.
Built around a Harbor Freight bottle jack. The frame is three laser-cut steel plates connected by shafts and brass bushings. Main challenge was keeping it portable without losing stiffness under load. Springs assist the jack's retraction so you don't have to crank it back manually each time.
We were pre-solid mechanics at the time, so FEA was our main validation tool. We simulated the bottle jack's max output to check the plates and uprights against yield and deflection limits. Results drove material selection.
All machining done in-house on manual machines. Steel plates laser cut; brass bushings turned on the lathe; shaft brackets milled from 6061-T6 aluminum. Shafts were COTS selected to length. Assembly uses screws and dowel pins.
Explore the CAD model in 3D — rotate, pan, and zoom.