Home made boot press

[Gunder]

After nearly 40 years spent in ski boots my feet and especially my ankles and toes have become quite mangled by them. Over the years I have become extremely picky in how I want my work boots to fit so I will only let two shops touch my boots, Surefoot in Whistler and Pulse in Revelstoke. With the boarder being closed I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands. I picked up an old Famco 3-1/2r ratcheting arbor press with a captains wheel for about a penny a pound then spent $40 on some billet aluminum and went to town on my Bridgeport mill. I ordered a few boot press attachments from Sun Valley Ski Tools. So I now have a fully functioning boot press to take care of all of my custom boot fitting needs at home. Guess I’m finally going to use that plastics engineering degree after all.

[smooth operator]

Fuck yeah, this looks cool.
I wish I had your garage.

[cat in january]

Right, that’s a sweet setup there. Looks like you have about every jig.

[stealurface831]

that press is pretty sweet.
what a sweet setup overall.

[gregL]

Damn. No lack of power with that setup. And I bet dialing in the punch with the steering wheel and a Captain Morgan's and Coke in hand is priceless. Nice work, Gunder!

[gregL]

PS That SVST bridge isn't great - the pads are too small and indent the shell. Better is the Sidas variable arch tool, or for smaller more localized punches the large SVST steel ring. You can also get the other attachments through Ski Kare.

[Gunder]

PS That SVST bridge isn't great - the pads are too small and indent the shell. Better is the Sidas variable arch tool, or for smaller more localized punches the large SVST steel ring. You can also get the other attachments through Ski Kare.

. I have the full assortment, of punches from SVST, but I agree they are not all ideal. Soon as I can find a good lathe, I'll probably start making a few of my own. I haven't seen the Sidas one... so will have to do some digging to check it out.

[mr_pretzel]

That is such a sick press!

Excited to see what shapes you come up with. I know I’d love something longer than the SVST football shape for subtlety increasing width.

[gregL]

That is such a sick press!

Excited to see what shapes you come up with. I know I’d love something longer than the SVST football shape for subtlety increasing width.

I normally use the large ovals from Blademaster for this, Sidas also makes a new longer oval shape called "Met Ogive XL" if you can find one. You still have to move the punch 3-4 times to widen a long area, but you can usually just heat it once. Also you need an arch attachment rather than a ring, so it doesn't depress what you just punched.

I use these modified Sidas ones at home:

[gregL]

I normally use the large ovals from Blademaster for this, Sidas also makes a new longer oval shape called "Met Ogive XL" if you can find one. You still have to move the punch 3-4 times to widen a long area, but you can usually just heat it once. Also you need an arch attachment rather than a ring, so it doesn't depress what you just punched.

I use these modified Sidas ones at home:

I use the variable arch tool above in combination with one of the Blademaster "Toe Pieces" (https://blademaster.com/web/en/boot-...1-be02108.html) for most lateral width work. No problem buying them direct if you are in Canada.

[mr_pretzel]

Those sides arch tools look sweet, wish us layman could purchase them.
All the sidas stuff becomes off limits

I’ll give the blademaster stuff a try. Thanks Greg!

[Gunder]

I’ll give the blademaster stuff a try. !

The one thing to watch with the blademaster expander system is it works by using opposing force on the other side of the shell, so if you dont use enough isolated heat on the area you want to punch it can distort the shell. For small / light punches it does work well enough.

[mr_pretzel]

The one thing to watch with the blademaster expander system is it works by using opposing force on the other side of the shell, so if you dont use enough isolated heat on the area you want to punch it can distort the shell. For small / light punches it does work well enough.

Yeah I'm not a fan of the hydraulics expanders, I've got my own SVST boot press. Just want more heads for different punches.

[gregL]

Those sides arch tools look sweet, wish us layman could purchase them.
All the sidas stuff becomes off limits

Sorry I can't help, it's hard enough to get the stuff for personal use when you've been fitting boots for years and know all the reps . . .

[mr_pretzel]

Sorry I can't help, it's hard enough to get the stuff for personal use when you've been fitting boots for years and know all the reps . . .

Totally get it, I’m guessing the profit is low on all that kind of stuff.

I did go down the google rabbit hole today and found out pulse is selling something that looks sweet, so I went ahead and ordered it, the pulse bridge further down on the page.

https://pulsefitsystem.com/tools

Excited to see how it does

[chaka]

Nice work Gunder! That shop of yours continues to induce a drool response....

[stealurface831]

spent $40 on some billet aluminum and went to town on my Bridgeport mill

what kind of bridgeport do you have?
i've been thinking about buying an oldie for a restoration project.
are you on three phase or do you have a vfd?

[gregL]

. . . pulse is selling something that looks sweet, so I went ahead and ordered it, the pulse bridge further down on the page.

That does look good, I was thinking of building something like it myself. I would consider contact cementing some leather pads under the "feet."

[Gunder]

what kind of bridgeport do you have?
i've been thinking about buying an oldie for a restoration project.
are you on three phase or do you have a vfd?

I have a pully J head model its either a 62 or a '68 Id have to check the S/N again. Those are the most desirable ones. The latter adjustable speed heads are noise, and have there own set of problems / parts issues.

Im running it off of a 240V outlet and a VFD. The VFD was quite easy to setup and more 90% of the tasks you can leave the head in the middle fully position and adjust speed using the VFD. It's amazing how efficient these big electric motors are, as they actually pull relatively low amounts of amperage.

Bridgeports are not that terribly hard to rebuild. When I bought mine I tore it all the way down to the very last screw and cleaned, pained, lubed and replaced all of the bearings. All you really need is a good ¾" wrench, a good SAE set of hex drivers, a good pin spanner and a good hook spanner plus a hoist of some sort to lift the heavier pieces. Its important when looking to make sure you get one where the ways are in relatively good shape as they are about the only thing thats not easy or straightforward to fix with a DIY set up. Figure any mill you buy its going to cost you at least another $1k in parts once you start tearing into it as almost any of them that go for a reasonable price will at a minimum need new bearings in the head (best to have an arbor press and a blind bearing puller for this). Also when looking at them a lot of idiots think the zirk fittings are for grease. Those are actually for way oil and if its been greased, you will need to do a full tear down the of table, and knee (not hard but they are big heavy pieces to lift). The other thing to consider is how much tooling it comes with, as getting setup with proper tooling and a DRO (essential) will easily cost more than the mill its self. On the other hand you can buy a starter set of basic end mills from Grizzly for about $150 and then add the specialty cutters as you need them. Luckily mine came with close to $10K worth of tooling and after paying $1500 for the mill and putting another $1500 into the rebuild / new 4 axis DRO Its a damn nice setup.

[gregL]

Thing of beauty.

[Gunder]

Not sure why the forum software rotated all of the images 90 degrees. oh well.

[abraham]

How are you handling chips and debris in that setup?

[stealurface831]

yeah, i found a pretty good one locally at a great price with ways in good shape but i'd have to rig it out of a barn and the fucking idiot put grease in the oil fittings. i'll probably wait a few years until i have my own shop and have a bigger budget for a good DRO and VFD.
thanks for the beta. that paint job is immaculate. all around great shit. +vibes+

[Gunder]

How are you handling chips and debris in that setup?

If I was to do it over again I would have positioned it in a corner of the shop to. better contain the chips, but I already had the shop played out when I got the Bridgeport and the only corner that would have worked has my hardware storage bins (old bank deposit boxes) and those things way as much if not more than the mill, so they are not moving until I find a new shop! I'm mostly working with AL on the mill, so instead of fluid coolant I do most of the machine dry, and when required just brush on a light latter of cutting fluid. Since the chips are dry they are easy to clean up with a brush / dust pan, followed by using one my festool dust collectors. I then while it all down with denatured alcohol followed by a quick wipe over with Sheila shine to keep everything from rusting / oxidizing.

yeah, i found a pretty good one locally at a great price with ways in good shape but i'd have to rig it out of a barn and the fucking idiot put grease in the oil fittings. i'll probably wait a few years until i have my own shop and have a bigger budget for a good DRO and VFD.
thanks for the beta. that paint job is immaculate. all around great shit. +vibes+

Well if you decide to move forward with it, feel free to hit me up, always willing to help with a restoration project. This book is a great guide fro the series J series fully mills: https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Renovat...5033570&sr=8-3

This one is great fro the variable speed version: https://www.amazon.com/Renovating-Br...5033570&sr=8-2

H+W machine is the best source for parts http://www.machinerypartsdepot.com. And they have great how-to's on their YouTube channel as well.