
Take close look at pic...See bent upper cross support and cracked welds, and how bottle jack was just one stroke away from launching into my chest.
Before you guys start sayin I was out of bounds in my application of the press, please note that this is an almost new unmodified 20 press using a Harbor Freight drop-in replacement 20 ton air/hydraulic bottle jack approved to replace their 20 ton manual hydraulic jack in this press, so bottle jacks didn't cause this-the press failed well under it's advertised design load.
I was attempting to press a 90 degree bend in 3" wide 1/4" hot rolled steel plate to make a bracket using SAWG OFFROAD press brake....Press was NOT loaded beyond capacity, nor was bottle jack straining or slowed when this failure occurred....Just another single stroke and bottle would have launched with tremendous force into my chest and I would NOT be posting this. The press failed due to very low quality steel, and the sloppy welds cracked almost all the way thru.
I will return press to Harbor Freight tomorrow and ask what they intend to do about failure....But in meantime, I suggest you take extra care with yours.