A hydraulic press that won’t build pressure, won’t hold the ram, or leaks around the packing is a machine that stopped earning money. Ames Hydraulics does hydraulic press repair in central Iowa on shop presses, industrial C-frame and H-frame presses, and press brakes — cylinders, pumps, valves, packing, and power units. We rebuild the hydraulics in-house and pressure-test every one before it goes back to the machine. Free pickup within 60 miles of Ames.
What Fails on a Hydraulic Press
The failure modes on any hydraulic press — small shop press, big H-frame, or press brake — are consistent. The main ram cylinder wears its bore or its seals and starts drifting or leaking. The pump loses efficiency and the press feels slow. The relief or directional valve sticks and the machine won’t hold pressure. A hose blows and the whole system dumps. Good hydraulic press repair means diagnosing which of those is really the problem — because putting a new pump on a press with a bypassing valve fixes nothing.
What We Repair
- Main ram cylinders — honed, resealed, and pressure-tested to full working pressure
- Return cylinders and pull-back rams
- Hydraulic pumps — gear, vane, and piston — rebuilt and flow-tested
- Directional, relief, and check valves
- Hydraulic power units — reservoirs, filtration, and pump-motor assemblies
- Hoses, tubing, and fittings made on the spot
- Cracked or worn press frames, tables, and rams — welded and machined
Press Brake Repair — A Specialty
Press brakes are a specific kind of hydraulic press repair because tonnage and alignment matter as much as pressure. A brake that isn’t parallel, or won’t hold its stroke consistently, will make bad parts even when it feels like it’s working. We rebuild the ram cylinders, replace worn slides and gibs, and check parallelism after every repair so the tool bends the same way at both ends of the die.
Shop and Industrial Presses of Every Size
From a 20-ton garage press to a 200-ton production press to a 400-ton press brake, the fundamental hydraulic components are the same. We work on all of them — single-acting, double-acting, single-cylinder, and multi-cylinder presses — and on all the brands: Enerpac, Dake, Baileigh, Cincinnati, Piranha, Amada, Accurpress, and everything else. Bring us the machine and the tag and we’ll tell you what your options are.
Turn Time and Cost
Most hydraulic press repair turns in a few days once we have the machine. Cylinder reseals depend on seal-kit availability — usually 24 to 72 hours. Pump and valve rebuilds are similar. Frame or ram welding is a day or two. Full power-unit rebuilds are longer, but we quote every job in writing up front and stick to it. Cylinder reseals typically cost a fraction of a new cylinder, and the pressure-testing at our shop is the reason our rebuilds hold.
Preventive Rebuilds Beat Emergency Failures
The cheapest hydraulic press repair is the one you do on your schedule, not the one that stops production. If your press is slower than it used to be, if the ram drifts when you’re setting up a die, or if you see oil weeping around the gland, that press is telling you what’s next. Bring it in during a scheduled shutdown and we’ll rebuild it before it costs you a production day.
Free Pickup Within 60 Miles
Presses are heavy and awkward to move. If you can get it off the floor, we’ll come pick it up — free within 60 miles of Ames. Text a photo of the machine and the tag to 515-292-2599 and we’ll tell you the same day what your hydraulic press repair needs and roughly what it will cost.
Get the Press Running Again
See our full hydraulic repair, welding & fabrication, and trailer repair services. Call or text 515-292-2599 or bring the press to 210 Freel Dr in Ames. Open Monday through Friday, 7AM to 5PM.
Fabrication and Machine Shops Are Our Customer
Most hydraulic press repair customers here are fabrication shops, weld shops, custom machine shops, and small-batch manufacturers who bought their press used, use it hard, and need it back in service now. That’s a customer we understand: bring it in, we quote it same-day, and we start work on it before the paperwork closes. If your press is old, orphan, or unusual, that’s usually a good sign for us — the more obscure the machine, the more likely we’re the shop that can actually source or make what it needs.
What Doesn’t Get Rebuilt — and Why
An honest word about the pieces of a press we won’t rebuild: cracked cast-iron frames past a certain point should be scrapped rather than welded, because cast iron doesn’t take structural repair well; and hydraulic accumulators past their rating date get replaced, not tinkered with, because they’re pressure vessels. On everything else — the cylinders, the pumps, the valves, the fabricated frames, the rams — the answer is usually rebuild, and rebuilt properly it holds. Good hydraulic press repair is about knowing which parts should be rebuilt and which parts shouldn’t.
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Written by Josiah Ragsdale
Owner, Ames Hydraulics — Ames, Iowa
Josiah owns and operates Ames Hydraulics. He has worked on hydraulic and heavy equipment since he was 18, and every hydraulic cylinder his shop rebuilds is pressure tested before it ships back to the customer. More about Josiah →
Got something broken? Call or text 515-292-2599