Snap Press Conversion Time!

I've been wanting to convert my snap press into a Kick Press for a while now, Every since I saw a picture of it online. Well, Guess what? I'm doing it!

Well, actually, my husband is doing it for me. But I collected all the parts for it.

So here are the specs. I know I was lost looking for specs, and I want this to be easy for anyone to do.

Supplies needed:
--1 tool stand. I used a 29" Universal tool Stand, 29.99 from harbor freight, and 8 dollars shipping. if I had ordered a day earlier, I would have caught it on sale for 19.99.... but oh well.

--Lumber. I used 3/4" A/C Plyboard, one peice cut to the size of the bottom of the stand (it should have been a few inches longer, though, I think) and one peice for the top, a bit bigger than the top of the stand, to give me a good surface. (My stand is a very narrow one though, only 9.5 inches wide on top, so if you have a wider top, you may want yours to be closer to the size of your top.

You also need a peice for the lever. the ones I saw online used 2x4, but we used a length of 2x6. It gives a better foot space.

--Hardware. A hinge, we used a regular door hinge, and bolts to connect the pieces. You will also need some rope and brackets to connect the bottom of the stand to your base wood.

and here's how we built it.

step one: take the whole family to the store, get out of the car, and realize you forgot your list of measurements at home. Go Home and get them.

step two: Back to the store. buy hinges, and plywood. don't forget rope and bolts.

Step three: Make DH start putting the sucker together. Make sure to get a cute pic of Beeba 1 "helping" sand a paint stirrer.

Step four: get the sucker inside, and fight with getting the rope length exactly right. Realize the base wood should actually be a good six inches or so longer, because it is really not easy to press snaps while sitting with a diagonal push. It would be much easier to press them if the weight were straight downward.

Step four. Enjoy having a Kick press that, while not perfect yet, is a whole lot better than it was when it was fully manual.

I'll update when I finish improving it.