Types of Presses

If this is about deforming a nickel cylinder then it belongs in that thread and this one becomes a duplicate.

A one-sided press wouldn't work.

Just saw your PM. If this is the crimping tool again, all you need is ONE cylinder that supplies sufficient force to easily deform the materials to be crimped. Then just use a mechanical stop to set the crimping depth.

I once wrote an operating manual and a maintenance manual for a General Motors car door press and hemming machine. In a nutshell it pressed(formed) the inner and outer door panels and "hemmed them together. Hemming involved forming the outer door edge around the inner door panel to capture it as a single unit. This all happened in a single cycle lasting probably 20 seconds.

It's too complicated to try to describe in detail in this forum but searching the net may bring up something. Try searching with "automotive", "door", and "hemmer".

And it was fed and offloaded by robots.

Hooker

Double action presses are widely used in industries like powder metallurgy,ceramics etc. But may not suit to your requirements as you may be looking something small and cheep.

'...something small and cheep. ..."

I know just the thing!

(Sorry, could resist a cheep joke.)

Not a peep....

I am currently building a wet paper press for friends who are starting a hand-made (rag-based) paper business (already designed and built the Hollander beater for the pulping operation). They wanted a large press (3' X 4') on a shoe-string budget. So built two 3' X 4' torsion box platens from oak with plywood skins faced with formica. Four 16" diameter hand wheels, one on each corner, with 3/4" threaded rods, pull the two platens together (double acting). Do the math - develops several tons of pressure. Probably not a solution to your problem, but who knows, maybe you are building a shoe-string budget wet paper press too.