Inverting a bottle jack for a press

A bottle jack is a common power source on lower end workshop presses, because of their relatively low cost. I have never liked the way in which they are usually mounted and I felt sure that there was a way to invert a bottle jack to make a better press. These photos show how I added a pickup tube that would be submerged when the jack is inverted. That alone should enable it to work upsidedown but I also saw that another method would be to drill a vent hole in the base (top when inverted) to vent any air. The vent and fill tube were taken to a reservoir mounted higher than the jack. This was a belt and braces approach because either of the two methods should work individually. To finish off I modified the pump mechanism to achieve a downward handle motion after the inversion. I also added some bracing to stiffen the whole press.
PS. See part 2 for information on later changes.

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