Getting things unstuck : or : stuck reloading press ram

A long time ago I came across a vintage Herters double ram reloading press for a song, the deal actually included a 2nd Herters shotgun press. Both the double ram metallic press and the shotgun press were frozen from rust. I only wanted the metallic double ram press, the shotgun press was missing a lot of parts and had a great patina and was a perfect candidate for the antique store (which selling it paid for both presses). The metallic press had a problem being frozen as it was however. The rams were connected with a link that was very likely to crack or break if forced trying to get the rams freed up. As both rams were frozen I thought about the problem for a while. In the meantime I applied oil to them and thought the issue over.

One day I watched a youtube video on tips to getting proper torque on a nut with a short wrench in a very confined space ( "Ave" was the content maker if anyone is interested he puts out some good stuff). What he did is he took an air powered hammer to the wrench and applied it to the side. This vibration and impact allowed him to get a lot of force on the wrench and thus the nut to get the kind of torque he was looking for.

Things that are rusted, frozen or otherwise stuck hate vibration and heat above all else. When I took this idea and applied it to my double ram press it was a breeze. I made a bronze fitting to go over a rivet setter tool on the air hammer, set the air down low to start with and with the press disassembled so I could get to the rams themselves individually I gave it some air and within no time they started walking and working free. It was actually a lot of fun watching them work free. This was a far better option than beating on it with a hammer and a punch and cussing along the way. Tricks like this open up a lot of possibilities on salvaging old tools and such.