Fly Press Page
This is where I will show off my fly press and the tooling I make for it, as well as some of the projects I make with it.
The fly press I am buying is from Amy Pieh at Pieh Tool Company in Camp Verde AZ. She is a distributor for the fly presses that Old World Anvil sells. It is called a #5 press. This is a stock picture of the one I am getting. I am expecting it Wednesday or Thursday. I'll be posting up more once it arrives. I will post up pics of mine as soon as it arrives.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Woo hoo, the fly press is here. I drove out to Fontana with my buddy Thomas, and we picked it up from the terminal. We didn't get home till after 8PM, so I decided it was too late to really tear into it tonight. Believe me, it took all my self control to not tear into that crate tonight. Tomorrow after work is another story. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
I got the press all set up tonight. I ended up unloading it alone, but it really wasn't a problem because of my trusty engine hoist. In fact, the hardest part of the whole thing was getting the hoist out of the weeds where it had been stored for the last several months. Our heavy rains this year have caused the weeds to grow over 2ft tall. I gotta get my lazy ass out there with the weed eater, but that would cut into my smithing time. You can see where my priorities are.
Ok, back to the press. I set it up on a metal cabinet I had sitting in the shop. It's much lighter than what you see most guys mount their presses on, but it does seem to be holding up ok. I will doing some mod's to it in the future and bolting it to the floor. It should be ok until I can afford to buy the steel to make a real stand.
I stopped by to see my bud Jim Riddle at Mojave Southern Machine Works on the way home from work. He has a nice jobber machine shop, and is also a blacksmith. He makes some really nice tooling for these presses. He has had the same press I just got for a couple of years now, so he has designed all sorts of cool tooling for it. I only got a fraction of what I will eventually end up with, but I got enough so I could play around a little tonight. Deb was out there with me, and she had some fun with it as well.
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The only good thing about plastic tarp walls on the shop is that when one is in the way, it is easy to just open it up. |
Here is a wider shot of the setup. My forge is usually sitting just about where the end of the tail gate is. |
I just wrapped a chain around the body to lift it. The orange strap was connected to the top to keep it from tipping. |
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Here it is just before I lowered the fly press onto the table. The cabinet is made of about 12 or 14 ga sheet metal. I will soon add a 1/4" plate to the top and some bracing along the sides. If it doesn't seem to hold up I will build a real stand for it. |
Here it is just after setting the wheel on top. My buddy Thomas got home just in time to help me lift the wheel on top since my hoist wouldn't go high enough. |
Here is a close up of the front of it with the cosmolene all over the machined surfaces. I had to take it all apart and clean it all off with mineral spirits, then put it all back together before using it. I still need to do some more clean up on the threads I think. It is not quite as free wheeling as I would like, but I am sure it will free up when I clean it better. I did a rush on it tonight so I could play. |
Friday, February 29, 2008
After using the press for a while last night I came to the realization that the cabinet I had it sitting on was totally inadequate for the job, and that I was going to need to come up with a better plan. I was telling Deb about it and she came up with a great idea. I had a table I had totally forgot about that had a 1/4" plate top and 3" C channel legs. I had thrown it together a couple years ago as a place to weld on and do some fab work. I decided that I could beef it up and flatten it out, and that it would work just fine without me having to drop big bucks on steel for a new table.
This is pretty much how it looked sitting in the shop. This is just after I added a cross brace to stiffen it up, and added the first angle brace to the right side. I used some 2" square tube with 3/16" walls that I had sitting left over from a past job. The top had just over 1/4" sag in the middle when I started out. I used a small bottle jack to push up the center of the brace before I welded it. I pent a little past flat so when it sprang back after releasing the jack it would be just right. I almost got it right. It still has about 1/64" sag in it, but I can live with that just fine. For the angle braces on the ends I used the same 3" x 1/4" C channel I had used for the legs. I had about 10' left over from the original build, and it worked out pretty well.
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Here is that first angle brace. I found this piece of plate in the dirt in my front yard when I moved in. I think it was an old septic system lid. I didn't bother taking the handles off. |
I then laid it over and added the long angle brace and an upright in the center. I will probably add a middle leg under it as well. |
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I added some extra gussets to the ends of this long brace and also put in a filler so I could weld it to the upright it crossed over. |
Finally, I added a piece of the C channel up under the center and welded it to the tube supports and the table bottom. |
Saturday, March 1st, 2008
I pretty much finished up the table today. I got it painted, stood up, and bolted down to the floor. Tomorrow I will move the fly press over onto the new table and drill the back two holes. Right now, there is just the one up front drilled. I also added a fluorescent light over the bench after I took these pics, and did a second coat of paint on the top. Once it is set up I will take a a good pick of the press in place, and get going on some real tool making.
I can't wait to see how it works on the new table without all that flex. I'm really hoping it will make a big difference in the amount of work I am able to do with it.
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Here it is painted and bolted to the floor. I used 3 - 1/4" lag bolts on each leg to make sure they wouldn't be pulling out. I need to do something about the shelf underneath. |
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Sunday, March 2, 2008
I didn't do nearly as much with the press today as I wanted, but I did get it mounted on the new table.
I had to do some work in the yard today and by the time I got to the press I was pretty worn out. I got the press mounted, as well as a couple of lights, but then I decided to call it a night. Tomorrow I will work on a few things and really see what it can do. I did notice that it works much better now that it doesn't move with each hit. .
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
I've been focusing my attention on making tooling for the press. I'll take some pictures soon and do a real update. So far I've done a circle bender and a 90degree bender. I've also done a cup to be used under my ball punch to make bowls. I've also just gotten the stuff to make a 1/2" top & bottom fuller. I'll get some pictures up soon.
Fly press, flypress, fly press tooling, fly press stand,