I finally braved the heat for a few minutes today to get some photos of the new press as I have it set up. The major departure from it’s previous life is in the die setup. Since Larry has 4 presses in his shop, rapid die changeover isn’t really a priority. Having just the one press here, I had to devise a way to be able to rapidly swap dies while making sure they remain safely attached to the press. What I came up with was a saddle and cross-pin arrangement. This allows for a few “good things”. First off, pulling the cross-pin to remove the die is quick and easy. Once I get some rings welded to the pins I’ll even be able to easily do it with gloves on. Second, the saddle arrangement allows for all of the force from the press to be directed to the plate holding the die while keeping the dies indexed properly. This of course assumes that when the dies are assembled that there is enough vertical “slack” so that the pin isn’t taking the load of the press. Third, this arrangement allows for the dies to be much lighter than I’d otherwise have to build them if they had a 2″x2″x10″ base. I have a single large base piece and I’m just swapping the functional portion of the die.
Here are some pictures of the press and dies.
I’ve also included some pictures of interesting design features of this press. The frame of the press itself is a single large I-beam with a “window” cut out of the web for the cylinder, slide/lower die assembly, and upper die. A section of the removed window is used as the center of the lower slide assembly and is sandwiched between two 1″ thick plates that extend pas the sides of the cutout to act as guides. To help deal with the side stresses, there is brass brazed onto the side of the center piece. Additionally there is a “girdle” made from heavy all-thread and plates that can be snugged up to remove small bits of sideways slop so that the press can continue to run between re-brazing of the inside center plate.
There are also some detail shots of the foot treadle setup. The clever placement of the pivot pins allows for an upward as well as a downward motion to run the valve without requiring a “rocking” type pedal. Very slick indeed…
It’s 92 (33.3C for my metric friends) right now here in Hanover and I’ve been out in the shop all morning. It’s days like this that I’m glad I don’t have a thermometer in the shop, although I may fire up the spare pyrometer just to see how hot it is. Sometimes my morbid curiosity gets the best of me.
On a good note, I’m getting steel forged faster than ever before with the new press and some new work patterns. Still some bugs to iron out, but they’re getting to be fewer as I move along. I’m about halfway done on a LONG overdue order to a very patient customer that I just re-started today (a previous piece wasn’t up to snuff, so it’s getting redone). Previously to get to this point took me (conservatively estimated) about twice as long as it has this time. It’s another of these large sword billets as well which makes life more interesting.
I’ll be taking some photos of the press in situ later with some detail photos that a couple of folks have asked about. More on that later tonight.
Despite it being really hot here this weekend, I had to get out to the shop and do some forging with the new press I got from Larry Donnelly. I can say that I will be getting a good bit more work done once I get used to working with the new machine. Already, on my standard sized billets of 1 1/2″x3″x6″ I can work a single heat after welding and have the billet drawn to 1 1/2″ square by 12″ and ready to cut and fold. I took a 13 layer billet to 208 layers in about an hour and a half yesterday. Now I just need to pattern that billet and draw it to final size and it’s done. I’m liking this a lot 
I’m not at work today so that I can hang out with my good friend and ABS Mastersmith J. Neilson who will be down visiting my other good friend and neighbor Butch Harner. Additionally, I will be getting the rest of the steel I need to get my first few sets of dies up and running from the great folks at Riley Welding here in Hanover. With any luck I’ll be up and forging again in no time!
So, the first sets of dies that I’m making are pretty much the basic “required” set in my mind. There will be:
- Drawing Dies (which I do a little differently than some due to my exposure to flat die forging on power hammers)
- Flattening/Straightening dies
- 2″ Squaring dies
- 1″ and1/2″ combo squaring dies
The reasons for these being the required set are pretty simple. First off, you need to be able to draw steel out and straighten it, so the first two should make perfect sense. Second, re-squaring things when they’ve gone a little cockeyed can be a huge time saver. I also need to work up a functional hot cutting setup since the piece of small gauge RR track I was using for this before went with my last press. Assuming these sets go well, some steel will get made and then I’ll get on to some more dies. The list of other dies I want continues to grow, but looks something like:
- 3″ Squaring dies
- 4″ Squaring dies (once the new forge is done)
- 3/8″ and 1/4″ Combination Laddering Dies
- Raindrop Dies
- Rounding Dies with various sizes of round holes to work with
- “Texas Wind” or something similar
- Some various “olde tyme” patterning dies similar to what were used in Solingen in times past
- Other off-the-wall, half-baked things floating around in my head.
I’m going to have to build a decent sized table to hold all of these for sure. Odds are that it will be built over the pump and tank of the press. That way the space they take up right next to the press won’t be entirely wasted. I also get the feeling I’m going to need to be shopping for a decent MIG/TIG welder sometime soon. All I have right now is a stick welder which I’m passable with, but I’d prefer to have the versatility of a wirefeed as well. Oh, and a TIG while I’m at it for doing all of my Ferry Flip setups that I pay the welding shop for right now…
So, I’ve kept on designing more die sets for the new press. Here are a few that I’ve just finished up. Feel free to ask any questions that you think of.
