Dave Clarke

I've heard from a couple of people about 'silver steel'. Never heard of it before. What if I were to have some punches machined from a more common steel and case harden the business end? I've now binned the drill chuck idea. A Good Thing, it will probably end up being. Or, it seems it may just be easier to buy a commerical set and make some holders. I'm going to pull the old 'new kid quickly back-pedals on what he had originally said'-trick, and say I should have been more specific in my original post. The great majority of the material I would like to punch is 1.2mm or 1.5mm. 2mm+ is pretty rare, so I could grimmace and just use a drill press for that work. Thomas Powers...would this happen to be the same Thomas Powers from the armour archive and arms and armour forum? I'm not quite following when you say punch from one side and then the other like on your anvil. Explainify for a simpleton? Cheers, Dave

Hi all, I'm getting to know my new toy, a 6 tonne c frame fly press made by John Heine. I'd like to be able to punch holes in sheet metal. More specifically, holes from 2mm-5mm in mild steel up to maybe 2mm thickness or so. I like the idea of punching as for jobs where I need a lot of holes, punching will probably be quicker than battling with a drill press. I have done some investigating, and have already come up with a couple of alternatives. The first idea was to buy a commercial hole punch and fabricate some new tooling holders to go in the fly press. I was thinking something like this: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Heavy-Duty-Sheet-Metal-Hand-Punch-FP-/380319507439?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item588ccf23ef although I recognise there is a big difference between 'inexpensive' and 'cheap', and have a bit of an idea which this might be. I should add that I would pften need to punch holes deeper into the material than the hand held punch would allow. The other idea was to follow the advice given here: http://ronreil.abana.org/flypress.shtml This second option has its own challenges. The female die would be easy. However the male, to me, seeems the more difficult. What are your thoughts on taking a drill bit, turning it around the other way and dressing the end for use as the male part of the punch? Secondly, what think ye of usig a drill chuck as the punch holder, which would allow punches to be swapped quickly and replaced easily if they are damaged? Cheers, Dave

I'd be lucky enough to find any fly press in Australia for a reaosnable price, never mind a deep throat version. That is a mighty fine machine though. Dave

Hi all, I have recently decided that I shall find myself a fly press. Having seen one in action, and (not) hearing it operate, I think it is an amazing machine.I like the flypress because of its accuracy, versatility, and it is so amazingly quiet I can use it in the evenings, even in suburbia. And, it can hit much harder than I ever could with a hammer in hand. What I will mostly be using it for is making armour. Rarely thicker than 2mm (14g) sheet, usually mild, usually 1.5mm (16g) or 1.2mm (18g). A 6" throst on a C frame is pretty right for almost all of the tasks I'd be asking of it. Unfortunately, some of the components, such as the breastplate, are much larger than double the throat of nearly every press I've seen. The largest single piece of armour has a greatest span of about 24 inches. These components are most usually 1.5mm thick. I saw something similar to the below picture as a solution to being able to do bowls in an H frame. I've been thinking it through, trying to find al the problems with the idea. Here's what I came up with: 1: The bar A-C need to be sufficiently strong not to bend and absorb the force that should be going into the sheet steel. No problem really, a bit of 2" square bar should be stiff enough. 2: If the ratio of AB:BC is too great, then too much force will be directed into point C than the hammer face. Solution would be to possibly have the tool turned 90 gegrees to it goes out the side of the press rather than out the front, so that the ratio is close to 1:1. 3: The bottom bar would need to be bolted down. No brainer. 4: The bottom bar and the 'hammer arm' would need a spring to return the arm to the 'up' position. No brainer. 5: The junction at C would need some thought so as not to fail mechanically. Can anyone think of anything else? Indeed, has anyone ever done anything similar, or even different to overcome the same problem? Cheers, Dave