nonjic

your forge looks very cold - as does the bit your hitting in your photos,

assuming the photo wasnt 'staged' (everything cold, just switched on) try cranking the gas right up on your forge, steel moves 20x easier at a yellow heat, than the 'cherry red' in your pics.

I tried to weld a bike chain, before I got a hot gas forge and just ended up with dozens of red hot chain links all over the floor,

Ive got the hang of forgewelding billets now, and I think the key is keeping the 'thermal mass' up

next time I try chain Im going to wrap it round a solid bar so it holds its heat long enough to set the welds (so it will be a chain / plain bar hybrid, but ill keep the chain on the outside of the billet ! - lots of flux and safety specs are well advised!

Hey Philip,

Remember you need to factor in some draft angles etc if you want a foundry to use your concrete block as a pattern, and youll need to dress it nice and smooth.

With the labour rates over there could you not just draw it, and get the foundry pattern maker to sort it and the core boxes etc??? - like with computers, foundry work .... rubbish in = rubbish out. - dont forget the contraction etc when designing it

20 mins on a good pattern can save 20 hours of hand grinding !

they are a very elegant machine, that, IMHO cant be improved on ( I build presses and hammers for a living) - they are also cheap for what they are, even cheap at $1000, youll get your money back if you even choose to sell. (so, effectivley they just cost the shipping, and the cost of the capital (yup, im an accounts boy originally).

I doubt you could ever 'fabricate' a functional screw for one of these, a chains only as strong as its weakest link etc...

some things like power hammers & hydraulic presses can be made for 'home / small shop' use better../... more cost effective than the commercial products, but im afraid flypresses cant. !

this is what they occasionally go for in the uk !

fly press on eBay (end time 23-Jan-08 22:24:43 GMT)

Brian, I wasnt trying to be a smart&rse, and with a lot of effort & engineering you could just about make a useable cam press that would be as good as a flypress for certain applications.

The main areas of concern on cam, or eccentic presses are,..

The elastic circuit of the frame needs to be immensly strong, any weak welds and it will burst it.

The ram needs to be immensly well guided, any offset load and it will ' kick' & jam unless its very well guided, or it will break the crank, or cam holding shaft. (or the weak bit whereever that is)

You need a big end, and a pitman, and pitman end bearing to give true vertical motion of the ram (starts to get complicated to make) , otherwise the cam would 'wipe' or pull the hot metal (instead of just pushing it down, (desired))

You may need some kind of clutch mechanism to release the stored energy into the work, it only needs to malfunction once (double stroke, engage late etc) and it will bite you. if you go for a clutch you need a brake - these then need sequencing somehow

Factor in some method of stroke adjustment, or raising the bottom tool (screw, or more commonly a 'die wedge' ) and your into making a pretty complicated machine.

I figure this is why the design of the flypress has changed so little since the very clever victorians deigned the basic configuration - Its the same with Naysmith and the hammer!

Any specific questions on the design your planning I will try and give you some help with though !

brian , click back to page 1 of this thread, I posted a picture of the screw from the small sweeny & blocksage, with a steel rule next to it.

Hope this helps some.

ps, dont remember the old phones, im 32 :)

(well, I measured approx 1/4", over 1/4 turn, and you rarely use more than a big quarter turn, as you end up in knots !) - I got some pics of the screw on my phone, Ill post em soon.

Hofi, they wont be forgotten ! not sure Im confident enough to join you with the singing though ! (and it wouldnt be fair on the people listening with my singing voice !

Bob - 3 of the hammers were mine (the Anyangs a 15, 25 & 40kgs) , and one was a Rieuter (spelling?) that is Terry Clarkes.

The 15 kg that can be seen in one of the photos is the one that I am lending to owen for his Forge In / Classes in March. - The 25 is now with Simon Lucas!

watch ya dont give yourself CO poisioning closing off all the gaps to keep the noise out, its keeping all the bad stuff from your gasser in! - if you start to feel a bit dizzy / light headed get out in the fresh air for a bit !

You can also put some silicone sealant ( or similar caulking stuff from diy stores ) under the anvil to deaden the sound of it a bit. Try and let the hammer do the work rather than 'forcing it'

edit - if you work over the back edge of the anvil a bit (so the steel has a much smaller contact area with the anvil & hammer) it will 'break down' alot faster.

Great photos in the gallery Hofi - it was a great few days. I really like the work of the french ( the 'people' reaching around a globe )

There are no photos of you singing karaoke to 200 people at the party though :)

its the noise a sheep makes here !

Hofi - Im quite good at crosswords but you are to cryptic for me tonight ! - I will look at your pictures in the gallery now , thanks :)

not sure im gonna do a sheath for it, im skilless and time poor.

Ive also got to give the knife away, its one of those 'in the hats' where everyone makes a mini, and then you post them on to each other - ill kinda miss it when its gone, but learnt alot making it (ie never do mini stuff, its much harder ) - Ill get somthing better back for it in exchange im sure !!!

Ive forged a few bits of damascus over the last couple of months, but never quite got round to finishing a knife,

Well, eventually managed it, its a baby one for a 'knife in the hat' .

Took way longer to make than I thought it would.

I forged the damacus from 15n20 & c20 , handle slabs from a reindeer antler.

quite pleased with how it worked out, but looking forward to finsihing a proper sized one now :


and with my next one to be finished...

glad it found its way to you sam!

BABA offer a magazine only subscription to overseas members !

Welcome to the British Artist Blacksmiths Association

I do alot of work on 'eccentric shaft' forging presses, and in a nutshell its got absolutley no chance of making a useable open die (free forging) press.

They are good for closed die work but the forces involved are massive.

The medical bills youll cop from building a machine like youve sketched will make the $A 1000 ish for the flypress seem very reasonable indeed.

really, dont even try it. (I do know what im on about, and can give numerous reasons why not to do this, but it would take about an hour, trust me on this one.)

matt87,

the story of my little gas forge is prettywell documented here...

not so hot gas forge - British Blades :: Custom Knife Making

ive welded a fair bit of 'mascus in it, and it heated the 7lb sledge head up to near what I would call a welding temp (on a pretty mingy gas input) in 10 mins.

If nothing else the thread shows the differnce between an efficent burner and a nearly good enough one. (ive had the metal nearly melting when its been lit for an hour or so at moderate pressure through a 0.040"tip )

I give ALL the surfaces to be welded a quick wizz on the linisher so youve got really clean metal. It takes 15 mins or less for a billets worth, but compared to spending the next 4 hours welding and folding only to find a defect its time well spent.

Ive had reasonable success with bandsaw blades and pallet strap. If you can find the 1" wide pallet strap its alledgedly better (higher carbon) steel.

the big one done in one heat, but I have kinda an abundance of forging kit (hammers and presses) knocking about - I squished it on a 12 ish ton hydraulic press

You might need a mate with a sledge to do a ball pein one quickly, but shouldnt take to many heats - would probably be more fun than using power tools !

I recently posted these pics on another forum, but they are quite relavent to this thread so Ill put them here aswell....

Ive found a couple of manky old hammers, so re-squished them into blacksmiths hammers, - The little ballpein (2 lbs) is now a diagonal pein, the 7 lb sledge is now a straight pein drawing hammer (though it will only be used for the odd few mins, it would disable me otherwise!)

The sledge took about 10 mins to get warm in my little 1 burner venturi home made gasser!

No tongs big enough so welded them to bits of bar! , I was just playing really as a distraction from proper work.



They need H.T yet, but today I was in the local engineering supply place, and they gave me 2 suitable hickory handles free ) (though the cost of the stuff I bought for work was eyewatering!)

Heres the snap of the thread on the small press, hope it helps some...

Checked my little sweeny & blocksage, and the ram travel is approx 2" per full rev of the screw - (well, I measured approx 1/4", over 1/4 turn, and you rarely use more than a big quarter turn, as you end up in knots !) - I got some pics of the screw on my phone, Ill post em soon.

I dont think a fabricated frame would stand the force of the screw (unless massivly constructed), your heading for a world of frustration & cost trying to make one.

You may as well make a hydraulic press, or a treadle hammer, or a simple mechanical / pneumatic power hammer.

brian - I only use one for puching heavy gaskets now, but from memory about 1/4 turn ( a gentle swing on it) gives maybee 1/4 ram travel - someone smarter than me could give you the maths im sure

thinking on that would make it a 1" pitch thread. This is on a little 'Sweeny & Blocksage'

that ebay 'screwpress' looks like a flypress suitable for general forge work to me.

A screw press is really nothing like a hydraulic press for general forge work, its a mere fraction of the power of a small hydraulic press, to draw out on a flypress you have to 'bump' it, which is really hammering the steel, using the recoil to raise the ram again, thus saving a bit of energy. - remember you cant get 'free' energy - a flypress can only ever be 1 person powered, a small hydraulic press will be 2 horse power.

On hydraulic presses from log splitters, this can be done (im sure ive seen it on the web somewhere) just make sure your hydraulic fluid is not flamable ! (think 5000psi flamethrower)