Joe Henry

The guy at old world anvils really knows his stuff. He has experience using all the sizes he sells. I sent him an email, and he was able to answer my question pretty good. This was his response. ------- We normally use a #5 here in our shop and we use it almost every day so we have a lot of practical experience with fly presses. We do change sizes as we sell out of different presses so we have used them all and I have found that the 4, 5 and 6 are the most versatile and I personally would pick a 4 or 5 over a 6. The 6 will give you more power when you need it but I have found that for 99% of the time the added weight of that bigger flywheel is like using a heavier hammer than you need and will tire you out quicker. If you are a larger stronger person this may not be an issue for you. As for slitting and drifting the occasional hammer eye just about any of the presses from 2 on up will work if you get it hot but it may take a couple of heats until you get tricks figured out like anything. -------- I decided to go with the #5 and I'm happy I did. I have since built a stand for it and used it a little. It's not overly cumbersome, which I think allows you to hit faster when doing light work. But yet it's heavy enough that you can really move some metal when you want to. After using it, and making a few different tools for it, I actually think punching a hammer eye would be one of the easier jobs for a flypress because the force is so concentrated on that one small spot. I think if you just design your tools properly, and make them concentrate the force enough, you can eventually do about anything that you want done on any sized press. My flypress and stand -->

Thank you all for your help so far I'm leaning toward the #5 right now because its less than 2/3 the price of the #6. Would the #5 at least do significantly more work than a 4lb hammer at the anvil? 99% of the work I think I will do with it will be pretty light stuff. like forging 3/8" tenons, fullering, butchering, punching through 1/2" bar, chiseling lines, and splitting 1/2" bars. I'm not going to be selling hammers so it doesn't need to be super efficient at Punching eyes, but it would be nice if it had that capability, and could do it with more ease than I can do it at the anvil. I would only make a hammer once in a while just for myself. Here is some more good videos I found for anyone else interested in this topic These are videos of a 5 ton press at work In this one he forges a small hammer, but it doesn't show him punching the eye so maybe he did that part at the anvil.

I'm looking at fly presses but I don't know what size to get. I'm looking at the ones from Old World Anvils/Pieh Tool. Mostly I'm trying to decide between the #5 or the number #6. I have never used a fly press before so I don't really know what they're capable of, and I cant find any information comparing the size of the machine with the amount of work it can do. I Know the #5 and #6 are supposed to roughly correspond with the tons of force it can exert but I have no idea what that translates to in metal moving abilities. Would a #5 pretty much do everything a #6 can do just with a few more swings? I would love to be able to punch hammer eyes with it. That would probably be about the heaviest work I would do with it. If anybody has any insight on this stuff it would be very helpful. Even if you could just give me an example of what your machine is capable of, it might be helpful. Thanks.