I am making some tooling for my flypress and have a stock of H13 round bar. Is it feasable to forge my tool tips from H13 and then weld them onto the mild steel shafts and shock collars I have already made? See the pics for the made up shafts.

Appologies! I got the pics a bit big! :blink:

Book says: preheat to 800F prior to welding. Post-heat at 1400F for six hours.

Thingmaker3 - 6 hours - I will just leave it out in the sun!!

I read your location statement, I thought it was only in the UK that Planning Departments were populated my total pratts!

I was at a workshop where a fellow had some power hammer tools he had made welding h-13 bits into mild steel holders using 7018 rod. He said that they had been working fine for about a year. The difference is that his welds were holding the bit into a socket, whereas with yours the bit appears to be getting welded to a flat surface, so the weld will be holding things in alignment and be under more stress.

Shouldn't that collar be snug up against the bottom of the press ram or am I misunderstanding?

Hi chalky, If you made the 'shock collars', I would suggest making a holding socket for the H13 stock size you have and eliminate the need for welding, a bolt will secure the tool in situ, alternatively turn or forge the tool end to fit directly into the flypress, If you are using the tools on hot material you do not necessarily need the shock collars,(and yes they should bear on the face of the ram)

Remember flypresses were originally made for punching/stamping/coining/crimping cold when the shock collars/platens distributed the load on the business end and the socket was only to locate the top tool and secure it from falling out

I would recommend trimming the length of the stem on those holders till the flange bears on the face of the ram.
The full diameter of the flange is what should be transferring the force of impact not the stem.Using just the stem to push risks bending the stem if the force is not delivered directly in line with it.
Put another way,if anything shifts,a scrap or other small object gets caught under the tooling or the work is not fed directly in line under the tooling then you run the risk of bending the stem,compounding the problem and ruining your tooling.Push from the largest bearing surface possible and when you encounter a problem the work absorbs the impact and rather than ruining your tooling you sacrifice the one piece of work.
Power transfered thru the largest,strongest base possible is what you`re looking for if you want a rigid and stable set up.
Look at punch press or iron worker tooling to see what I mean.