Trying to decide what to do with this fly press

[heimlaga]

Hello

I am new to this forum. I am a part time carpenter and part time joiner and a bit of a jack of all trades. I have a basic setup for metalworking as well and this includes a gigantic stick welder and an industrial quality drill press and the common grinders and a 6 ton hydraulic press. The blacksmithing setup includes a portable coal forge and a small anvil and a fairly decent set of old blacksmith's tongs and hammers and sets and a big leg vice. I cannot say that I am into blacksmithing but I have taken a couple of weekend courses and use my blacksmithing tools to make repairs and spare parts and occasionally make other things I need. No art blacksmithing just simple toolmaking and hardware and odd one off spare parts.

 

Today when I walked out of a local scrap yard I met an old man with a trailer full of scrap iron he was going to sell. On top of it was a fine fly press. I ended up buying the fly press from him outside the gates of the scrap yard for 20 euros (equals about 30 US dollars). I just couldn't let it go to the smelters.

 

The press is about 80 cm (2 feet 8 inches) high in total and the vertical movement of the screw is 12,5 cm (5 inches).

 

Money is tight and all sheds are pretty cramped so I do not want to stockpile tools I will never need.

Hence my questions are:

 

What kind of use could I have for a fly press like this?

Should I pass it on to a real blacksmith and try to get my money back?

[HWooldridge]

They are good for all sorts of pressing operations other than "blacksmithing" and are faster than most comparable hydraulic presses.  Since you are a carpenter, you might want to consider using it for mortising.  Set up a sharp chisel and get to cutting.  They can also be set up for sheet metal shearing and a host of other things.

 

For example, aside from hot work, I use mine for pressing rivets into the sickle bar for my hay cutter.

 

Your imagination is the only limiting factor for tooling.  For the money you have in it, I would set it on a small table with rollers and keep it for a rainy day...