Derek Melton Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 Anyone ever seen a press like this converted to use with forging? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 It's been covered multiple times here already. Difficult as a press like that has to turn over if it locks up due to the workpiece being too thick it can self destruct. powerhammers have built in springiness to allow for differing thickness without resetting it in the middle of a heat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kozzy Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 It's an interesting thought but it'd take some serious re-engineering. Punch presses are all about inertia to move a specific pre-set stroke. That stroke doesn't vary (unless mechanically reset) so if you were to hit an immovable object like trying to whack a hot bar that didn't want to move, the press crank will fail with a spectacular show. Therefore you'd need a flexible link between the hammer and the fly-crank system to absorb the material variations. Then you have the issue of not being able to vary the inertia of the blows-no such thing as making a light blow because the mechanical linkage is not designed for that. Stroke speed is not remarkable on these either. Nor is effective stroke length, most being in the range of 4" at their maximum stroke setting (that'd affect the available inertia of the hammer blows) By the time you resolve the issues, you are probably into the time and cost to start with a proper hammer in the first place. Not that you couldn't make an interesting project of it but so much would have to be modified that if you chose to take that route, you should probably start with a rusty old trashed press to begin with. It'd be quite a hack job to make happen and you'd probably end up using little but the main frame--the easy part to fab from scratch int he first place. However, at times those old presses show up dirt cheap so it's at least worth some thought....Sometimes doing things the hard way is a reward in itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notownkid Posted October 27, 2016 Share Posted October 27, 2016 Thomas & Kozzy have covered this well, a few yrs. ago I helped my brother in law clean out his shop and we scrapped 10 of these a couple about 3 times this size. I was offered any of them for my shop but passed will not do the job of a hammer. Great for what they were designed for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judson Yaggy Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 Definitely not a power hammer but I know of several (at least 5) commercial blacksmiths' shops that use these for tooling intensive repetitive operations. The late great Grant Sarver shows forging under one in one of his videos. Note that they are for high precision highly repetitive production situations, not a flexible multi purpose machine. A single die pack used in one will probably cost more than a hobbiest's yearly tool budget many times over. Pull off the flywheel and crank and install a hydraulic cylinder and you will have a general use tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arftist Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 These machines are undervalued today. For those capable of building tooling themselves the uses are limitless, from punching holes in strap hinges to blanking flat stock or bending an offsett or notching pipe. It is a production machine though, 1000 hinges at $15 each not one pair at $200. Several local blacksmith shops have a row of punchpress for hardware manufacture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kuzuzu Posted May 10, 2017 Share Posted May 10, 2017 On 28/10/2016 at 3:48 AM, Judson Yaggy said: [...]Pull off the flywheel and crank and install a hydraulic cylinder and you will have a general use tool. hi! is there any example of that ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paradox1559 Posted October 8, 2017 Share Posted October 8, 2017 I wouldn't mess with it, that is a very nice machine. I have access to one, and I came here asking the same question. It seems more practical to leave it as it is and find dies for it. This bad boy has no problem eating sheet metal for breakfast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the iron dwarf Posted October 8, 2017 Share Posted October 8, 2017 these mechanical presses store masses of energy in the flywheel, if they are set wrong and cannot complete a stroke it will be bad. something will break had a flywheel come off when a van I was driving at high speed, luckily it stayed on the crankshaft but there was not much left of the shaft or the casing when it stopped spinning. the flywheel on this press may weigh 50 times as much a hydraulic press or a power hammer comes down with a controlled amount of force, a mechanical one comes down until it stops the flywheel dead or something breaks. when I first left school in 76 a place I worked at had 2 that stood about 16 feet tall, they each had flywheels weighing between 3 and 5 tons, they were not in use whilst I was there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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