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I Forge Iron

#5 Fly Press, Via Camp Verde, Arizona, USA


Anachronist58

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Jennifer, thanks. This is Do-All commercial bimetal bandsaw blade.  Very springy spring steel.  I have two sizes of band:  18' x 1.32" x .044", & 18' x 1.062" x .036".  This chisel is formed from the .036" material:  20220328_115149_capture.thumb.jpg.e8a4f7413b02574356fed2bdcaa151a1.jpg

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This is at about 150 - 200x magnification.  I believe we can see some work scoring but not cracking.  If anyone sees a crack, let me know.  I am sure that under sufficient magnification, some compromises will appear:20220328_11_56_35.jpg.6be695761b3e09ae4ff1feeb4436c1f7.jpg

I think one would expose stress cracks at the mushroomed zone.  If I recall correctly, this stuff is more prone to cold cracking perpendicular to its length...

This 4" long chisel is VERY rigid under offset hammer blows...

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If anyone wants to play with a bit of this stuff, PM me.  Expect a bit of shipping delay though...

Robert Taylor

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks, Friends.

Next project is to cover a 10' x 13' steel frame with a giant tarp, formerly a 14' x 48' billboard advertisement:20220419_175416.thumb.jpg.aa2c278a9a0948e1248d97a53dd0d896.jpg

Now a way to secure the tarp: 20220420_223335.thumb.jpg.72bf9ce4a038eed5db689ebc90ee6ef1.jpg

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So, the ABS tube happens to be the perfect size to snap over the tarp and secure it to the steel uprights.  HOWEVER, the wind up here on a nice day exceeds the capacity of the ABS alone. The solution is a spring clamp, as shown.

This is the same bandsaw material that I have previously described.  There was no way that I was going to cold-form this stuff, so time to light the forge.

My plan was to forge clip radii on the ends, anneal, form in the press, harden, and re-temper. Forged and 'annealed' one test piece, pulled it out, and although it was now cold-workable, it was still VERY rigid and springy.  No need to further heat treat. I LOVE this stuff!

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Do not forget, it is not difficult to get your work offset from under the ram:20220420_223059.thumb.jpg.b92a363b5ad2e03c630d8dc4483d1c02.jpg

Note how the die is shimmed at the rear. I managed to crush the ⅛" wall tube (die) to get the spring clip to deform. 

Bed frame angle and 'angle iron' are definitely my friends on the flypress!

Robert Taylor

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Thanks, Jennifer, and yes, now that I know that the process does not result in scrap, I will stack the next three and remove the teeth, round the edges, then forge. The spring clips will also be ⅜" shorter than the ABS.

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If you grind stacked stock it will act like a stone dresser and eat your grinding wheel, possibly the belt. While I haven't tried it on the belt grinder, I know from experience how quickly it eat a grinding wheel or cut off disk.

A friend helping me roof the wood shed cut the steel roofing in a stack of 3 using my skill saw and cut off disk. I wasn't watching or I would've stopped him, didn't notice till he asked if I had a new blade, that one was worn out. He made it less than 1/2 way across a standard steel roofing sheet.

The trick has saved me the price of buying a stone dresser for my grinder though.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Yeah, Frosty, before I blew up my belt grinder, I had special belts just for grinding these stacks.  The bench grinder is slower, but it gets the job done.  It is a good hard wheel, and it will get a little dress, for sure. I am not one of those cats who get a big groove in the center of my wheels.  My motto is 'let the work dress the wheel'.

Robert

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I would like to hear more about this tarp, offline, Scott, but unless the wind carries this one off to OZ, I am probably OK for the moment.  I believe that you have a credit already on the turbine scrap:).

Frosty, this grnding wheel is such a great performer, I thought I ought to show you what is under the hood:20220422_195757.thumb.jpg.5c6f52bfaf3f78a30eee70f59775534a.jpg

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Originally a 7"ø wheel, now measures 5⅞". Most of that was already gone when I purchased the machine.  Just a great wheel...

Robert

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I have a 30+yro 7" Craftsman by Rockwell for sharpening bits! I don't think I've ever read the label on the wheels beyond aluminum oxide. I wonder if they're vitrified, they are the original wheels so maybe. I have medium and fine mounted. I picked up 3 boxes of 7" wheels about 10 years ago for next to nothing at a garage sale but they're just sitting there. 

There's a funny story attached to it, I'd bought it to sharpen bits in the drill shop and just removed the original wheels so the guys who wouldn't lower themselves to let me show them how to sharpen things properly didn't just grind a hollow and knock the corners off leaning into the wheel. 

It starts getting funky, sometimes it'd start and run, sometimes it's shudder and start, sometimes it'd just twitch back and forth. So I pulled the wheels and took it to the Sears Service center for repair. AFTER jumping through a couple few hoops to get the OK from State Supply. I drop it off with as complete a list of symptoms as the job ticket would allow and get a call a week later to come pick it up. 

It was sort of taken apart, the rests, stand, guards, motor and Flex light(?) are vacuum packed to a cardboard backing with a bill charging for the light and stamped in large red letters across it AND the cardboard. Beyond repair discard and replace. They wanted the $15 for the light it didn't have in the first place + $50 labor and I laughed at the service guy. 

I called Supply, told them, had Sears fax the bill and explanation. Supply faxed a stock request # for the replacement and I got a brand new 7" bench grinder with light for the shop. Asked what they were going to do with the bad one. "discard it of course." So I took it with me, stopped by the tool repair I would have used IF Supply hadn't INSISTED I take it to Sears. My tool guy plugged it in and told me the contacts were dirty, sold me a fine brass brush to clean the contacts and a set of brushes in case.

I screwed the new grinder to the bench in the shop and took the old one apart, brushed the contacts, put it together plugged in it hummed beautifully so I put the new brushes in just because I had them and it's lived happily in my shop ever since. The free light IS nice, I like it.

Frosty The Lucky.

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On 4/23/2022 at 12:35 PM, Frosty said:

I have a 30+yro 7" Craftsman by Rockwell for sharpening bits!

Frosty, I love this!  Do you split your drill points? Most of the jobs I serviced required split points, and I would hand split production drills and machine split coolant fed drills.  

On the Flypress, 'angle iron' can be your friend. I have 'bed iron' that is over 70 years old, and some much newer. This has been mentioned by numerous IFI members, that bed iron is nothing to sneeze at.  Personally, I love it for tooling, one can even cold shear milder steel across bed iron...

Now as for press work. If one does the kind work that I do, angle iron is indispensable.  As shown in the images below, having as many sizes as possible in my press kit, affords me a lot of flexibility in progressive forming.  This is where I am really missing my belt grinder for dressing the outside radii for nesting angles within angles...20220426_133239.thumb.jpg.a15d37d85ff598c2abbe32598dc90879.jpg

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Robert Taylor

I think my brother could use 20, 30, of these...

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I'm not good enough to free hand a split bit on a grinder, I've done it just not well so I bought a Drill Doctor for my index of cobalt split bits.

The kinds of quantity the State bought drill bits it was cheaper to throw dull ones away than sharpen them so that's what they did. I put coffee cans by all the drill presses and asked the guys to toss dull or broken bits in the cans. I'll never run out. I've taught a couple guys how to free hand sharpen drill bits and use the drill gauge. Its easy to show someone how it's done but another thing entirely to let them practice till they get it right. THAT DAY. 

My to sharpen drill index is a different coffee can for each size. Letter and Number gauges I have to sort through, I don't have enough room for that many coffee cans. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 4/26/2022 at 7:04 PM, Frosty said:

I don't have enough room

Same here. When line workers fear that their drill might cause an escapement, into the trash it goes. 5S netted me stock for the estate sale.

Say, these have been working a treat for my one offs and the latest short run - most handy!

Robert Taylor

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  Robert, can you tell me, a layman to your kind of work, what am I looking at in that picture?  I'm sure I will feel embarrased after asking, but I don't let that stop me anymore.  Sorry if it's obvious.  I looked several times.

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Looks to me like it's the top of the fly press..  or I should say the threaded part with the top of the female.. 

The upper section is the locking collar so it can be adjusted at any stop.. It's the reason it has the secondary threading at a much smaller pitch. 

 

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Yes, the locking collar adjusts on that 10 threads per inch (TPI) section.  Very nice feature. Gives highly repeatable stop for cracking walnuts.

When the ram is raised for the next sequence, it is very convenient to accurately control how far the ram extracts. For instance, although not shown in these images, I am able to set the upper stop position of the top tool.

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The top tool floats on the magnetic chuck, so I need it close to the bottom dies to tweak in the alignment. This is a new application of the mag chuck: I was delighted with how well the top tool tracked on the downstroke. It is all about precise axial alignment, which may be prototyped by hand and eye!

Never mind that the bottom dies skived the test piece:

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And here is another tribute to the ubiquitous bed frame angle, as it cut cleanly into the galvanized chain link fence tension wire.

Lacks only a slightly wider gap, a bit of radius and polish, and a bit of punch lube...

WARNING! Metals That Are Hard, Tend To Be Brittle!

Some bed frame angle WILL Shatter.

Always test for Shatterability before subjecting to stress.  I know that more than a few of you have shared my experience of having a surgeon spend and hour digging (accident) shrapnel out of the flesh.  Also far easier to put an eye out, than to put one back in:blink:

Robert Taylor

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