Alternative to Fly Press?

[Frosty]

Now you're being plumb silly Thomas.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

It was interesting to visit the Black Hole shop in Los Alamos; they sold stuff sold off from the National Labs at auction and *every sales person* had a Geiger counter on them!  EMRTC did some work with depleted Uranium and there is supposed to be some of it's dust floating around their sites.

[Purple Bullet]

John- I was using a battery power sawsall to open old lead acid batteries for the lead. I used baking soda to neutralize the acid, but still didn’t want to spatter anything so I did this at ground level next to a drain with water running to dilute. I spent longer than I should have working bent over. That initiated sciatica which has gotten worse over time. I don’t tolerate most pseudo opiates. They just make me vomit. The pain has been occupying most of my attention lately. That’s my excuse for the tardy response.

Thomas - I‘ve seen three different doctors but the wait to see one who could actually DO something is about 3 weeks. However, I can get a doctor outside the group I normally use this coming week. At this point extra cost doesn’t seem to matter a lot.

[ThomasPowers]

Here's hoping!

[Purple Bullet]

I've been out of commission for the past few weeks. I can't say its the worst pain I've ever had, but it ranks up there. I got some nerve root injections and have been recovering pretty well, but I lost ten pounds (I can't recommend the method though!) and I don't have full strength in my leg or anything like my normal stamina.

I've been trying to catch up on a lot of different stuff. I haven't implemented Larry's suggestion of a leg brace yet. I want to make it fold up for travel. I think that may end up being one of the strong points for the press. It travels well. I also thought of another improvement. I intend to weld a 3/4" rod extension to the center of the axle where the rim is mounted. A 2 inch length of 3/4" pipe will slip over that. I'll weld a hinge at right angles that will have something like a 5 ft length of 1-1/2 inch pipe or maybe a pry bar attached. Angled slots will be cut into the rim. The pry bar or pipe will lay off to the side, tied so it stands normally at an angle. I may have to have some guides welded to the frame to keep it from falling over. If the inertia is not enough force to do the job, after wheeling down the press, you pull the bar over into one of the slots and lean on it.

As requested, here is a short video of the current state as I used it to flatten a cleaver I cut from a harrow disk. Yes, I could have done this with a hammer just as easy. In fact, I went over it with a flatter later, but at least it shows how it works. Its still a work in progress, but I'm encouraged enough to keep working on it.

[Lateralus]

very creative, congrats for building this!

[JHCC]

Interesting!

[Purple Bullet]

Lateralus - Thanks. I spent a few weeks in your country when the major oil company I worked for sent me there for training some years back. I was amazed at all the old and new ironwork I saw there. Beautiful.

John - All your posts on the tooling for your fly press really inspire me. I don't think this contraption is up to fly press level yet, but I have a couple of more improvements to make. I have some wedding gifts to make and I'm still moving pretty slow so the press is back on the back burner for a while.