My first Flypress; Tooling question.

[Simian]

Hi Everyone. 

I've just picked this up, A denbigh No. 4 (4" throat, 7.5" daylight, 44mm screw). It's in lovely condition (I have the handle & weight too). Metals and fuel may be expensive in the UK, but flypresses are cheap and plentiful  This was a snip at £100.

 

My question is about tooling. It won't be hitting anything too large, I rarely work on stock much bigger than an inch square, and will be mainly used for flatting, fullering and a bit of punching. Also a little drawing out on small damascus billets.

I'm going to make a pair of flat dies, and wondered what may be the best size to make them; I'm guessing anything more than 1.5x2.5" may be a little pointless on this size press? Any pointers would be appreciated.

 

[Frosty]

Drawing out on that little beauty would be most practical on a jewelry or perhaps cabinetry hardware scale. 

A ring die anvil and ball hammer die will let you make vessels and hollow forms. Fullering dies draw nicely. 

Lots of chasing chisels come to mind, basically my entire set made short and a pair of tong to hold them in use. Or maybe a spring holder so you can concentrate on placing the work. 

I sure wish those were more available around here.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Don Shears]

Simian;

there's an Austrailian You-Tuber,  Niel Pask (channel is "Pask makes") who's posted a video of himself making an interestingly designed quick change tooling jig for one of his fly presses.  I liked his presentation style and the design of the jig he built.

Cheers'

Don Shears

[swedefiddle]

Take about 18" or so of 3" to 4" Channel Iron. Drill a multitude of holes through the short flanges, for pins. You can make all different kinds of things to hold in place with a couple pins. You can even flip the pieces with the pins still in place. Works great for straightening or radius making. Just a start!! move the blocks closer to the middle, make a smaller/tighter curve. The imagination is your limit!!

Neil

[Simian]

On 12/19/2022 at 3:59 AM, Don Shears said:

Simian;

there's an Austrailian You-Tuber,  Niel Pask (channel is "Pask makes") who's posted a video of himself making an interestingly designed quick change tooling jig for one of his fly presses.  I liked his presentation style and the design of the jig he built.

Cheers'

Don Shears

I have seen that - superb! Buuuut.... I had another issue - most of my work is less than an inch thick and even with some dies, I had to make up 2" for the dies to meet. I'll get some pics tomorrow, as I came up with a solution that included a quick change for the bottom tool/die.

In the end I made flat dies from some D2 and some drawing dies from some old coil spring. Love this thing! Made short work of some damascus billets recently.

[Simian]

Some pics of my quick change tooling; the top is the standard 1" rod and shaft collar. The bottom is some 15mm thick plate with some 40x40mm bar welded to it. the bottom tools are a piece of 50x50mm box with a 5mm wall thickness with the tooling welded to the top. That's my flat die, others have a 10mm top plate with the tooling welded to it.

 

Hope that makes sense - sorry for the metric!