Recommendation? Buy this old shear?

JTknives

JTknives

Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
8,650
I have the option to buy an old Edwards no. 20 (I think) shear for $75. He was asking $100, I offered $50 and he came back at $75. He says it has 4” jaws but I’m not sure on that. Is it worth buying and does it have any practical use in the shop. I have been looking for a big shear to chop up 15n20 big this is all I have found.

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I can't see the jaws in the photo. What shape are they in? It is a pretty cool old tool in any case.

Have you considered making a set of shearing dies for your press?
 
It's lying outside in the dirt. He didn't care enough about it to bring it inside. I wouldn't pay too much
 
Yeah. I would. They have an immense amount of sutting force. You can use it to hot cut as well. I can't see the photo, so I am unsure of the quality, but, if it looks like it will still have clean and workable mating surfaces, it should be quite useful.
 
Great shears.
They will distort workpiece right near the cut. But usually not a problem if the material is going into a forge.
If its decent shape at that price I would buy it. You probably find It useful.
 
IIRC, those are ratchet shears and while they have lots of force, are slow. I think a single pull shear would work better for shearing your 15N20 ... or a hydraulic shear.

For someone with your love of building things, it wouldn't be hard to take some 3/4" D2 and a few bars/plates of 1" mild steel and make a simple hydraulic shear. An air-over bottle jack with a foot pedal would be enough to power it. Or, build it as a "die" to fit your existing press's lower die mount.

I still would get that Edwards shear, sandblast it clean, then paint it red.
 
I have one similar but looks to be larger & it wont cut hardened 15N20 very well. Only tried a couple times and it's probably dull, but it's just not the right tool for shearing 15N20.
 
Mine weighs that or more, has 14" long jaws (blades). It will cut 1.5" wide 15N20 strips to length no problem. But it will not shear strips off 10-12" wide 15N20 blade saw blades.
 
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