Fly Press Power!

[Justin.Mercier]

So I finally got my fly press all set up today and able to be used. I've only got one tool for it, and need to learn to weld to make more since I've fabricated a bunch of tool blanks to fit the die receiver.

This thing is great, I took it and just to do something, used 1/2" square, cold, and ran two parallel lines down the side, like you'd do getting ready for a fancy twist. Normally just veining 2 lines like this hot with a chisel would take me a couple heats and not be nearly as straight and precise looking. It took all of 60 seconds to do it cold with the fly press, vs maybe 10 minutes + by hand, and it looks better too.

This is only a really small fly press as far as they go, if you go by what they sell at oldworldanvils or pieh tools, it'd be somewhere midway between a #2 and a #3, but even at its small size, it packs a punch! I need to fabricate up a set of butchers and some top and bottom fullers, and i could even use it for forge welding and drawing out billets.

Heck if I make some beveled dies for the top and bottom, i could use it to help forge in bevels on blades

 

[Bill Armstrong]

YES Justin! I've been considering one of these for quite some time but am building a Mcdonald rolling mill first...the fly press is quite some tool...quiet and powerful, the physics of this machine is really unique! It sounds like your already enjoying it! Have fun and listen to the music!

 

[Justin.Mercier]

Funny that you chose the phrase listen to the music, since a fly press is so quiet you actually /can/ listen to music while doing work, unlike a power hammer or hydrolic press =P

 

[Wulf]

I was watching JD Smith's damascus DVD recently and recall him setting initial welds using a leg vise. A leg vise can squeeze pretty good but not nearly as good as a fly press. Make yourself some drawing dies for that bad boy!

 

[Justin.Mercier]

All in good time, I need to learn to use this stick welder before i can do too much =D I'm just about as raw a beginner as you can get when it comes to any sort of welding not involving a forge.

I have a bunch of top tool shanks prepped, and ready for me to weld the shaft collar onto the shank (I've only actually welded one on, and it's welded but it's not pretty) but need to forge / fabricate / etc more actuall tools to weld to the shanks now.

You can see some of them to the upper left in the 2nd picture.