hydraulic press

For damascus? If so, I'd say waaaay to slow. Also too much for a standard plate, 20 - 30 ton would work fine.
 
well i figure for the price the heaftiness, would compensate for the speed???

andrew
 
Why don't you email either Deker or Delbert Ealy. Either of them could answer definitively. I know Del builds his and may have a low cost alternative for you.
 
Not the right press.
Great for bending steel, but not for welding or shaping it.
Stacy
 
I'm with Stacy on this one. You really want a purpose built forging press if you'll be forging. There are a few important reasons for this:

  1. You need a relatively high-speed ram (as presses go). On the order of about 1" per second of travel is a good range.
  2. You need to be able to switch dies for different work. There's really no provision on a standard shop press for that so you'd be cobbling/welding anyways. Why not build something at that point?
  3. You probably want a longer cylinder stroke than that so you can work with tooling/dies if you need to.
  4. A forging press will eat less shop space. That thing is HUGE!

If you're willing to spend $1200, you can probably get all of the pieces to build a press for about that if you have a good scrap yard to get steel from. If you don't trust your welding for this application (I know *I* don't trust my welding for a press frame....) you may want to make friends with a professional welder. Speaking of safety, there are things that are taken into account with the design of a forging press that make them appropriate for the job they do. Think "right tool for the job"...

If you're willing to sock some cash away here and there and wait a while you can get a good press built or forging from several sources.

Don't mean to burst your bubble, but you'll likely end up either being less than happy, or investing what you'd spend on a press anyways to modify a shop press for forging duty.

-d
 
deker,

well sounds like your prob right, spur of moment idea.....saw price and my mind started working.my original idea was to try and buy one off ron claiborne with my income tax return this year. so maybe ill stick with that plan. though things never go as i plan (it's this whole black cloud thing) aah never mind.............

as far as building my own, i'd love to but like everything else, i never have time. im working steady 6 days a week now 12 hrs a day. so the time i do get away from the job,kids,family i try and focus on my knives. though it would be a great project, and i know enough good welders, and have plenty of resources for the parts, just the whole time issue.

andrew
 
same thing happened with my grinder and power hammer, i wanted to build them, ended up with a bader III, and a home made power hammer that a buddy built instead.

andy
 
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