My New Toy

Laredo7mm

Laredo7mm

Joined
Jul 8, 2002
Messages
1,240
Well, it has been in the works for well over a year, but I finally got all the bits and pieces together to build my hydraulic forging press.

Here is the frame. Designed and built to sit on my work bench in the forging room. Yeah, I ran out of primer half way through. :mad: She is about 31.5 inches tall and 24 inches wide with a 12 inch wide "working window" inbetween the uprights.

frame.jpg



Here are some dies and spacer plates. I have flattening dies, 1/2 inch squaring dies, and 3/4 inch squaring dies. More to come in the future.

dies.jpg



And here is the power plant. A Rexroth 5 hp, variable displacement, variable pressure, 20 gallon reservoir, and solenoid valve.

pump.jpg



I have a 5.5 inch bore with 3 inch shaft and 3 inch stroke cylinder to do the pushing. With such a short stroke, I designed it to always operate at max stroke. That way by removing and adding the shim plates, I can vary the shut height. When I tested the pump and cylinder a while ago, I was getting about 1.5 inches of travel per second extending, and even faster for the return.

Now I just need to rmember how I had her wired up, it should be a fun little project. I can't wait to start sqashing some steel. Heck who knows, I might like it so much that I will sell the power hammer. Well, maybe not, but I bet my neighbors wish that I would. ;)
 
yep that should do it, what did you make those dies out of, did you mill in the V and how long are they?

Bill
 
Damn Sean, I don't think there's anything you can't do! That is super, and I like the minimalist size. Can't wait to see what come off it! Thanks for sharing.
 
Great project Sean! You'll sure like your press. Those are fancy squaring dies, for sure! Mine are made by tack welding two rows of angle iron, upside down. So far they've lasted, but I sure have a lot of hard crud building up on them. May be time for a vinegar bath.
 
Those dies are sweet! That press looks great too. One thing you may want to think about is making a shorter set of sqaring dies for welding. Those long dies can and will trap flux in the welds if you are not extremely careful to start the welds at one end and force the flux out the other end. Your long ones will work great for truing and squaring after the welding.
Cant wait to see the finished press! If its like everything else you do it will be fantastic.
 
Thanks guys. The dies are made out of regular old plain steel and the bearing surface of the dies is almost 5 inches long. One reason this project took so long was that it was a freebie job. I donated a pen and knife set to the company's charity foundation last September. So they were nice enough to weld the frame up for me and make me three sets of dies.

It almost looks like they polished the dies, there really are not any visible mill cutter marks. They are really nice!

Do you guys use a set of rounded drawing dies on your presses or do the flat dies draw pretty well?
 
You really are a gifted fella, Sean! That mean machine is going to turn out some great stuff for us to see. It's evident that the folks that did some work on your machine recoginze and appreciate your talents and work. One thing I have noticed about your work is the fact you do a great final finish to whatever project you undertake. That says a lot to folks and me that do a lot of mirror polish work.
 
Like Bruce said, you really need shorter squareing dies for welding and drawing, those will work, but you'll need to shove the billet all the way through and start pinching the billet a little at a time to draw and weld, which is fine, but I think you'll find a 2" long die will work better. Those will be great like Bruce said for truing and straighten billets though.
As for drawing dies, I really like flat dies for drawing and welding. If I have a billet or bar that I want to really stretch quick, I made a set of dies using
1 1/4" round bars. Just weld one on 2 different plates, in line so they come together centered and you can move steel quickly, I also made a set with the same 1 1/4" stock that sit long ways in the press and I use them to spread out billets I don't want to elongate.

Robert, if you'll keep applying a little candle wax on your dies when there hot, between welding passes, they will pretty well clean there selves off. Then, keep appying the wax and the crud will be easier removed.

Hope this helps a little,

Bill
 
Well I will throw a little cold water on the discussion Sean. It's a little thing but will prove to be important to you in the future. If you plan to bolt those pretty dies down you will find that you need to frequently change dies pretty quickly. Figure out a slide on-off method for them and it will save you a lot of frustration. I have about 16 - 20 different sets of dies for my press and change between different ones quickly according to the pattern I want.

Another personal thing is I would want more stroke on the cylinder. As you grow in pattern making you will find yourself making larger and larger billets to achieve the design you want.
 
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