The Imagination XPress Is In The Station!

delbert ealy said:
Thats cool,
Have fun, its 45 degrees here and I'm headed out to forge right now.
Hot in the shop is just something you will have to get used to, july and august are even more fun.
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You lucky bum! It's 81 here! I have to get the 110 working in the shop so that I can get the fan running...working on that now...

-d
 
Geesh, wasn't it just a few months ago folks were wondering how to warm their anvils up because the anvils were too cold?

Looking good with that press. Can't wait to see some action pix and pressed billets!
 
delbert ealy said:
Yeah an get goosebumps when you do:eek:
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I definitely need to come up with a way I can keep the garage door in the shop open while I forge, but also keep the dogs out of the shop. I've got a big 3 foot diameter shop fan, but it would be better if I wasn't trying to blow air through a man door. Also need to get that mini-fridge in the shop hooked up again and stocked with water. It's gonna be a long summer :D

At least I got the electrical all worked out yesterday and have 110V AND 220V in the shop now. I can run a welder, a chop saw, and a press without having to run back and forth to the garage. My day ended yesterday when I clogged up the final tip I had for my wirefeed welder after 5pm on a Sunday. Picking up more tips to finish making my combo dies today on the way home from work. I can run the big welder (400A AC/DC Lincoln...Looks like a washing machine) now as long as I don't turn it up, but I don't have a set of electrode/ground cables for it yet.

Why is it every time something new comes into the shop it makes me need more stuff? :D

-d
 
Congrats on the press! I owned the 2nd Imagination Xpress that was ever produced (Jeff kept the first for himself), and I used mine hard for 11 years before I finally "hard" broke it and had to build a new one. If your not familiar with a press, use caution when you start out! Keep the mass of what your working on directly under the cylinder ram...theres much more force than what most realize, and if you happen to compress something "off-center" your gona break something on the press.(Been there....Done that!):( Another thing to avoid is "over pressing", meaning that altough the press might have enough force to "squash" a 1" thick piece to 3/8" in one heat, its often not the best thing to do, especially if your working with pattern welded material.
Where a hammer (hand or power) forges from the outside in, a press is just the opposite....it forges from the inside out. When the dies touch the workpiece, the heat is sucked out, and the compression takes place from the hottest portion of the interior, and lessens as it gets near the cooler surfaces. Thats of no concern when working straight steel, but it makes a huge difference in how the pattern comes out on damascus.
Suffice to say, your gona love that thing! When I first got mine, I got so caught up in making dies that it was a week before I really got into actually using the press. Since then I've found that I use three sets of dies that most...the rest are for special purposes, and are only there when those needs pop up.
 
Ed Caffrey said:
Congrats on the press! I owned the 2nd Imagination Xpress that was ever produced (Jeff kept the first for himself), and I used mine hard for 11 years before I finally "hard" broke it and had to build a new one. If your not familiar with a press, use caution when you start out! Keep the mass of what your working on directly under the cylinder ram...theres much more force than what most realize, and if you happen to compress something "off-center" your gona break something on the press.(Been there....Done that!):( Another thing to avoid is "over pressing", meaning that altough the press might have enough force to "squash" a 1" thick piece to 3/8" in one heat, its often not the best thing to do, especially if your working with pattern welded material.
Where a hammer (hand or power) forges from the outside in, a press is just the opposite....it forges from the inside out. When the dies touch the workpiece, the heat is sucked out, and the compression takes place from the hottest portion of the interior, and lessens as it gets near the cooler surfaces. Thats of no concern when working straight steel, but it makes a huge difference in how the pattern comes out on damascus.
Suffice to say, your gona love that thing! When I first got mine, I got so caught up in making dies that it was a week before I really got into actually using the press. Since then I've found that I use three sets of dies that most...the rest are for special purposes, and are only there when those needs pop up.
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Thanks for the tips Ed! I've used a press a bit at J. Neilson's shop so I'm not a complete newb, but I'm close enough that I'm taking any and all advice offered. I definitely have a healthy respect for the forces and dangers involved in hydraulics. On my "short list" of stuff to get done is build some extra sheet metal guards around exposed hoses...That makes me the most nervous.

I've got a question for you on dies. I'm working on some patterning dies (ladder, raindrop, variations, etc) and I'm trying to figure out the right size to make them. My gut says a 3"x3" square die is the right size for much of the stock I'll be working since it'll give me a bit of room on each side, but I'm concerned that I'll be pushing the press too hard with a 9in^2 area being worked at a time. Should I be concerned and go to 3"x2" or should 3"x3" work fine?

Thanks!

-d
 
With ladder and raindrop dies it is not bad to make them too wide, after all it won't make any difference if you are using a 3" wide die to pattern 1" wide stock. Length makes more difference. My ladder dies are 2w 3long and my press has just enough power (barely) to squeeze stock that size for finishing to 1/8". Since your press is smaller than mine I would go with 2" long dies and however wide you think the widest stock you will make will be. the same with the raindrop.
Del
 
delbert ealy said:
With ladder and raindrop dies it is not bad to make them too wide, after all it won't make any difference if you are using a 3" wide die to pattern 1" wide stock. Length makes more difference. My ladder dies are 2w 3long and my press has just enough power (barely) to squeeze stock that size for finishing to 1/8". Since your press is smaller than mine I would go with 2" long dies and however wide you think the widest stock you will make will be. the same with the raindrop.
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That's kind of what I was thinking, but wanted some validation of my reasoning. Ugh, now I have some worthless stock in the shop and need to find correct sizes quickly to mill out my laddering dies. I'm sure I'll find a use for what I've got, but the getting the other stuff quickly during the work week is the PITA of it.

thanks!

-d
 
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