[Jewelry making - Article 00822] - Re: [Orchid] New Fly Press

[Don Iorns]

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Dear Ali,

    You don't mention it in your post, but at around 3 Cwt ie approx 150
    Kg then I assume the unit is a size 3 - size 4 fly press. 

    2 reasonably fit people should be able to manually move it,
    dimensions are such that it would be difficult for any more than 2
    people to get a hand on it. Getting it in and out of a car boot is
    little more problematic and you may require materials handling
    equipment, an engine hoist is a useful small crane for this type of
    activity. 

    I would certainly investigate the load bearing characteristics of
    your upstairs floor as the entire weight of the unit is constrained
    into a small footprint and is also subject to continual impact forces
    during the press operation. You will also have to consider how you
    are going to retain the press as the rotational action of the lead
    screw translates to a torque on the base of the unit which will have
    a tendency to twist and wander during press operation. Most commonly
    a small unit of this type would be bolted to a work bench around the
    850 - 900mm height to present the press platen at a comfortable work
    height. 

    A type 3/4 press would have little difficulty in shearing 1mm
    blanks, I routinely use a small size 0 press to shear up to 2mm
    fine/sterling silver and typically only employ the larger size 6
    press for billet forging etc. 

    With regard to tooling, I make up most of my own, alternatively
    making friends with a fitter/turner is useful. While the site is
    focused on blacksmithing, a useful overview of the flypress and some
    tooling options can be viewed at :- 

    http://www.abana.org/ronreil/flypress.shtml 

    Finally, you mention that this is an old unit, like all mechanical
    devices a flypress is subject to wear and tear, most commonly on the
    lead in and main screw and main ram and machine guideways, the lead
    in & main screw should take up smoothly when the counterweight is
    spun and the main ram tooling should not have any slop when striking. 


Kind regards
Don Iorns
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