bogmonster
Established Member
Hi Robbo,
The components are:
Stem - 1" mild steel to fit my banjo - cut at an angle.
Body - 60mm x 6mm flat hot rolled mild steel - this is bent to whatever the angle is in the flypress and then stick welded on the stem.
Edge - 6mm stainless steel rod epoxy glued to the top of the body
The reason to glue as opposed to weld is that the heat from welding will temper the hardness of the steel used for the edge (and possibly warp it). Also welding dissimilar metals is either very tricky or simply not possible. I may have got away with a lower temp approach like silver solder but epoxy works well it appears. The reason to use stainless is that it is already supplied in a hard state (does not need to be hardened like medium carbon tool steels).
My flypress is a Norton No6. Notionally that is supposed to be about 6 tonnes of force although with a fair wind of the bar will probably deliver much more. It weighs about 450kg on the bench and 'walks' across the floor when used in anger. Can't bolt it down as the screed is thin so have to use scaff bars to lever it back from time to time. A hydraulic shop press would be better suited to this task but I don't have one and in general the flypress is better suited to what I usually want to use it for - it is a very tactile machine.
As for the rest of the kit, only collected it recently, I am a hobby blacksmith so tools of the hobby
BM
The components are:
Stem - 1" mild steel to fit my banjo - cut at an angle.
Body - 60mm x 6mm flat hot rolled mild steel - this is bent to whatever the angle is in the flypress and then stick welded on the stem.
Edge - 6mm stainless steel rod epoxy glued to the top of the body
The reason to glue as opposed to weld is that the heat from welding will temper the hardness of the steel used for the edge (and possibly warp it). Also welding dissimilar metals is either very tricky or simply not possible. I may have got away with a lower temp approach like silver solder but epoxy works well it appears. The reason to use stainless is that it is already supplied in a hard state (does not need to be hardened like medium carbon tool steels).
My flypress is a Norton No6. Notionally that is supposed to be about 6 tonnes of force although with a fair wind of the bar will probably deliver much more. It weighs about 450kg on the bench and 'walks' across the floor when used in anger. Can't bolt it down as the screed is thin so have to use scaff bars to lever it back from time to time. A hydraulic shop press would be better suited to this task but I don't have one and in general the flypress is better suited to what I usually want to use it for - it is a very tactile machine.
As for the rest of the kit, only collected it recently, I am a hobby blacksmith so tools of the hobby
BM
