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what type of press is this?

It's some sort of press with a heavy wheel that spins back and forth and
presses on the work using a heavy screw.
No audio needed, just watch about 10 seconds
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What's the history of these, any is it something uncommon in the US?
Reply to
Cydrome Leader
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I've seen them in a blackmith shop but never in the New England museums or used machinery stores I've visited. That may only mean they sell quickly, like anvils and other desirable small-shop machinery.
The blacksmith had custom forging dies in them to leave his power hammer free for general work. -jsw
Reply to
Jim Wilkins
That's a "fly press": a flywheel screw press. No, they aren't common in the US. Apparently they've been around for a long time in forge shops in other parts of the world, including Europe.
I never saw one but I remember seeing photos when I was an editor at American Machinist, back in the '70s.
Reply to
edhuntress2
I'd call it a "rotary inertia" or "worm gear inertia" press and it is not common in North America from what I've seen.
Reply to
Clare Snyder
That's because Andrew has been hoarding them all in Texas:
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Seriously though, he would be a good one to call if you want one. He seems to come across them pretty often...
Reply to
Leon Fisk
I've not seen a powered one like that but it's basically a fly press as others have mentioned. For manual operation they're quite nice as you get a feel for the energy input required to do the job so you adjust accordingly. I have one and they're quite common in the UK. The pic posted of a bunch of them in Texas looks a lot like Norton or Sweeney & Blocksidge but I expect they were made in the US as well.
Reply to
David Billington
From what little I saw the top die descends until the workpiece stops it, which suits them to stamping identical repetitive details on batches of variably thick hand-forged parts for wrought-iron railings etc. I think an arbor press would be as or more useful to a machinist.
Reply to
Jim Wilkins
Gunner Asch on Fri, 01 Feb 2019 15:23:43 -0800 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
Can you imagine the working conditions which made this an improvement?
I mean, - the alternative is hitting them with a hammer.
Reply to
pyotr filipivich
The Brit blacksmiths love fly presses and Blacker hammers, both of which are like hen's teeth in Leftpondia. Another use was architectural ceramics: clay, damp but not wet, was put into a mould/form and rammed with a flypress, then fired. Apparently a way to force the items to retain dimension, not so easy with wet clay.
AFAIK, some flypresses have a simple screw but the one I had a close look at Britain had a two-pitch screw, ingenious and very effective.
Details, photo and diagram here:
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Retired but I'd still love to have one to mess about with.
Some other smithing oddments if yer interested:
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Reply to
Mike Spencer
My Sweeney & Blocksidge has a 2 pitch screw but that is quite normal for many makes. The coarse thread is what applies the force and the fine thread is at the upper end of the screw and is what the stop collar fits to to allow fine adjustment of the ram travel.
Reply to
David Billington
Leon Fisk on Fri, 1 Feb 2019 15:40:31 -0400 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
Looks like a stamping press. In this case, knocking out 'flatware. Put the blank in it,down comes the die, up goes the die, out comes the spoon / fork. FWIW, Krupp Steel started out supplying those dies.
Reply to
pyotr filipivich
"Jim Wilkins" on Sun, 3 Feb 2019 09:28:32 -0500 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
But when he started, Herr Krupp wasn't the Industrial Powerhouse. Rather a bit of the opposite. E.G., his first mill used water wheels to power the drop hammer (SOP at the time). Which he put on a stream which didn't have enough flow year round. >
Reply to
pyotr filipivich
New England has preserved some of that history. We took a school trip to this place not long after it was restored and they demonstrated the waterwheels and trip hammer and explained the tedious process of squeezing the slag out of a bloom of iron, one of which they had on display.
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When I was little my father bought lumber to repair our 1830 house at a water-powered sawmill. -jsw
Reply to
Jim Wilkins
Interesting.
Are there other regional variations of "basic" machines like presses that still do the same job in the end?
Sort of like how germans were obsessed with slotted screws for absolutely everything forever?
Reply to
Cydrome Leader
the US. Apparently they've been around for a long time in forge shops in o ther parts of the world, including Europe.
erican Machinist, back in the '70s.
I can't think of anything in particular. There are some cases of machine ty pes being associated with the products they make, and the regional emphasis on those products. For example, horological lathes initially were associat ed with the UK, IIRC, and then Switzerland dominated that business. From wh at I saw years ago, Switzerland seemed to have an overwhelming number of th ose little lathes. Lens grinding and polishing machines in Germmany, then i n Japan, etc.
Reply to
edhuntress2
I can't think of anything in particular. There are some cases of machine types being associated with the products they make, and the regional emphasis on those products. For example, horological lathes initially were associated with the UK, IIRC, and then Switzerland dominated that business. From what I saw years ago, Switzerland seemed to have an overwhelming number of those little lathes. Lens grinding and polishing machines in Germmany, then in Japan, etc.
Reply to
Jim Wilkins
The house I was raised in, was built with exterior walls of two layers of white pine planks on end. these planks were 24 to 36 inches wide, 2 1/2 inches thick and up to 20 feet long. The trees were cut on the property and floated down the river to a water powered mill much like the Taylor Mill with the vertical saw powered by an undershot wheel. This mill combined the saw mill, a planing mill and a grist mill. I never saw the mill but remember well the stone fillled cribs of the dam and flume. We used to use the cast grinding plates from the grist mill as a boat anchor. The site was washed away in the early '50's when an ice jam combined with driftwood in the forebay of the dam gave way and spread everything downstream.
Reply to
Gerry
This private NH Christian high school teaches both male and female students the skills needed to restore or duplicate New England structures from the 1700 and 1800's in their original style.
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Last fall the fair had an exhibit of cutting pine planks as large as yours with a chainsaw running on guides, like the Alaskan mill that Northern sells but bigger. A couple of huge planks were still there during the ham radio flea market a few weeks later.
My sister and her husband have repaired and extended their 17xx Maine farm house using pegged post and beam construction, though not with timbers that large.
I sized the bandsaw mill I built for 20" logs based on the largest trees left in the neighborhood and have had to chainsaw slabs off the stump end of oaks that had been leaning over the house to fit it. Instead of full width planks I've been cutting each log section into two 6" x 12" by 12' beams to store the wood in the form of shed frames. The logs and rough cut beams (cants) dry evenly without cracking too much if the ends are painted with melted toilet ring wax, which unlike paraffin wax is flexible enough to not crack open as the weather changes.
-jsw
Reply to
Jim Wilkins

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