flypress bench

Good morning all,

I need to build a bench to hold my No 5 Denbigh flypress.

I am thinking something about 24x24 inches about 36 inches high using 2x2x1/4" angle with gussets at the corners and a tray lower down to hold tooling ect.

Would this section material be suitable ? The top surface would be a sheet of 3/16 or 1/4 "

Any and all advice welcome. I know some of you have been there ,done that !

Looks very much like Andrew J’s - he’s just reinforced his bench, so that post might give you some clues? He used a 15mm thick plate!

Sounds about right size but even so I'd reccommend attaching it to the wall as security against it toppling, Either directly or by a strap or chain. Or bolt the feet to the floor.

Robert G8RPI.

Hi Larry don't forget to leave a hole under the press centre to alow longer parts to be pressed on or off. As already stated it must be fastened down and bracket to the wall helps as well. I would use a thicker plate on top at least 12mm thick.

David

Sounds a bit light to me. I'd use 2"/3" square thick wall tube and heavier plate. I'd also use proper diagonals, not just gussets. To save the trouble of searching here's what I did to repair my broken bench, note the hole to match the hole in the flypress:

And with the flypress in place:

The bench is on 3x3 uprights with cross bracing all held together with 3" coach screws. The rear of the bench is also bolted to the wall behind. My flypress is #3 and I still managed to crack the bench top. Although that was after closing several hundred steel rivets.

Andrew

NB: The hole in the flypress base is currently filled with a blank to support the rivet fixture while I'm riveting my traction engine wheels.

My thanks to all, this is exactly to kind of info I was looking for. Never thought about such a thick plate for the top. I did think about leaving a centre hole to deal with those odd jobs. Good advice regarding bolting down and fixing to the wall [ there goes another piece of my wall ! ]. The thought of that thing tipping over is scary !

I was surprised at the weight of it when I went to collect it, my van was very steady on the road on the way home ! Came across it in an old outhouse, buried under a pile of junk, but not much more than surface rust and a few battle scars to deal with. Cleaned up well and a coat of paint helped. I need to find weights for it,no idea where the first ones went. Just as well I have a chain hoist and a strong I beam installed in my garage [which seldom sees my car ]

Again, my thanks to everyone , you never fail.

Make the stand as heavy as possible. Plenty of diagonal bracing. Maybe some concrete (slabs?) in the base to stop it moving about. I would aim to make it free standing, a vigorously used fly press can generate some considerable forces, wouldn't want those transferred into a lightly constructed, for instance, garage wall.

I recently watched a TV program about the manufacture of (expensive) cooking pots. A fly press was used at various stages of manufacture. Very frustrating to see the flimsy benches the presses were mounted on deflecting badly while the press was being used.

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Worth noting that the energy that goes into deflecting the bench is wasted ... it should be going into the workpiece.

MichaelG.

Which means are the presses being over driven as to get that much force into the bench means the press must be flexing a lot?

I always thought that you got the weights moving and then let them do the work?

The weights don't have to be spherical, just shaped so that when you hit your head on them, they don't fracture your skull! Also, the tapered square - is it really necessasary to have a tapered square hole, would a tapered cylindrical form suffice. So for me, I would find a suitable lump of round bar, bore a tapered hole through it and use that.

BobH

My fly press is mounted on a stand alone cast pedestal (on witch it came) and rag bolted down, found that best way to contain all the forces at play especially when using on hot work. It's simply to big a lump to risk coming down especially knowing how busy A & E is!

Guy

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No, the press does not need to be flexing a lot ... it simply transfers the energy into the bench

You need to look at the whole ‘system’ right down from the input, to ‘mechanical earth’

MichaelG.

Some more sound advice there, all welcome, keep it coming !

As I can see, it,s not just a matter of sticking it on a bench and hope for the best.

I did work on one of these things many moons ago but never paid too much attention to its mounting.

We were reminded that we were being paid to do, not to think !

I do recall that the stands were quite large and heavy, so that would seem to be the way to go

Been there, done that. Ok for light work, like punching out small brass patterns for brackets to hold thermistors on battery terminals. But once I started using the flypress to its capacity cracks starting appearing; mainly in the bench top. Make any stand solid and then add more bracing and weight.

Andrew

What diameter are - or should be - the balls?

And when you have done that add a some more bracing and weight!

Many years ago I worked in a metallurgical laboratory. There were 4 fly presses, all mounted on very heavy wooden benches. These benches had long (4ft ish) 3/4" bolts pulling the benches together, these required occasional tightening. These benches were not bolted down but were allowed to come up against a piece of 4" x 4" x 0.5" steel angle bolted to the floor

The presses were and still are used for stamping out tensile test specimens from a variety metals, typically something like 1mm thick and 125mm long. Easy work in brass and aluminium, a bit more oomph needed for mild steels. Then there was maraging steel, a two balls job! We found that we could safely hang a second ball from another press on the "arm", still took some effort to get through!

John

When it comes to bulk/mass, I believe that it is better to be looking at it than looking for it.

I think I will be going for the heavy wall box section with good bracing. This is a 0ne-off-job, so lets go for it.

Thank you all for your interest and response, it has ticked quite a few boxes for me.

I will now go shopping for materials, knowing what I need. Thank you all.