Hydraulic shop press as a clicker press for cutting dies

[Matt S]

5 hours ago, sparklehart said:

I think one of these might be a nice alternative 

https://youtu.be/TIGYW1dPm6c

We had a short discussion on these sorts of press here: Click me

Upshot is that such things might be useful for certain small and/or repetative jobs. However they are very limited on their punching power and have a narrow daylight space.

I would dearly love a swing-arm press because it would massively reduce the time it takes per cut, and placing cuts around flaws would be much easier. I don't have the space or power required for a "real" clicker press, and the Weaver pneumatic ones are expensive and have a fixed head. There's a few options on smallish manual ones: Weaver, Lucris, and Cowboy and they all look like excellent machines. As far as I can tell they all work on the same principle, which is a long-arm toggle press that can deliver around 4-5 tons pressure and have a moving presser head around 12" square. Unfortunately they all cost 4 figures and I just don't have the budget for that at the moment.

Instead I went down the popular route of an inexpensive bearing press, which is a machine that car mechanics use. It's a heavy steel frame with a bottle jack attached. I bought a 6-ton model as I had limited space available and my research indicated that the ram will move quicker the smaller the pressing capacity. I was able to buy the press, some steel plates, a heavy cutting board, and build a stand out of 2x4s for under £100 total. This machine has two major limitations: it can't handle leather any wider than 13" and it requires usually 4 strokes of the handle to make a cut, and a separate control to release/raise the presser. It also requires the presser plate to be loose, rather than fixed to the ram, so I lose a little speed here too. However the price was excellent and being entirely manual I can feel the exact moment the knife passes through the leather, which limits the wear on the knife and the board.

I also have a fly press, which is a machine commonly used in metalworking. It uses a weighted arm which spins a very large screw, which provides a surprisingly powerful "bounce" with a single stroke of the arm. This makes it fast to operate, and the open C-frame will give a lot more flexibility regarding the leather pieces I can put through it (no need to cut into strips first). Unfortunately I've not yet had the chance to set this machine up and run it through its paces.

[sparklehart]

I agree, cutting a side down in small pieces wouldn’t be optimal. I do wish I could get a mighty wonder delivered to alaska for a reasonable price!

[DeckerZ]

I have been testing my 1 ton press with interesting results.

https://youtu.be/LMNmfYtJ4Ik

 

[Greybeard]

DeckerZ, Thanks for the Video! Think that will be my next purchase.

 

[sparklehart]

On 10/7/2018 at 12:00 PM, DeckerZ said:

I have been testing my 1 ton press with interesting results.

https://youtu.be/LMNmfYtJ4Ik

 

Nice! Looks good!

[ironbasher]

How many of you are aware of a blacksmiths fly press? Depth adjustable,fairly large work area even on small ones,and quick.Should work great for clicker set up.

[Matt S]

19 minutes ago, ironbasher said:

How many of you are aware of a blacksmiths fly press? Depth adjustable,fairly large work area even on small ones,and quick.Should work great for clicker set up.

I have a no2 sitting behind the shed, waiting for me to free up enough space to build it a stand. It's been about a year so far... My suspicion is that it's going to be great for quickly cranking out repetitive small parts, since it's a C-frame and will essentially a single-stroke machine. Might end up just using it for making sheet loops though!