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[awemawson]

Surely used Fly Presses are available round your way?

[TomG]

Andrew,

I've never seen or used a fly press. They are not at all common over here.

Tom

[Vinny]

I've never even heard of one. I looked at kick presses but they're all expensive and not near here, so freight needs to be added. I'm only punching aluminum so I may try and mod my arbor press.

[awemawson]

Extremely handy for sheet metalwork. Not just piercing, but bending and forming. You can be surprisingly delicate OR use the full inertia of the weights and exert several tons of force.

[awemawson]

Quite a few listed on the US eBay site - admittedly far more on the UK one !

[Vinny]

Unless I'm not looking for the right thing, I'm not seeing anything like that and the only fly presses I do see, none are under $1300. I can get a pneumatic press for much less than that. Something like what you posted would be pretty close to ideal tho.

[awemawson]

Export opportunity for us then!

At one time every factory would have rows of them knocking out widgets. The smaller ones were used for instance to form brass electrical contacts and bigger ones bending brackets, forming louvres etc

[Vinny]

I found a pneumatic on ebay for a decent price, but after doing the math on it's force capabilities, it's useless. For the punches I have I need just under a ton, it was just over an eighth of a ton! So I'm back to looking. As it stands right now I may be making something to use in my shop press, my arbor press is only a half ton.

[awemawson]

The advantage of the Fly Press is that there can be massive energy storage in the flying balls, and the coarse multi-start thread delivers it quickly.

You might do better with a hydraulic press rather than a pneumatic one - far greater power per volume, albeit usually delivered fairly slowly.

You could always make a drop stamp - just hoist a heavy guided weight and release it.

[TomG]

A couple reasons it never caught on over here is the power hammer and planishing hammer.

Tom