Madmike

I've heard many times that a smelt removes the nasty stuff we don't want in a blade steel... But haven't heard of analisys done before/after. Doesn't help much

It's there that the compressor matters, over-size the hose and valve of the jack, set the regulator to the high limit of the jack, set the comp much higher to ensure you always operate at the fastest rate, add a pair of heavy springs to speed up the back stroke... This way I can squeeze 15 to 20 times a 2"x2"x6" 'Ws' billet and keep it hot enough to draw it without shearing the welds... These jacks need a little tweaking to get WAY-faster

Hi guys, about mechanicaly actuated presses, here are a French one, and an American. Have a happy new year

Hofi's cast hammers are 5160 and top level and mine hasn't hurt my anvil yet but I don't remind forging the anvil, try to forge hot steel, not cold anvils

Welcome in the pffft pffft pffft squeeze club Art, a lovely little press you made Just one thing I'd like to say to you all members of the club, take off those ridiculously small hoses and valve and replace them by way larger, the cylinder is suffocating and won't have a decent speed as it comes, on mine you can't hear the pffft-pffft, it's a continuous vibrating noise and it goes way faster than all the presses I saw on Youtube And don't forget to double the back-stroke springs, it speeds up the cycle Edit: the picture of mine on the first page is an old one...

And if you don't want to crown individually each layer, make a pair of very slightly crowned dies which can squeeze a whole billet in length starting from the center and further and further to the edges as you press. 1 or 1.5mm is enough. Then do next bite on flat dies and it should be OK Well... It works for me

You could also use a guided trammel with a spring return to rotate two gears on the release screws of the jacks And with few teeth count gears the releases could rotate a whole revolution or more on a short trammel stroke... I use the head of an angle grinder to transmit the motion between my release handle and the screw of the jack, this way the handle is pointing at me with a 30° angle under the horizontal and when I rise it to +30° (75mm/3inches stroke) the screw rotates 1 turn. And the jack retracts way faster than with half a turn or so... To sum up, I think the toggle way is not the best, gears allow to increase the return stroke speed and so the whole cycle speed... I think the main thing to improve on these little cuties is the cycling speed in order to work more on a single heat. We've got enough squishing power to do some quite heavy work with 20T but the time lost reheating is just fuel and time consuming. The biggest billet I'v welded in one bite was a bit over 5 pounds... Of what ? There are many pics and everyone has to make his own design with what's on the shelf or in the JY and by the way improve the overall design step by step with everyone's new ideas... And mainly because it's so much fun

And what about purshasing a spare 'autoreciprocating pneumatic cylinder' and use it instead of the handle of the manual pump of the jack... That would mean twice the cfm but also twice the speed on the down stroke and with tough springs we could rise the cycle speed to the speed of the fully hydraulic presses It could be a cost saving way for those who have lots of cfm but no money to spend in pump, tank, motor, cylinder, hoses and fittings, fluid... Nice pet MBKCo, and nice press Steve, have fun

I fully agree but must add that if you want to weld stainless you'll have to play with the 'dry-welded / can-enclosed' stuff... Not impossible but not the easier

Andrew Jordan forges his large sword fullers under a ka75 with a fullering pair of dies that also keep the blade centered Here is the link to the best pictures And one to the maths envolved in fullered blades

Oops...

Cryo, Well, it's not, really to eliminate retained austenite but to continue making martensite with austenite that would be untransformed and retained at ambiant temp, most of the hi-carb steels have a Mf point (Martensite transformation finish temp) located far under ambiant temperature... If you can reach a -100°C, most of the hi-carb steels used in knifemaking would be fully martensitic -> No retained austenite, less brittle, and more martensite -> harder... Hope to be clear (French frog inside)

I'm not sure I understood your question, but if you're talking of the 'aluminium' air actuator, it's hidden behind the jack on the picture but you see the air plumbing that routes air to it Rotate this stand alone one 1/4 turn anticlockwise and you'll hide the actuator like on the press picture