Big Old Press

[Eric Dennis]

Hey Folks,

Just saw this on craigslist with very little information on its make. The seller calls it a "shaft straightening press" and guesses it's "half a ton".

Could this be converted into something useful? Has anyone seen a similar press and maybe know it's original purpose?

Edited November 25, 2017 by Eric Dennis

[Joel Minturn]

That would be great for straightening arrow shafts or even ballista shafts

If it could be converted to a useful press I would depend of the end of the screw that goes against the shaft rotates seperatly from the screw.  Or more precisely doesn't rotate wile the screw does.  Not sure how fast a press would have to be to useful though. 

[Gazz]

I worked in a shop that had a press similar to this and the amount of force it could develop was impressive.   We used it mainly for putting offsets in 2" diameter round stock while at red heat.  We had made jigs or forms to rest the stock in and used a hand held top die to prevent the mark from the end piece on the screw shaft.  I once straightened a piece of bar stock that was some kind of guide rail for some kind of equipment that was bent at all the mounting holes.  I was able to press it back into shape cold and even pressed the stretched out holes round again.  The owner of the part was so happy he gave me a $100 tip!

I also saw that on Craig's list and thought about getting it but I am cramped for space being the tool pig that I am.  It appears to have a "shoe" on the end of the screw that does not rotate and is guided by a slot in the frame.

[Eric Dennis]

Thanks for the reply. It's a little bit giant for me right now. But I'm tempted to go look at it. The trick would be figuring out some way to attach dies to it I guess. Or see if that shoe can be removed. 

[Alan Longmire]

That is a beast all right!  The screw looks a little slow for hot work.  It is a screw press rather than a fly press.  Looks like a single-lead screw with about four tpi.  It can develop a lot of thrust, but slowly.  Might be good for coining and other cold work.  Hot-work presses have four-lead screws that move a heck of a lot faster along with a flywheel or ball weights on the arm to add inertia for a solid blow.  Neat old machine, though!

[Brian Myers]

Yeah, I was gonna suggest welding a weight to the handle to make a custom fly press, but the threads wouldn't really let it work right.