Fly press stand

[brewdexta]

I managed to get a bit done early doors and at lunch. Here's that top marked out. I was looking for an internal circle as a template for the plasma so any mistakes are in the waste but could only find is this external circle, i.e. an old shower head

I haven't had a lot of practice on the plasma, and made a right mess of it, but it's under the press so not seen.

I couldn't seem to keep to the template, I know the trigger on the torch handle swivels around and is a PITA but this time it was the head. It was loose on the thread, next time I will check it - doh!

Here it is, all finished for now, I drilled some 19mm holes to fix it down with the mag drill.

I wanted some square head bolts, I remember seeing some in the downstairs barn. A bit big me thinks, they were from putting the columns onto the foundations of the barn.

The ball just missed the beam when at its full height.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Wallace]

If that were my bench with the conveniently handy RSJ next to it I would add a pair of tie bars to stiffen the bench top up aginst the twisting action.

 

[Screwdriver]

Hang on. Are you bolting it to the bench through the T slots??

 

[brewdexta]

Hang on. Are you bolting it to the bench through the T slots??

No, the holes in the base to hold it down have a square in the casting to accept the head. You don't have to use square head bolts but I thought I had some handy, they just proved to be a lot bigger than I thought.

You can see the dodgy plasma hole from here, I've taken off the sharp edges for now, I'll cut it out slightly larger and take away the dodgy edges later.

Just using a big coach bolt for now, I probably have some big old bolts lurking.

And there are two around the back.

I have the tabs welded on for the floor fixing but won't bolt it down just yet, I will (hopefully) cut the keyway in the pulley first, then I will add some shelving underneath, maybe some more bracing if I think it needs it and any other mods then finish it with some BLO on the table top and the rest in black smoothrite. I may give the press itself a bit of paint, it looks to have been grey originally so I may take it back that.

Then I'll bolt it down.

 

[Gritineye]

Definitely needs moving to the front, and judging by the way mine moves I reckon it'll need a whole lot of cross bracing under there, any movement however slight is lost power...

 

[Screwdriver]

You can heat up the head of regular bolts and hammer them square. Would suit the look of the thing but more importantly get rid of that pesky gap. You could probably get it hot and hammer it into the hole to form it to perfection.

 

[brewdexta]

Thanks for the comments guys, very useful. Getting rid of the space in front of the press seems to be a recurring theme, I think your trying to tell me something

I'm a weekend warrior rather than a business and use the press infrequently, I'll give it a go first and once I establish which bits of table shortening and bracing I need I'll do the mods before painting. It seems plenty sturdy enough for now but haven't given it a good bit of wellie yet, that will be next weekend

Cheers
Andy

 

[Screwdriver]

Imagine taking that ball in your hand and smacking it against the corner of the table as hard as you can. How far will it move?

The space at the front is just personal preference, maybe you can lean over far enough to see, guess it depends on what it is you're doing. Soon find out. I know I can't. You might have the mental fortitude to resist that horizontal space right in front and all that lovely space at the back but it takes superhuman levels of willpower, good luck with that. Objects gravitate towards horizontal spaces. Fact.

 

[brewdexta]

Imagine taking that ball in your hand and smacking it against the corner of the table as hard as you can.

I did and wouldn't recommend it, I got an excruciating pain in the groin and my eyes watered and I went cross-eyed however some people like that kind of thing

Talking about nuts, as usual, I couldn't find my glasses in the workshop and I was trying to find one to fit a 200mm long M16 coach bolt that I found which was the best I could find for the front fixing, at least I thought it was M16 by major diameter. I tried a few and they wouldn't fit so I was about to get scientific and check the thread with a gauge when my neighbour came around to help me move the tractor down into the barn below, he had is glasses and spotted the issue straight away, it was a left hand thread

It's a weird bolt, two different pitches and sizes of thread on the same bolt with a recess between the two. Anybody seen one like it before? I think one part is meant to shear off or be sawn off

I'm down in the smoke at the moment so can't check the direction and pitch of both threads ATM. I didn't find my specs so I just took a quick picture and left it so I haven't had a good gander myself yet.

I have a two 170mm M16 bolts to fit it now. One is holding it down, the other I will mess with the head to make it fit the square hole just for fun.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Rich#1984]

Just made the hand rails for these and they were a bugger to do