[TheForge] Side-loading question (was: 15Ton Press)

[Andy Vida]

Bruce Freeman wrote:
> 
> I've been following this and related thread only intermittantly, since I have no plans to build a press.  I was wondering, however, whether I'm understanding properly this question of side-loading.
> 
> If I envision it correctly, you're speaking of a press driven by a single hydraulic cylinder.  If the work being "pressed" is totally flat, no problem.  But if the work is not flat, the cylinder shaft and/or piston can be subjected to a side-load.  Do I have this right?

	That would be my take on it.  Irregular loads vectoring forces
	in directions other than coaxial with the cylinder.

	I don't know that this is a major consideration when all you
	have going on is hot work between flat dies, but once cold
	things come into contact with each other, that changes drastically.

	A few months ago I was working on a 75T press at the shop and I set
	a die wrong.  It was something like a 1.25" round punch.  Well, 
	something let go and you know that fake sounding ricochet noise
	used in westerns during shootouts?  Well, that's almost precisely
	what I heard as a piece of the die spalled off, went past my head,
	and ricocheted off the block wall.  It was a sobering experience.
	I suspect had my face made contact, I would have been a hurting
	cowboy.  A smaller shard embedded itself into my right bicep, but
	tweezers took care of that.