[TheForge] Arbor Press

[Bob Ehrenberger]

Justin,

You could use a hydraulic press but you don't need that much power and it
would bottom out pretty fast.  A fly press would be a good fit at making
collars, I've watched them used but never had a chance to use one myself.
Hoffman recommended in the blacksmith journal the use of a treadle hammer.
When George Dixon demoed at our conference he said that they used a
Chambersberg in the Yellien shop for collars.  He didn't discribe what kind
of tooling they used, it sounded like a job that was a punishment since they
would have collar runs in the thousands.

I didn't use our hydraulic press because making the top die would have taken
longer than on the arbor press.  I like the arbor press because all I have
to do is weld a couple pieces of stock together to match the parts being
joined and then weld a 1/2" shank on it and slide it into the head stock of
the press and we are ready to go.  10-15 minutes an you have your top die.
The fixture is set up so all you do is move spacers from the inside to the
outside to change the width of the collar.  The most time consumming part is
figuring out the exact length to cut the blanks, you want them to close
tight without a gap.  If the job is paying enough you can taper the ends and
overlap them, but that takes extra time.  The arbor press had plenty enough
power, and also had a lot of control.

Robert Ehrenberger
Shelbyville, Mo.

---Original Message-----
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 13:57:26 -0800 (PST)
From: Justin Fellenz <sunironworks at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Arbor Press

So, Bob, could you do this with a fast hydraulic press or a fly press?
If not, what is it about an arbor press that works for this app?

Justin