Fly presses as a tool, allow personal expression to the end product. In my case, designing and building my own fly press has been particularly satisfying. The build has allowed me to incorporate original, unique fly press features of my own design. Milling the long lead square thread and nut with my vintage Kearney Trecker horizontal mill, being the center piece of the build, the most challenging.
Fly Press Build
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A page illustrated by pictures and video documenting the build of a unique fly press Pictured below, fly press screw was produced using a horizontal milling machine, fitted with a helical milling attachment. The screw has two starts and a 2 3/4 inch lead. One revolution of the screw will move the press ram 2 3/4 of an inch.
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Fly press screw being milled on a Kearney Trecker horizontal fitted with a helical mill attachment
Below, I am demonstrating two start thread and nut
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Below is a video clip describing the ram adjustment feature
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EXTRA HANDy This press may be more about the fun of building a wild idea, than anything else. As you can see, I did spend some time in replacing the common wood block, to hold the ram up. I call this ,EXTRA HANDy, it does free up a hand, to adjust the work in die, and one can spin the lock nut over, to hold the ram in place for a tool change.
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The flyball arm on my homebuilt, probably not traditional. The leadscrew has a taper involute spline. I bought a bush-hog tapered insert, since did not have tooling to do this internal spline. A jam nut on the left-hand ram adjusting thread, prevents over tightening the taper, and serves to push the arm off the taper, if needed. The weights can be easily removed. More weight can be added by using round steel donuts. The swing arms can be installed to be either solid or swinging.2nd. arm can be mounted upward, out of the way, if doing a short stroke.
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Notice the position of the fly balls at the bottom stop position. This may or may not be the optimum place or Sweet Spot. With my design, the flyball location can be easily adjusted by rotating the thread cartridge. Your Sweet Spot may be at the beginning of the stroke, so you can use your other hand to position work, or may be adjusted to get maximum pull at the bottom of stroke.
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Ram adjustment on my homebuilt flypress is both quick and easy. The spider, doweled to the thread cartridge locknut, doubles as a face spanner and secondary ram stop. The click and clack on the audio, is from the EXTRA HAND feature being engaged and then released.
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