I am thinking about getting a press. But my space is limited .I have
a small room that is my worksahop. I want to do mostly hand
fabrication and my question is what is the smallest size press i can
get for stamping out dies .Like i said i dont have much room so size
is problem. One more question when i do decide to get one where can
i get dies for stamping out parts for earings, bracalets and chains.
Thank you all for the help in advance you have been great with all
the knowaldge here.
Hello All,
I most heartily agree with Sam in regard to his customer loyalty to
Lee Marshall at Bonny Doone Engineering. Lee makes a quality
product and is available to repair his hydraulic presses when
necessary. I just wish I had purchased my in need of frequent
repair refrigerator from him! He is available for consultations as
is Phil Poirier and both have been great help in my foray into a
strange land. Several years ago I purchased the 3" deep draw forming
set from him and immediately set out to damage the tooling in the
first draw. While he did have a little fun with me, he took pity on
me and replaced the parts I had damaged. Can you just imagine the
time, cost and hassle of dealing with this without his support?
Personally, I would much rather be making jewelry than repairing
equipment. No question that he deserves my loyalty!
In addition, the Bonny Doone discussion group is always full of
wisdom, advice, support, encouragement and even humor, if you can
figure out what Dar is talking about!
Just another satisfied customer.
Susan Ronan in beautiful Coronado, CA
Dear Guy,
You will be happy to learn that the footprint (the space it takes up
on your bench) required by a Bonny Doon 20 ton press is 6" x 16". It
would fit quite nicely into a small space. I would recommend that
you position it on a corner so you can easily view the press from
two angles, e.g. west and north, to check tooling alignment during a
setup.
You mentioned that you wanted a press to stamp out dies, but did not
specify what kind you are doing. There are several kinds, and most
of them can be done with this press. If you are concerned with the
ratio of functionality to space, I will say that there is no other
single tool in my entire studio, including my flexshaft, that has a
higher value in terms of enormous function in a little bitty area
then my 20 ton press. The sheer versatility of this system is mind
boggling. If you want to see examples, visit the
bonnydoonengineering.com and look in the gallery section and browse
the discussion group, particularly those postings with a little
yellow “attach” flag on the subject line as these include an image.
A hydraulic press won’t just do your stamped dies for you, it will
do so much more that you’ll wonder how you got along without it all
these years.
Also, as Sam Patania pointed out, there is a wonderful community of
press users who will help you understand and apply the tooling. When
you visit the discussion group on the Bonny Doon site, you’ll see
that flow of in action.
Susan Kingsley’s book is a good thing to have. You will also enjoy a
look at Phil Poirier’s personal web site, which has lots of shop
and even animation and videos of press processes. He
works with Lee Marshall of Bonny Doon to develop tooling and to
adapt existing industrial press processes for use in the jeweler’s
studio. His URL is poirierstudio.com.
If you have further questions about how a press might be useful to
you, please feel free to contact me privately.
Anne Hollerbach
Guy -
If all you want to do is stamp out dies you do not need a hydraulic
press - you can use a vice or the R.T. Stamping system sold by Rio (I
assume they still sell it) - while the hydraulic press will, indeed,
stamp out dies, it does so much more than that and it might be a
mistake to get it simply to do that simple job which can be done in
other ways. If you do get a hydraulic press, I second Sam Patenia
that the Bonny Doon is the way to go for all the reasons he stated.
Sheridan Reed