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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Nice job Ken,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Chris Solliday</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=ZahringerK@missouri.edu href="mailto:ZahringerK@missouri.edu">Ken
Zahringer</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=caut@ptg.org
href="mailto:caut@ptg.org">College and University Technicians</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, September 09, 2006 11:47
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [CAUT] Swaging Press</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=Garamond><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">Hey, David,
and all the List,<BR><BR>Well, I finally got around to it; pictures of my
modified press are attached. The first photo shows the parts I added.
One lesson learned: my first idea was to get another center pin
remover, like the one that came with the press (shown at far right), and pull
or drill the pin out and replace it with a 7/64” pin. Bad idea.
The pin won’t pull out, and it is so much harder than the brass that
it’s about impossible to drill it out and stay on center. The result is
that the ram and the anvil don’t quite line up on my press. It’s usable,
but it’s not as nice as I would like it. The ram pin I made is second
from the right. A much better idea would be to get another small hex
machine screw, like the one in the middle of the picture, and put the ram pin
in that, or maybe epoxy the pin in another piece of metal and then epoxy that
assembly onto the screw head. I use JB Weld for everything, just to make
sure it is sufficiently over-built. :-) On the left you see the anvil,
which is a piece of 1/2” baltic birch plywood with the rest of the old 7/64”
drill bit in it, positioned to come up through the hole in the press base.
The wood is shaped to fit in the recess in the press base. Again,
I just pushed that through the bottom of the wood, so it would be better to
set the anvil pin in aluminum or steel, whatever you have handy.<BR><BR>The
second photo shows the assembled press, and the new handle I made. I
made a mistake in my earlier email; the handle is 1/8” thick steel flat stock,
available at any hardware store. I went a little overboard with the
screw posts. Two would have been fine. You can also see how I
shaped the tail of the handle for clearance and the slot I cut for the ram
attachment pin. The biggest problem I had with the handle was that the
stock I bought wasn’t quite flat. It was cupped slightly in
cross-section, like a board will warp across its width, so I had to file it a
bunch to get it to fit into the yokes at the pivot point and the ram.<BR><BR>I
can’t say exactly how much time I have in this project, because I did the
original modifications a number of years ago and then made the new handle last
year. If I subtract the time I spent messing with that brass piece, I
suppose I could get the whole thing done in less than two hours. If you
get a nice piece of steel for the handle, that is really flat so you don’t
have to spend a lot of time filing, you might get it done in a little over an
hour. Anything you get you will have to modify some. Even the
Micro Mark press, which is very nice, would require some work to turn it into
a swaging press. When I did this I had more spare time than spare cash,
so I bought the inexpensive press and worked on it.<BR><BR>I like a press in
general, as opposed to a hammer and punch, because you can feel what’s going
on as you are doing it. I don’t have to learn and remember how hard to
swing the hammer, and hope I get it right. I press down until it feels
right, then I stop. I think I have broken one or two hammer moldings in
ten years, and I have never had a hammer weight come loose (that I know
of!).<BR><BR>Hope this helps,<BR>Ken Z.<BR>-- <BR>Ken Zahringer,
RPT<BR>University of Missouri<BR>School of
Music<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></SPAN></FONT></BODY></HTML>