Fly Press Tools and Tooling
12 tools by Russell O’Dell
and Jock Dempsey

Article by Jock Dempsey
Wednesday August 13, 2003

Most of these are tooling demonstrated by Russell O’dell at Kayne and Son’s on the small fly presses they sell.

The typical tooling for one of these machines looks like the die sets used in a punch press. However, for forging operations on hot steel the tooling can be much simpler. This article shows some of the tooling used Russell O’Dell and the author and how simple it is to make.

Flat Dies:

These are plain flat dies with square corners. This is a multi-use die pair. Together they are used for forging flats, tennons and texturing.

 Press Brake Dies:

These are composed of a V-block bottom die and a V-edged blade for bending up to a right angle in sheet and flat bar.

Punch and Die:

Hot punching is one of the few places Russell used tool steel. The punch here is made from S-7. In use, the punch is lubricated and cooled using Never-Seize or thick grease.

Curve Bending Dies:

These simple dies are made of pieces of bar, pipe and tube cut to length and arc welded to an arbor and base.

Common Anvil Tooling:

These dies for finishing a tennon are a standard anvil hardie tool and a matching top die made from mild steel.

An adaptor plate with either a round or square hole is used to support the hardie tool on the press platten.

Hinge Rolling:

Hinge eye rolling is a common small press operation suitable for arbor press, fly press and punch press.

Offset Bend (glass clips):

This is another simple tool. It is just built up from scrap bar. The long pieces at the base produce slots to bolt it down via the T-slot bolts in the base of the fly press. Some of the material is stacked for the height.

The top die is made from another 3/4″ bolt and some scrap steel. This tool makes offsets cold in 1/8″ by 1″ flat bar to make glass window clips.

Notching Dies:

Russell demonstrated taking a bite out of a piece of 1/4″ (7mm) bar with a 1″ diameter punch made of mild steel.

Forging Dies:

This die makes a similar texture to the “Dolly-P” hand tool made by Off-Center Tools. Many other forging tools are available that can be used on the new flypresses.

Dishing and Hemispherical Dies

This is one of the few tools that Russell had a machinist make. The ball and socket were machined. Russell welded on the shank.

Other low tech methods can be used for similar purposes.

(2) Combination Bending Dies:

These dies are suitable for arbor press, fly press and hydraulic press. Both make more than one bend at a time. Although they do similar jobs they are constructed differently.

Russell’s 45/90 dies (Figure 17) are made from welded up scrap and the upper die has a 3/4″ shank to fit his flypress.

Punch Holders:

Punch holders are used in various types of presses including punch presses and fly presses. The article includes detail drawing to fit #4 and #5 fly presses. The punch holders shown fit a #6 fly press.