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Old 03-25-2008, 07:39 PM
Tom Maringer's Avatar
Tom Maringer Tom Maringer is offline
Steel
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Springdale Arkansas
Posts: 48
Default Re: Engraving coining dies

Quote:
Originally Posted by jimzim75
Hi Tom, This summers project for me is to put together a coining press. I already bought a 50 ton bottle jack and now thinking of how to construct the press. . . Jim
Hi Jim: I've never made any of my own presses. Welding up an arch-frame for a 50 ton press would take a lot of steel, more than you might think at first! The frame of my 50 ton screw press is solid cast iron about eight inches square. I'm a cheap bugger too, but I know that there are some things beyond my ken... like bending and welding eight inch stock! (okay... steel is stronger than cast iron... so it might only need six inch solid bar...)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that old presses are cheap if you look around. I bought a couple of mine at prices just barely over what it would have brought as melt-scrap. There are a lot of these things kicking around machinery warehouses. The old ones don't meet OSHA safety standards, so can't be used in modern shops... so they are CHEAP!

The best book I've found is THE ART AND CRAFT OF COINMAKING by Denis Cooper, 1988, Spink and Sons, London.
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