Bronze wear plates required?

[KenH]

Hello all, there are lots of folks here who have much experience with forging presses and several who are building presses. I see that Coal Iron has bronze wear plates on all their presses where there are sliding parts. Most of the home-built presses I've read about seem to use steel on steel for these places. Just how important is the bronze wear plates? To me, it seems like steel on steel that's lubed good would be just fine. BUT - I know I do NOT have the experience to determine how important the bronze wear plates are.

Bronze is expensive these days!

 

[Gliden07]

I did not put them on mine for 3 reasons. 1) Coal uses CNC machine my thought is they get them real close but the bronze guides take up any slight imperfections in the angle iron, 2) I
talked to a gent on Instagram (Clark Iron Works) he builds presses and does not use them, I set my press up very similar to the way he does his, steel on steel. He claims he's had no issues?, 3) Like you said Bronze is expensive!!!! As a part time Bladesmith I think it would take quite sometime to destroy/damage the steel on steel. I did use a piece of aluminum can as a spacer for the steel on steel interface. I wish I could tell you it works flawlessly but I'm still building! Hopefully in the next couple weeks?

 

[52 Ford]

Hello all, there are lots of folks here who have much experience with forging presses and several who are building presses. I see that Coal Iron has bronze wear plates on all their presses where there are sliding parts. Most of the home-built presses I've read about seem to use steel on steel for these places. Just how important is the bronze wear plates? To me, it seems like steel on steel that's lubed good would be just fine. BUT - I know I do NOT have the experience to determine how important the bronze wear plates are.

Bronze is expensive these days!

I don't think you need them. The idea is that the softer material will wear more quickly.

Personally, I'd just put on an extra piece of steel on the uprights and use that as the sacraficial surface. Just a couple small welds, so it's easy to replace in 100 years when the wear starts to be noticable.

The only concern I would have with wear in the uprights is reduced strength and that isn't going to be an issue unless you have substantial wear.

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[KenH]

Ya'll both make good comments and reflect my thinking also. I doubt I'll ever build a press since I've got the one I've got. BUT - I do keep finding myself pricing steel and stuff. Looks like about $300 would order the amount of steel I'd need to build what I'd want. Add in another $100 for misc steel for dies 'n stuff.

 

[52 Ford]

I did not put them on mine for 3 reasons. 1) Coal uses CNC machine my thought is they get them real close but the bronze guides take up any slight imperfections in the angle iron, 2) I
talked to a gent on Instagram (Clark Iron Works) he builds presses and does not use them, I set my press up very similar to the way he does his, steel on steel. He claims he's had no issues?, 3) Like you said Bronze is expensive!!!! As a part time Bladesmith I think it would take quite sometime to destroy/damage the steel on steel. I did use a piece of aluminum can as a spacer for the steel on steel interface. I wish I could tell you it works flawlessly but I'm still building! Hopefully in the next couple weeks?

I use aluminum to shim some of my vises. I cut them out of roll flashing and hammer them out to thickness. It gets the side to side slop out of the moving jaw. Works great. Best part is, it's CHEAP and quick.

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