Ignoramus9581 wrote:
I am talking about an OBI style punch press, if I am not mistaken,
with a BIG flywheel. It is powered with a 1/2 HP single phase motor. I
would say it weighs 200-300 pounds. This is from a big pile of really
old iron (not yet quite ready for a museum, but almost) from an estate
of a deceased 90 yr old guy. I offered them $100 for it, after two
weeks no one is biting (they wanted to sell the whole shed of that
stuff for 2k, which was crazy). So they are now agreeing to sell to me.

My question is, is $100 a reasonable price. The punch works.

i

the way I would see it is this.
If you want to make things,
wether for a hobby or your livelihood,
the 1st thing you need is space.
the 2nd thing you need are tools.
Now there are lots of different types of punch presses, those for
working primarily smiths work, and those for say blanking out parts for
anything you might want from say fishing reels to car to model parts.
then the next thing is whats the rated tonnage?
ie, what work will it do?
you say a big fly wheel
How big? dia? thickness? etc.
Whatsthe throat depth? and whats the hole size in the bed plate?

That determines howbig a piece youe blanked out or punched will fall
through into a bucket or tray. underneath.
There should also be some kind of clutch mechanism that causes the fly
wheel to engage with the crank? either continiously or single shot.

Any chance of a picture?
What ever it is its a steal @$100.00.
Whats also more interesting what else is there?

Let me tell you about my own steal in 1987.
Im a silversmith not a jeweller, making bigger stuff.
I had a call from a one armed fellow smith, to say, another s/smih was
retiring some 5o miles from me, all the modern stuff was gone, and all
that was left was all his old rubbish.(his words)
My friend thought I was the sort of idiot who would be interested in that.
I went to see this old chap, and what he had was as follows.
It was a complete drop stampers workshop dating from 1851, nothing
from that period was missing.
the drop stamp, the fly presses, the dies the bolsters the catalogues
the price lists all black and dirty.
Some 10 tons of it it eventually worked out. It had come originally
from the Birmingham jewelly quarter.
no one else wanted it down here .
It had been his family's livelyhood from his great grandfathers time and
he didnt have a son to follow on.
I Called him a few days later to say Id have it all, with the promise
id never scrap it but use it, . BUT all I could offer was scrap price
plus 10% and Id collect.
He called back a few days later to say yes and the rest is history.
This complete museum collection !! was the key to a complete range of
new products for me..
I design ,make, and market my own productsretail. Dont sell to the trade.
By 1989 I had made the drop hammer fully transportable so I could
mint a plaque or medal for an event AT the event.
The second time I took it out for real, I took $6000.00 over a 5 day
period off the hammer.
I was even invited to come from the UK to Chicago to the 100th
centenery of the Americaln numismatic assn.
the drop stamp stands 10 ft high, weighs some 2 tons and gives over 100
tons dynamic energy. Medium Hammer is 275lbs, andcanfall some 5 ft.
Nice tool!!.
Never had guards or nothin,
the old smith taught me how to use it and how not to get ones hands or
antyhing else in the way.
the sad bit was he never got to see what I made from his rubbish.
He died 6 months after I bought it off him.
See your press as a step up in the do it yourself game.
As others have said, there will probably be lots of tooling about, but
youll need help to identify what your looking for.
If yoyur not going to use it, make sure it goes to someone who can. It
aught not to be scrapped.
Modern tooling can be very expensive if you dont know how to make your own.

Lets have pictures ond keep us all informed how you get on.