Dragonfly Enterprises

Dragonfly Enterprises 3283 State Hill Road, Reading, PA 19608

Randy McDaniel
Artist in Forged Metals

My latest project was the 60 ton hydraulic press. Robert Eggerling sold me this frame and parts and after I got the plates cut and assembled he put the finishing touches on it. You can see the cart I made for the 5 hp motor, pump and tank, the plumbing on the back and his wonderful foot pedal design instead of operating it by hand. Even with the hot metal I have so much force that it put marks in the plates and tooling. I had to change them to 4140 and harden them. Now to make more tooling. There are two videos of this machine on the “Videos” page.

This is my seventh shop in thirty-seven years of forging. It’s not my smallest or my largest, but it works well. The floor plan has changed with the addition of some more equipment and getting rid of other pieces. Seems like there’s never enough room, but with my focus on using the Nazel power hammer and the hydraulic forging press I have plenty of space to create whatever I want. Besides using my coal forge I have been experimenting with different designs of gas forges. It looks like several are required to achieve the type of heat and size depending on what’s being made.