Abstract: The forging press has a horizontal drive shaft on which is carried an eccentric body linked to a vertical force-transmitting block whose lower surface lies at an angle to the horizontal and flushly engages the top of a horizontally reciprocal wedge whose bottom surface lies on the hammer. Interfitting ridges and grooves interconnect the wedge, the force-transmission block, and the hammer so that the hammer hangs from the wedge and the wedge from the force-transmission block. A spindle threaded into the wedge is rotatable to establish its horizontal position, and, therefore, to set the relative position of the force-transmission block in the hammer. At its other end this spindle is provided with a piston reciprocal in a horizontally extending hydraulic chamber which is maintained under a predetermined pressure. The threshold at which the wedge may slip to the side and protect the hammer from overloading is established by the pressure in this hydraulic cylinder.