PURPOSE: To improve the working accuracy of a press by actuating a die height adjusting means in accordance with the result of the comparison of the stored value of a bottom dead point position in a memory and the actually measured value of the bottom dead point position of a slide and automatically setting the actual die height at a low-speed die height.

CONSTITUTION: The actual die height is automatically set at the stored value of the die height for measurement by operating a die height varying means 27 in accordance with the result of the comparison of the stored value of the die height for measurement in the memory 52 and the output value of an actual die height measuring means 32. The bottom dead point position of the slide 13 brought into the prescribed range by the setting of the die height for measurement is measured by a bottom dead point position sensor 38. The actual die height is automatically set at the low speed die height by operating the die height adjusting means 45 in accordance with the result of the comparison of the stored value of the bottom dead point position in the memory 52 and the actually measured value of the bottom dead point position of the slide 13. The operation is restarted in the exact die height position in this way at the time of restarting the operation.