Ceilidh ... Re^2: Spacers, etc.

Hydraulic Die Forming Discussion Group

Re^2: Spacers, etc.

On Wed May 22, Jesse Brennan wrote
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>On Wed May 22, Susan Kingsley wrote
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>>Has anyone else had their blanking dies fail lately?
Interesting question #^P. I get old (sometimes new!) ones back all the time that need replacing. Sometimes they just decide not to work, sometimes they break, sometimes for no apparent reason. Jamming from looseness or die shift or difficult metal is the most common failure mode, as it's usually accompanied by damaged cutting edges. Certain types of the one step cut/form dies I make like to break after a few thousand (5,000 to 10,000). So, yes.
>>Anyway,
>>As Gilda Radner used to say, "It's always something!"
(wasn't that rosanne rosannadanna? (^:))
>Check in your yellow pages for alumunum distributors.
>They wil cut aluminum plate to size for sale and will generate a lot of trimming scrap usually 6 inches wide and
(snip)
>This will make cheap and everlasting spacers.
>Jesse
As usual , Jesse offers sage suggestions.
I use soft polyethylene spacers but I also use steel faceplates on them for blanking, so the pressure is distributed fairly evenly. I press directly into this poly with some of the cut/form dies too, and have to resurface the plastic periodically. Lee's presses are self-levelling
which means that if a spacer isn't paralell that at least it will TRY to engage the die evenly. But if the die is set away from center it can also try NOT to engage the die evenly.
One very good reason not to use bare acrylic or poly for blanking is that it gets chewed up by the process . What this does is create spots of poor support , which is bad when a tiny projection on an intricate design lines up with the crater. No support = projection wants to bend, maybe break. So I have (kevlar, or ideally, hardened steel) faceplates on my blocks.
Also , I don't use acrylic spacers anymore because one that I made for someone ... well they did something dumb and it kind of..... exploded. Howdy, Susan! (^:#
Dar

Wed May 22