Dar S.
sheltech@webtv.net

>Bill Hornaday

Not a whole lot. Lee doesn't carry it normally, so it's not in wide use with the art crowd. Mine lay dormant until this summer; Brian has been using his for a few years (?) on nice little 3-D animals. Yes, it's hard to work, so a big press comes in very handy. I found it useful for getting more detail, as described.

We just tried a 1/16" sheet (75d)  sandwiched between 2   1/4" sheets of 95a. This gave the whole stack a bit more stiffness , while retaining the 'softness' of the 95a  interfacing the subject metal. This
was/is on one of those one step shallow-draw/deep-emboss dies that would work best with a solid female mold, instead of urethane. For cost and production speed's sake , I made no solid mold and (ahem)pressed ahead with the urethane experiments. I got the (26g CR copper) to form well enough
with 95a, but when I atteched the cast forming module to te die, the part would not cut all the way out. The urethane (as it was) was too soft to support the flexible parts of the cutting die, an old problem solved with a solid mold setup  . The addition of the 75d gave just enough extra support  ; the forming is deep enough and the part cuts out fully...  success!. Now, we hope the die lasts a long time , and the stress cracks (oh yes, it still flexes) appear late in it's life and are repairable.

Dar