I don’t want anyone to think that here at gun lab we have just been hanging around and drinking beer and accomplishing nothing. That is far from the truth.
A while back a die shop went out of business and I was able to buy a few items. One being a brand new steel die plate. This is the post about that.
To give you a better idea of the size here are a couple of close ups.
Due to the weight of this die set I wanted to make it as general purpose as possible, meaning that a large number of the new stamping dies that we are currently making will fit on the die plates. To accomplish this we now design our dies with a series of holes to attach them to the plates. The attaching holes are evenly spaced on 1″ centers with every other hole either being threaded, for a cap screw, or reamed, for a pin.
The die plate has the same arrangement.
These two photos show the die with the bottom plate completed and now with the top plate installed and getting ready for drilling. To give you an idea of size this photo shows it setting on the table of the Haas.
Today’s job is to drill and ream the holes in the top plate after it is secured. More later when we complete the task.
How do you move these heavy plates around the shop safely?
I will post a picture of the die moving tools in the shop in the next day or so. Good question though. Those dies are heavy.
The location holes are a great idea and a real necessary when working with large stampings. I bet the shop is ooking good. Harry
The holes will make it a great deal easier. Now all the dies we make will be set up for this one die plate. And yes the shop is getting better every day.