[Jewelry making - Article 00020] - Re: [Orchid] Automotive hydraulic die forming

[Terry Ogden]

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Helen

>     Has anyone used the hydraulic presses used in the automotive
>     industry for forming metal for jewellery. 

    I did. 

    I have not worked with the Bonny press, but seeing several pictures
    and all the reading here. I made one using an automotive press which
    I had already. First the metal pieces that come the automotive press
    are not very useful. They are to big and shaped wrong to hold the
    parts I was trying to press. Some will work but only as backup pieces
    or top plates. Go to a good scrap yard and dig through the cast off
    material. I found pieces of thick walled pipe, metal plate and solid
    rod which I took home and cut up to make my dies and plates with.
    From and industrial supply I found High density silicone rubber which
    had very good compression characteristics and rubber pieces from a
    junk yard, old car suspension. If you can find it use truck parts,
    cars work, but truck is better. You get more rubber to work with and
    it seems to have a higher compression value. I did not have luck with
    tire side wall, the lines showed in the metal when something did work
    and it took so much pressure it was starting to bend my cross bars
    which threw off my caliper readings. Inner tube worked ok, but to
    time consuming cutting all the pieces. Check with heavy equipment
    places for the inner tube, a lot of farmers still use tubes in their
    tires if you want to try it. 

    After you get your tooling together, you need some way to get
    consistent results. I could not figure how to add a gauge to my jack,
    so I used a electronic caliper touching the bottom plate attached to
    the jack. I would extend the caliper (after touching the jack to the
    form)up to the bottom of the jack. There is a rod that protrudes from
    a caliper when you extend it, it is for measuring holes, but this
    extension is also how I measure how much compression I have. I
    increase pressure and check my results, then repeat until I get the
    desire results. Record the numbers off the caliper each time you
    test. When it finally comes out how you want, you will have the
    numbers you need to repeat the process. Also record what you used to
    compress with, I use several different materials and if I don't put
    it in my book I forget and the next time it won't come out right. 

    Do not use fluids, no matter how well you think you can make
    something, or how great the idea seems. If you do, let me know how
    you did it and what you used. Also, I have not used over 26 gauge
    plate, mostly 28 and 30. 

    One last thing, I have a little Asian lathe a 9X20 and a mini-mill.
    Some forms I could not make without them, but mostly I can do with
    roughed parts and inserts. Once you have a rough setup, you will be
    surprised how much time you can consume with it trying different
    things and materials. If you try copper anneal first, the plate that
    comes out of the hobby stores is hardened. 

    Hope this gives you some ideas. The caliper or something similar is
    the key to repeatability on this if you can't get a gauge on your
    jack. 

Terry
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