[Jewelry making - Article 01094] - Re: [Orchid] Pancake Dies: My Further Adventures

[Dar Shelton]

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    Here is a scan of the finished piece. One interesting thing that I
    had not thought of or tried before, and is very cool for a couple of
    reasons, is pre-forming the part before loading it into the cutting
    die. This is done using the 3-D, cast-aluminum punch that's attached
    to the cutting die, but done without loading the metal into the die
    for cutting. After pre-forming and then loading, the loaded die sets
    on the base plate (with cast plastic-steel female mold built-in) much
    better, and it takes very little pressure (or almost none after
    blanking, if you've done your pre-forming at high pressure ) to
    finish forming, which allows the delicate parts of the plastic steel
    mold to wear much much better. 

    This particular sample piece was pre-formed at 40 tons into (first)
    3/4" of 95 a urethane, and (second)3/4" of (Sanalite) polypropylene.
    The part is 4.75" in diameter and about 1/2" deep at the nose, and
    about up to 1/4" deep along the flames. This latter forming step did
    all the forming of the face, and did more forming than did 20 tons
    with the die and solid mold. This tells us, among other things, that
    some designs are suited to full forming before the blanking stage and
    that attaching the forming punch to the cutting die itself isn't
    always necessary or best. 

    This die was started with the intent of being a one-step die, and I
    finished it that way. But to make it last longer in the delicate face
    area, I will most likely never actually use it in the one-step
    capacity. This one, unlike many similar ones I've made in the past, 
is
    not built with the option of using a thin urethane pad insert in the
    plastic steel mold to cushion the metal as the forming punch and
    cutting edge force a flat piece of metal down into it. That could be
    added after the fact, and does make the one-step function go more
    smoothly, literally. 

    It was started with the intent of being just like those other ones,
    but after I made the shell shown in the earlier picture (done the
    same way as pre-forming , but before the forming punch was attached
    to the cutting die) I realized that this design would work perfectly
    and the face area of the plastic-steel mold would last longer if I
    went the pre-forming route. It's also less stressful on the cutting
    die itself when all it has to do is.... cut the part!. Which opens 
the
    door for the option and possibility that attaching the forming punch
    to the die isn't even necessary... and so it isn't, always. 

    Of course, for certain designs it's perfect, and when you want
    one-step efficiency and speed (which I absolutely had to have with
    those other ones) it's the way to go. 

    I understand that much of this is hard to follow without pictures of
    the dies and the steps done in making them, which is exactly why I
    took so many shots and notes. So eventually I'll get that all sorted
    out for further explaining. But here's the scan of the final cut
    piece. 

Dar Shelton
sheltech.net
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