I took on a little toolmaking job for semiconductor industry support equipment.
The parts are 16ga steel flange. A special lip is formed in the ID of each flange. Flanges are laser cut blanks. All my tools need to do is form the flanges correctly.
Not much experience with this stuff, but the tools seem pretty basic to me. Most of the complexity is making 5 tools that are almost the same while keeping setups and costs to a minimum.
I've never bought toolsteel before (always been able to scrounge small pieces from friends) so preparing to order $1500 of D2 is a little daunting.
I'm currently building a tryout tool from 1045 to see how much the part springs back.
I thought I'd try to document a little bit and maybe get some input on my dumb ideas.
First dumb question-
I have some die shoes. I started off with the plan to build 5 tools in 5 die shoes. Then I'm staring at die shoes wondering why I need 5 of them when the parts are almost all the same and only run one at a time- So why don't I just make one die set that holds all the components to make all 5 parts? So I drew that up and really liked it, nice and simple. Maybe a few hundred bucks more material cost for the features that would make all the tools interchangeable, but the savings in machining time/setups would more than make up for it.
Then I started making my tryout tool today and as these parts are round, I started with some 6" 1045 I have here. I was getting ready to cut some chunks off and it hit me that this whole damn thing would be monstrously simpler if I shitcanned the die shoes and seeing as the parts are round and all and already have a hole in the center of the donut shaped blank, I made the tools with a single fat guidepost in the center.
No die shoes, single guidepost, tool would have 2" diameter stub on it to drop right into my Bliss C45's ram and the lower half of the tool would have a round flange that would just be clamped to the bolster.
So is there some reason why it would be a bad idea to make a basic forming tool for a round part that has just one central guidepost?
Basic info- Flanges are from 2.25" to 5" bore diameter in 16ga CRS. Flange height is just over 1/2". I'm using 1" of working stroke to form the flanges and designing for a press with atleast 3" stroke.
Largest tool should be about 20 tons with die springs factored in. Smallest under 10 tons.
The parts are 16ga steel flange. A special lip is formed in the ID of each flange. Flanges are laser cut blanks. All my tools need to do is form the flanges correctly.
Not much experience with this stuff, but the tools seem pretty basic to me. Most of the complexity is making 5 tools that are almost the same while keeping setups and costs to a minimum.
I've never bought toolsteel before (always been able to scrounge small pieces from friends) so preparing to order $1500 of D2 is a little daunting.
I'm currently building a tryout tool from 1045 to see how much the part springs back.
I thought I'd try to document a little bit and maybe get some input on my dumb ideas.
First dumb question-
I have some die shoes. I started off with the plan to build 5 tools in 5 die shoes. Then I'm staring at die shoes wondering why I need 5 of them when the parts are almost all the same and only run one at a time- So why don't I just make one die set that holds all the components to make all 5 parts? So I drew that up and really liked it, nice and simple. Maybe a few hundred bucks more material cost for the features that would make all the tools interchangeable, but the savings in machining time/setups would more than make up for it.
Then I started making my tryout tool today and as these parts are round, I started with some 6" 1045 I have here. I was getting ready to cut some chunks off and it hit me that this whole damn thing would be monstrously simpler if I shitcanned the die shoes and seeing as the parts are round and all and already have a hole in the center of the donut shaped blank, I made the tools with a single fat guidepost in the center.
No die shoes, single guidepost, tool would have 2" diameter stub on it to drop right into my Bliss C45's ram and the lower half of the tool would have a round flange that would just be clamped to the bolster.
So is there some reason why it would be a bad idea to make a basic forming tool for a round part that has just one central guidepost?
Basic info- Flanges are from 2.25" to 5" bore diameter in 16ga CRS. Flange height is just over 1/2". I'm using 1" of working stroke to form the flanges and designing for a press with atleast 3" stroke.
Largest tool should be about 20 tons with die springs factored in. Smallest under 10 tons.