I have tried many different ways to operate the pancake dies, but
the only method that works well, at least for me, is a hydraulic
press. I've tried arbor presses, vices, hammers and rolling mills,
but the most reliable, safest, is definitely the hydraulic press. I
even have a video on my website showing the various options I
mention. I kind of regret even showing it because it's kinda clumsy
and it required a lot of effort with abig hammer. If all you want
to do is pancake dies and silhouette dies, no bracelets or deep
drawing, then my 12 ton press is perfect. They are $450, including
jack, ready to use. There are some less expensive hydrualic presses
out there that are designed for automotive type use. A lot of them
are very big. My 12 ton is very small and could easily sit on a
kitchen table.
To which I say:
Right, hydraulics can’t be beat. Arbor presses can be faster for
very small/simple/thin pieces but they reach their limit pretty fast.
I had a 3-ton arbor set up as an auxiliary press for a while. but it
ended up being a doming press more often, once I had electric motors
for my hydraulic presses. I am quite spoiled as far as that goes,
since I do need to be able to zip through large punchout orders muy
pronto.
I’ve also seen people use kick presses effectively, and also
quickly, for smallish pancake dies. A 10-ton kick press can do quite
a bit, but I don’t like their high-impact delivery for hardened
dies, which can be somewhat fragile for certain applications. A die
that can be beat on with a sledge hammer and show no marks can also
fatigue and crack if it’s used enough. A few thousand, or tens of
thousands, of punches in thick metal will find any weak spots and
eventually exploit them.
But generally, hydraulics are the best way to go, and it’s rare that
I get a die made that takes more than about 12 tons. Bracelets and
large (4" by 6" ) ornaments, or super-thick buckles can work at
around that range, so anyone doing smaller designs will do fine with
12 tons if they are just blanking flat parts. If someone wants to
make these or similar larger designs, it is a good idea to go with
20 tons, so that there will be headroom, meaning that the press
isn’t operating near it’s full capacity. That isn’t actually an
issue with well made presses, but might be with the cheaper ones.
I have a lot of dies for one person who makes ornamental rusted “tin”
(Spanish tinwork" being made from galvanized steel for the most part)
pieces that are around the size of bracelets (some smaller, some a
little larger, plus a 9" tall cross). The steel sheet is 30 ga, so it
punches out easily, but there are lots of semicircular wires soldered
to the dies that make embossed edges around these pieces, and some
with more detailed wire designs added. At the time I stared making
their dies I only has 25 ton presses, which I thought would be
enough, but most of them only emboss well at 25-45 tons. These are
the kind of application where hardened tool steel dies are an
absolute must, and conventional two-part dies would probably be
prohibitively expensive for individuals. Pancake die technology to
the rescue…
But back to your original point, I agree completely that it is
(searching for some diplomacy for those involved in non-press methods
of using pancake dies) shall we say, primitive, not to use a press,
and if you’re gonna get a press, you’re gonna be able to do a lot
more with hydraulics. One more kind I’ve seen used are what they call
‘clicker’ presses, which are big (huge) mechanical units that also
slam down violently. They are generally already setup with flat
platens, being most commonly used with steel rule dies for doing
things like punching out leather shoe blanks. Another reason to
choose the gentle, inexorable pressure delivered by today’s modern
hydraulic presses. (I should make a tv commercial, huh?)
Dar
http://www.sheltech.net