Good info (all over again) so far on this. Generally speaking, you
get what you pay for. 20 tons of BD is more expensive than 20 tons
of Potter because BD actually did spend a LOT of time and money on
R&D to develop the new design, over the original, which had already
been tried and true for about 15 years (or more?). The new design is
more rigid and won’t fatigue from flexion. Potter looks and acts
fine but hasn’tbeen around long enough to be able to claim the
high-volume, high-pressue, long-term durability that BD can claim.
As already explained, DIY and really cheap presses are generally
less of a wise andreliable choice unless one becomes educated. A
cheapo that has 12tons will punch out pancake dies that only need 6
tons till the cows come home (whatever that means, I’m pretty sure
it’s good), but it could become a deadly weapon if asked to emboss
or draw something that actually wants 12 tons. There are a few
good-looking, non- 'major brand’welded-frame units out there for
less than a Potter but I can’t personally vouch for any. I use 3
old-design BD presses myself, and haven’t needed to use anything
else. I have some ‘horror stories’ about H-Frame units and a DIY
setup from a long time ago.
One generalization is that blanking with pancake dies takes much
less pressure than most forming, drawing, and embossing operations.
Even the biggest dies that most people use (bracelet for 16 ga., for
example, might take somewhere around 8-12 tons (maybe 15 with tough
metal ?), but it’s pretty easy to find forming tasks that want 20
tons or more. Some seemingly benign things I do want upwards of 30,
and even 50 is barely enough for some things. I do some one-step,
cut- and-emboss dies where it may only take 5 tons to cut the piece,
but another 40 to press the designs into it, even with 30 ga. steel
pieces (okay, some of them are big pieces with lots of wire designs.
Yes, I do always seem to manage to squeeze (along with a extra pun
here and there) something about the (awesome !) pancake dies I make,
don’t I ?. It’s about the only thing I do I can talk about here, and
nobody on the otherboards I go to gives a cow, so whaddayagonna do,
eh ?
Dar