New idea about pancake dies

I literally just thought of this a minute ago, wandering around the
house, mulling over what pieces of tool steel were essential for the
next batch of dies. I always loathe having to get the 3/32" thick
stock because of how much ‘fun’ it is to saw but it is needed for
cutting 14 ga. (highly recommended). Then from somewhere, the place
where crazy ideas usually come from --crazy isn’t always bad or
unproductive–, came the idea, the mind’s eye image, to use a
thinner tool steel and make it thicker by sandwiching it with an
aluminum or mild steel shim plate. This is exactly the same concept
behind putting a protective lexan block onto a pancake die that’s
made to trim puffed pieces, where the bottom sandwich functions only
as a heightener, a thickener, for the cutting- die plate itself. I’m
pretty sure the tradeoff of having to saw the design twice will be
more than balanced by the fact that the hard sawing will be done in
thinner tool steel than if it was an all-tool-steel die, and the
“double’ sawing can be done in aluminum (that material just winning
the contest). Worst case scenario is that it isn’t any easier to
make, and the extra layout hassle balances any money saved, which
leaves me with, at the very worst, not having to buy a piece of
3/32” today, and that’s what sent me over into the crazy-thinking
place in the first place, looking back. Why wouldn’t I get that 3/32"
piece that’s on my list?, I always do… well, at least today it was
a productive visit to crazyland heh heh ! (^8. I’ll let ya know how
it works out. (though I already know)

Dar