The Complete Stamping System

Jewelry Discussion
1

I am considering buying the stamping system from Rio Grande.
(The complete system is $637.00)

Does anybody know the system, owns one, used one, etc to get
some feedback? Is there anything better on the market? Does it
work?

Gabriella

2

Hi Gabriella,

I bought the complete RT System several years ago with the idea
of doing gold-filled names to be hung on split chains.

The press works great and, IMHO is well worth the money as long
as you aren’t trying to stamp anything thicker than about 22
gauge. Any thicker than that got us slightly ragged edges that
needed finishing.

The problem I had is with the saw (which is made in England). It
is a very long, tedious business to hand-saw your dies with a
kerf. I needed about 400 templates in order to offer a good
selection, which took months of tedious cutting and what seemed
like unending grosses of blades. Thank goodness my assistant at
the time was a man! I don’t think I could have done it - the
work was very tiring and exacting.

I believe there is an adjustable-speed electric saw on the
market which would do the job (you must work at a very slow
speed), but the price intimidated me.

I did find another source for sheets of tool steel in 1/16"
thickness locally - and was able to save about 50% on Rio’s
price. If your steel is thin - it doesn’t hold up to give you as
many impressions before you need to cut another die.

Hope this helps.

Nina

Nina - Silver Design, 9122 S. Federal Hwy, Suite 249,
Pt. St. Lucie, FL. 34952 : Toll Free:1-888-460-1800
URL: http://www.nina-sd.com : Email: @Nina

3

Thank goodness my assistant at the time was a man!

Yes, aren’t men great!

Mark P. (a man)

4

I believe Bonny Doon Engineering has a jig designed to make
sawing the stamping dies a lot easier.
[snip]
A few moments with an Internet search engine should reveal their
Web site address (URL).

Their WebSite is: http://www.bonnydoonengineering.com

Hanuman

5

I believe Bonny Doon Engineering has a jig designed to make
sawing the stamping dies a lot easier. Probably still tedious,
but easier to maintain the proper angle of the sawblade. I don’t
know if their presses would also do the stamping (I assume
so…), but it would be worth investigating. A few moments with
an Internet search engine should reveal their Web site address
(URL).

Dave Sebaste
Sebaste Studio
Charlotte, NC (USA)

6

Gabriella,

I also bought the complete stamping system from Rio, and had
trouble with the sawing. Fortunately, Rio allowed me return the
saw part and keep the press. I have just used the few dies I cut
then. There has been a thread here in the past about other ways
to cut blanking dies, you might look up. There is also someone
in California i believe, who will cut the dies for you for a
fairly reasonable price. I keep wanting to try that. I’ll let
everyone know when I do.

I just hate the time and sore arm that I get from hand sawing
the steel. I have a scroll saw that should be able to do it, but
it’s piled behind a lot of stuff in my garage right now, so I
haven’t been able to get to it for some time! Good luck.

Ruth

7

Gabriella:

Sheltech in Albuquerque, NM, USA makes dies for those who do not
wish to make their own. I believe they do it quite reasonably. I
have not used a screw press to do blanking. I have always used a
hydraulic press. Some of my dies are quite large and thick and
require up to 20 tons of pressure. A screw press is probably
faster than a hand pumped hydraulic press for small dies cutting
thin metal. Electric powered hydraulic presses speed up the
process considerably. It all depends on what kind of production
rate you want to achieve, how thick the metal you want to blank,
and at what cost.

As far as using the pancake die system, it is great. Volume
blanking for a low cost. If you decide to make your own dies, go
the extra mile and harden them. You will be able to cut thousands
of blanks.

Kenneth Gastineau
@Kenneth_Gastineau1

8

Thanks for all the advise on the stamping system.

Gabriella

9

Gabriella

We use a stamping device from Rio where I work. I'm not sure it

is the one you are talking about. The contraption that we use has
a wheel on top which is turned to stamp out metal blanks. The
thing has broken down about 5 times in the 2+ years that we’ve
had it. We use it a lot. Try Bonnedoone (sp) I think their
presses may be better.

10

hi-
the guy who cuts the dies for this is David Shelton-
address is:
4207 Lead SE
Albuquerque, NM 87108

505-256-7073

The info I have is about five years old: then he was charging
15-40 dollars for a simple die.When you consider the first pair
of earrings or whatever would pay for the die, it looks like a
bargain to me- anne

11

Nina mentioned ragged edges with thicker than 22g. - I cut 20g.
silver (3/4" animals w/legs) and just tap them flat with a
hammer. They suggest you blank things not more than half the
thickness of your tool steel, so I’m using 1/16" thick steel, and
it takes a half hour to an hour and a half to cut a blank.

You can cheat - I use bigger blades to cut the hinge. You can’t
get too close to your cutting edges, but an inch is tons quicker
with a #1 rather than a #4/0 blade.

Dana Carlson