Re: Making a punch die?

Thanks Jon. It's good to hear that making a punch/die worked for you.

What did you use to make your punch and die? Did you have to treat
the resulting pieces?

With the clearance gap info from you and others here, and with a peak
of the pictures at the Greenlee catalog, I think I have a good
starting point for doing this work.

Doug also made a good point that I've forgotten -- if you want to
have panel cutouts in pre-made boxes (premade aluminum boxes were
popular in the EE classes), it sometimes wouldn't fit in the throat
of the mill.

Wow. This is terrfic, thanks everyone!

Joseph

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., Jon Elson <elson@p...> wrote:
> Joseph wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> > I'd like to make my own punch dies for cutting cutouts for
electronic
> > connectors in an aluminum case (0.062). Has anyone tried this or
> > seen information that might help?
>
> Yes, I've done it. I have a 5-ton Roper-Whitney foot-powered punch.
> The round and rectangular punches are expensive, but within reason.
> The RS-232 "D connector" punches were insane, like $450 about 10
years
> ago! I made my own without the benefits of CNC some years ago.
> They were real nice until a friend suggested punching some holes in
> a steel panel. the punch has never been the same, but it still does
> work, just leaves a slightly ragged hole.
>
> Without the big punch frame, you have to make it pull itself through
> the hole, and the punch and die must be kept in alignment or they
> will strike each other and be ruined. This is probably the
trickiest
> part.
>
> Jon