Omniversal dies | Power Hammers and Presses | Forum

I got the idea and name for this die that I plan on making from Grant's anvil http://www.iforgeiro...l/page__st__220 . As well as the setup he or Bob designed for the KA 75 of a die inside a die.

I often have runs of 50-100 parts that I need tooling to make the parts efficiently sometimes they have repeats but it can be years between the repeats. Much of the tooling is reasonably simple although some are more complicated, often a flat die is part of the setup and many of the components will likely be common to different jobs.

Making fully machined dies for a run of parts that may or may not have repeats is far too expensive I currently use spring swages and tools that drop into a bolt on hardy hole but often I have to change heavy tools multiple times in the same heat. As well some of the tools need better top bottom registration than spring swages provide.

So I drew up a CAD model of the part and some of the dies I need for some future projects. I plan on getting a 12' bar of 3" square cutting it to 3' or 4' lengths and having the dovetail cut on all of them. I will then have bars I can cut die blanks off of and make tools from with minimal cost and lead time. I am waiting for quotes on machining and will probably be going ahead with it unless the quotes are astronomical. In which case I will have to machine them myself on weekends etc. but I will have to take my time doing it.

This sort of die would probably not be useful on hammers that take small dies, as the usable die area would likely be too small.