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Need some help with dies for a press

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Need some help with dies for a press

March 18, 2021
5:48 pm

Geoff Keyes

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April 20, 2010

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I am a custom knife maker, bladesmith, whatever. I don't get here much, so youall may have forgotten me. I have a 30 ton press that I use for forging damascus and breaking down big stock. I need some better squaring dies (essentially a top and bottom "V" block). I built some like ones I've seen online from angle iron.

I made a 2" set, each side is 2 pieces of angle nested and welded together, then welded to a plate. I've only used them for a couple of hours, and I was getting some strange effects, so I looked at them and the bottom set have turned into rounding dies, the contact faces have bowed in nearly a 1/2 an inch. I made a top die out of a piece of 3/8ths wall 3 inch angle and it splayed out within the first hour.

I also have a flat plate bottom die (3/4" ) and it has developed a significant cup in the center, just from heating and cooling,

The steel is going into the press at between 1500 F and 2300 F. This is really frustrating, I'm spending more time building dies that don't work than doing actual paying work.

Does anyone have ideas how to build dies that will hold up and that won't take a crane to get in and out of the machine.

Geoff

March 19, 2021
9:22 am

billyO

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March 22, 2011

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Good morning, Geoff.

Here are pics of the set up I came up with for the Coal Ironworks 25-ton I have access to. I was concerned about how well angle iron would hold up, so I made my dies out of 2" square mild.

The second picture shows the adapter I made to turn the 2" square into 1 1/2" square. I have other ones made at 1/4" increments down to 1"

I will admit that I haven't used them much, so can't speak to how much deformation will occur.

Geoff Keyes said

I also have a flat plate bottom die (3/4" ) and it has developed a significant cup in the center, just from heating and cooling,

Geoff

I don't have an answer for this, I would have to see your set-up. My flat dies are made from 3/8" plate, and don't show much deforming yet (6 months of use), but I'm not forging for 6+ hours every day either, usually only 1-2 times a week.