Has anyone ever made their own dimple dies (maximum size about 3 - 4 inches but square and round)? application is for thin sheet steel and aluminium. What material did you use, I have been told that hard woods and even hard pu / hdpe plastics can be a good material with the benefit of easy machining. I do not want to invest large amounts into tooling that will have very limited use. Any thoughts or guidance would be appreciated
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Agroshield
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There are YT videos of people using 3D printed ones.
A more economic way might be a hybrid/modular solution, where you make a steel 'carrier' and then just 3D print the male and female die halves. That way, you are backing up the plastic with steel, and when the plastic breaks, the re-printing cost is minimised. For example, you'd be printing a 4" dia. washer 10mm wide and 10mm high instead of a solid 4" disk 10mm thick.
I think in the 3D printing section here someone was talking about printing something with quite a high percentage of voids and then filling it with epoxy to beef it up.
A more economic way might be a hybrid/modular solution, where you make a steel 'carrier' and then just 3D print the male and female die halves. That way, you are backing up the plastic with steel, and when the plastic breaks, the re-printing cost is minimised. For example, you'd be printing a 4" dia. washer 10mm wide and 10mm high instead of a solid 4" disk 10mm thick.
I think in the 3D printing section here someone was talking about printing something with quite a high percentage of voids and then filling it with epoxy to beef it up.
dan.taylor.1
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I've got a 3d printed one I bought years ago, works fine on even 1.6mm steel tbh. I'd have ko problem making them from plastic for low use applications. I would however design them in such a way as to allow a heavy steel washer to back the die up.
