I am soon to become the proud owner of a toggle press, courtesy of @HughF.
It's very exciting (I know, I need to get out more) but my thoughts have moved to how to manufacture a press that will punch multiple holes at once. I know this may not be practical, but I'd like to give it a go.
I am currently using a hollow punch, but want to move away from that for all sorts of reasons - not least being repeatability. (Cutting on a base is destructive, and I'll need to replace the base fairly frequently.)
I want each of the holes (4 or 8) to be 3mm. The material is aluminium (Sub 0.5mm), so I'm planning on the punch of 3mm, and die being 3.1mm.
Can I use 3mm Silver Steel as the punch pins? Or is there something better?
Can I use mild steel as the die, if so, can it be hardened suitably ?
Thanks
It's very exciting (I know, I need to get out more) but my thoughts have moved to how to manufacture a press that will punch multiple holes at once. I know this may not be practical, but I'd like to give it a go.
I am currently using a hollow punch, but want to move away from that for all sorts of reasons - not least being repeatability. (Cutting on a base is destructive, and I'll need to replace the base fairly frequently.)
I want each of the holes (4 or 8) to be 3mm. The material is aluminium (Sub 0.5mm), so I'm planning on the punch of 3mm, and die being 3.1mm.
Can I use 3mm Silver Steel as the punch pins? Or is there something better?
Can I use mild steel as the die, if so, can it be hardened suitably ?
Thanks