Ron Naida
12-08-2005, 01:30 AM
Hi All,
A while back a member asked me how I made my louvre dies and used them.
The following was my reply. Pics are in my gallery.
Ron Naida
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3881/medium/Louvre_die_1a.JPG
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3881/medium/Louvre_die_2a.JPG
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3881/medium/Louvre_die_3a.JPG
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3881/medium/Louvre_die_4a.JPG
Making a louvre die set.
Bill the top die is a piece of rectangular bar stock with a slot milled in it to accept tool steel as a cutting edge, start by cutting that to length, Use the round over bit to give the louvre shape. Then screw in the cutting steel. Lastly grind the tool steel and polish the upper die assembly.
Bottom die is a "U" shape made of 1/2 inch square material. Drill and tap the ends to accept a half by half piece of tool steel bar. Once that is bolted to the front you have a front cutting edge on the bottom die for the top die to shear the metal as it comes down. I take lead and heat it molten in the bottom trough while it is liquid bring the top ram with die attached quickly down into the pool. It will spill over the sides, but let it cool good. When you raise up the upper die you have a matching female die. I never got fancy with clearances as far as shape to shape goes. The only clearances important are the upper flat shear surface to the square lower shear surface.after the dies are down and together.
I bring the top die down into the lower die until it almost bottoms, adjust the bottom die towards the cutting edge of the top. I leave almost no clearance. When you are adjusted put a mark on the ram so you don't bring it down too much when punching a louvre. What happens is if there is slop in your ram as the upper die comes down it wants to come forward and then it chips or breaks the half inch square cutting edge.But you are going to buy that material in 18" lengths so you have replacments Right?
If you have too much shear clearance it won't cut or the cut looks ratty. When I have mine adjusted good it comes down, the spring loaded pressure bar holds the metal. I line up my layout marks, press down further on the pedal, The flex is taken up in the press, there is a boom sound and the louvre is cut and shaped. It is not something I can watch by the thousandths as it comes down.
This is how my press works. I never bothered to worry about how and why it does its operation in any greater detail than I needed to know to fix a malfunction. Mine is a little primitive, but punched alot of nice louvres in the last 15 years. One thing i did do was put a bracket on the ram holder so a dial indicator mounted on the ram could tell you when the ram was at the same down position on all louvres. After once or twice I found a sharpie mark on the ram was good enough.
Sounds like I am rambling on but I thought i would throw out bits of info you could use.
Good luck,
Ron Naida
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=3881
A while back a member asked me how I made my louvre dies and used them.
The following was my reply. Pics are in my gallery.
Ron Naida
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3881/medium/Louvre_die_1a.JPG
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3881/medium/Louvre_die_2a.JPG
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3881/medium/Louvre_die_3a.JPG
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3881/medium/Louvre_die_4a.JPG
Making a louvre die set.
Bill the top die is a piece of rectangular bar stock with a slot milled in it to accept tool steel as a cutting edge, start by cutting that to length, Use the round over bit to give the louvre shape. Then screw in the cutting steel. Lastly grind the tool steel and polish the upper die assembly.
Bottom die is a "U" shape made of 1/2 inch square material. Drill and tap the ends to accept a half by half piece of tool steel bar. Once that is bolted to the front you have a front cutting edge on the bottom die for the top die to shear the metal as it comes down. I take lead and heat it molten in the bottom trough while it is liquid bring the top ram with die attached quickly down into the pool. It will spill over the sides, but let it cool good. When you raise up the upper die you have a matching female die. I never got fancy with clearances as far as shape to shape goes. The only clearances important are the upper flat shear surface to the square lower shear surface.after the dies are down and together.
I bring the top die down into the lower die until it almost bottoms, adjust the bottom die towards the cutting edge of the top. I leave almost no clearance. When you are adjusted put a mark on the ram so you don't bring it down too much when punching a louvre. What happens is if there is slop in your ram as the upper die comes down it wants to come forward and then it chips or breaks the half inch square cutting edge.But you are going to buy that material in 18" lengths so you have replacments Right?
If you have too much shear clearance it won't cut or the cut looks ratty. When I have mine adjusted good it comes down, the spring loaded pressure bar holds the metal. I line up my layout marks, press down further on the pedal, The flex is taken up in the press, there is a boom sound and the louvre is cut and shaped. It is not something I can watch by the thousandths as it comes down.
This is how my press works. I never bothered to worry about how and why it does its operation in any greater detail than I needed to know to fix a malfunction. Mine is a little primitive, but punched alot of nice louvres in the last 15 years. One thing i did do was put a bracket on the ram holder so a dial indicator mounted on the ram could tell you when the ram was at the same down position on all louvres. After once or twice I found a sharpie mark on the ram was good enough.
Sounds like I am rambling on but I thought i would throw out bits of info you could use.
Good luck,
Ron Naida
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=3881