Arbor Press Help

You were using aluminum punch/dies in a bench vise and had problems? I'm not surprised.

The general way I do punching on a pattern of holes is to lay out the holes and centerpunch them deeply. The punches I use all have a tit on the center of the very tip, and I first engage the punchmark on the tit, then activate the punch. That way you can punch holes within about .01" easily.

If you buy an arbor press intending to use it for punching, you will need to modify the business end of the ram to hold punches. The punch sizes you can use will be determined somewhat by the size of the ram.

To punch .060 aluminum you might consider a hand punch like this one:

work very well indeed. But they only punch holes up to about 1/4".

At the top end of what you might use is an ironworker. I have a little

35-ton Scotchman which punches mightily. I use it a lot and it has paid for itself unlike most of my stuff.

There are bench-type punches like a W.A. Whitney Model 91 10-t> Anyone know of a good site or company that sells a wide range of

Mike,

Suggest form the part first from a blank....then set up punches for all the holes.

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If you have a really large volume, then suggest some sort of progessive die system.....

3 stations : form, punch, then shear off the finished article...( all in the same stroke ) ......THEN you advance the stock forward one increment....this will probly take considerably more pressure than a vise or arbor press will produce.

One of the things you have to remember is that you need to have guiding pins to guid the two halves of the die together. Most dies for stuff like that will have 4 big pins at the corners of about 1" diameter and a spring between the two halves of the die to open the die reliably. The center part of the die will have the guides and stops to put the material in the right place for when the die closes and puts the holes into the part. Higher production dies will tend to do parts of the job in several different steps with maybe the center hole stamped out first, then two of the 4 outer holes followed by the other 2 holes and finally a shear to cut the part off the end of the material. With that part, I'd make a rolling die to roll the shape into the part and then a die to stamp in the 5 holes in one step for a simple setup.

-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works every time it is tried!

Grant, in a previous thread (lost it) sombody mentioned the use of a punch such as the one in the link for making rivet holes along the edges of sheet metal etc. While I understand that, I don't understand how you make the holes in the second sheet (sheet to be attached) line up with the holes in the first sheet. Is there a trick that I am missing? All advice appreciated.

Ivan Vegvary

I'm not a sheet metal guy, but I think you clamp the pieces together, punch one hole through *both* sheets, put a Cleco clamp in, punch another hole through both sheets, put in another Cleco clamp, then punch all the rest of your holes through both sheets.

I know Cleco clamps are used, anyway. Try googling.

GWE

Ivan Vegvary wrote:

Sounds and looks like you want a real die, especially if you have any volume at all. After making (or having the die made), you can find someone to mount that on a press and punch out any number you need. You can also buy the press. "suicide" presses are going for virtually the cost of the metal, since OSHA outlawed them.

I think you have an arbor press confused with a punch press. They're hardly the same critter. In order to do the type of work you're hoping to accomplish, an arbor press would be a poor choice, although one with enough tonnage could do it. While faster than doing it with a hammer, it would be quite slow as compared to a punch press. You really need to explore punch presses.

Harold