[TheForge] Leroy-Somer punch press.

[Ries Niemi]

On Friday, July 2, 2004, at 06:50 PM, SRiverF at aol.com wrote:

> Can anyone tell me who would sell punches and dies for a Leroy Somer  
> punch
> press?
>
> thanks
> Mike Ivey
> Savannah River Forge
>

I am not sure what a leroy somer is- but if it is set up to take  
individual punches, then cleveland punch and die will either have them  
or make them.

www.clevelandpunch.com

now if it is a real punch press, then it has no provision for  
individual punches- punch presses are designed to be run with custom  
made tooling, and they usually just have a few bolt holes and thats it.
A lot of people run Unipunch punches with punch presses-
www.unipunch.com
these are small c frame punches that can be configured however you  
want. They are often found at auctions.

real punch press tooling starts with a dieset- two plates, held apart  
by springs, with hardened pins that allow them to accurately come  
together in the same place every time. Usually these are custom made at  
great expense. MSC does sell some premade, small and relatively  
inexpensive diesets, which you would then customize as needed. Like  
this:
www.mscdirect.com/ 
IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=261&pcount=15&Product_ 
Id=398647&Keyword=Y

Real punch presses are rapidly becoming obsolete- the tooling costs are  
high, compared to modern cnc turret punches, which do not require  
custom tooling. The old mechanical punch presses are also extremely  
difficult if not impossible to bring up to OSHA safety requirements, so  
they are often being sold for scrap prices. A punch press is designed  
as a production machine to stamp out one part thousands of times. They  
are not very flexible for general shop use.

ries