[TheForge] Interchangeable LG dies

[Walter L. Mullett]

I guess my question wasn't clear.    See below....

-----Original Message-----
From: Ralph Sproul <brhlbsmt at mcttelecom.com>
To: Sponsored by ABANA <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Date: Saturday, October 09, 2004 2:01 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Interchangeable LG dies


>Hi Walt,  Spring dies are nice and easy to slip in and out......no doubting
>that.
>
>I find the lower bolt on dies nice for making a weld up, forged and
drilled,
>or machined die that is one sided, like if you want to make collars and
>drive a piece of stock into a half rounded swage to create that "D" shape
>for a collar of that type.  When you want to expand the radius of the lower
>die to something greater (like a rail cap), that can be fastened in as
well.
>Clapper dies tend to jounce around on certain items.....like long runs and
>don't have the accuracy of fixed dies running opposite of each other.  Two
>handed sterring of the material is nice as well.
------
A one sided bottom die --- no argument, this works.
-------
>Now picture if you want to run a fuller across from a flat die to make a
>foot merely by turning your piece.  If you have a few to do........you use
a
>hand held tool for doing them.......it you've got lots to do, you could
make
>the dies hold the tool and you can rotate your stock with two hands - to
get
>the results....... like lets say You've got to make 200 parts for a
railing,
>then the dies make sense to put something together for that application.
--------
Still a one sided die.  What you suggest is the top die is bolted to the
bottom and this makes sense.  This would be the best of both setups.  The
mating of a spring die with the bolt on.... fixed.... bottom die.   And it
really doesn't have to be a spring die.  It could be a pivoted arm holding
the top die that could be swapped to give you different top tools with the
same bottom.... or a two posted top die that maintains its alignment without
pinching as a spring die does.

My real concern was that I didn't feel that you could do a good job of
mating the top and bottom for a truely interchangeable setup.  I think the
X, Y and rotation would not be easy to do with the wedged adjustment.
Somehow you would have to determine the true neutral axis and get both die
holders placed there.

Could you set it up in place and make adjust your dies for however your die
holders are placed? .... no doubt but then you would have to mark your dies
for left/right and top/bottom and they are not interchangeable, just
changeable.  That is what I was having trouble with.

I can see that a bottom, quick change die would be great, especially if it
had a couple of sleeves at each end for a drop over top die and just leave
the fixed drawing top die alone.  Everthing is aligned everytime.

Walt