Hello, new here looking for some info on louver installation. Is there a hand held press, similar to those used to punch knockouts in electrical boxes, available to press/knockout louvers in sheet metal. Thanks for any info.
Eastwood makes dies that fit in a small hydraulic press. Not sure about hand held ones. But I bet if you had the dies, it wouldn't be hard to repurpose an old set of bolt cutters to mate the dies to do the job.
Thanks, I'll take a look at what Eastwood offers. The dies are a big part of the pressing, or knockout. I've seen both hand held mechanical (tighten a bolt as the press) and hydraulic knockout units. At the moment I don't have either, but there are probably a few available, out there, without giving up your First Born to acquire. Of course not having either item in hand it's difficult to tell if a little welding, grinding and shaping could make them work. Cost is a major point of the whole project.
Take a trip to HF, I bought a hyd KO set mostly for the ram to use when I made a stud puller, the ram alone was 99 bucks, but the same ram with the KO set was 99 bucks also.
What you're wanting to do is impossible because it requires tons of force to punch louvers in sheet-metal using "traditional" dies, in other words dies that slits the metal then forms the louver. At one time Eastwood offered a set of dies that would make louvers of any length, including curved louvers, these dies were installed on a bead roller, the first set to slit the louver, then the dies were changed to the second set which "formed" the shape of the louver. This is a possibility but the louvers it made didn't look right.
this guy must have invented sliced bread cause this is just awsome !!!! Ridiculously time consuming but incredibly ingenious!!
Check out this thread myself and the op have shared how we did our louvres with no very special tools https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ouvre-punching-by-hand.1185660/#post-13464964 Luke
Budget36, I buy a fair amount of HF stuff. I didn't remember seeing a KO Set there, so I haven't checked them out yet. I'll have to take a look at what they offer. I might be able to modify their set. Again the die is a very important piece of the equation. Making a die with standard garage tools would be a very formidable task. Thanks for the tip !
I can get you a pic when the weather eases up here, not sure if I saved the part number cover on it or not. But search the HF site, I bet it will come up
Keep an eye on eBay and some times louver dies come up for sale. You might check out the Mittler Brothers site too.
@HomemadeHardtop57...he is quite an Artist with Vintage Passion https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-cyclone-roadster.1003427/ He has a thread on the Roadster here and many more...
Budget36, I took a look on the HF site and the only thing that comes up is a KO Die Kit. No KO tool. Maybe they stopped carrying it and only have the die kits left ?? I think maybe eBay is my next stop. I'll setup a Saved Search, wait and see what shows up. ekimneirbo, I checked out the Mittler Brothers but everything I saw was a bit costly. I must have watched 25 or more YouTube Videos and all most of them do is show you how good they are at punching the Louvers out. None of them show you how to make the Press and the all important Die.
Interesting, I just picked mine up a few months back. I’ll see if the part number is on the box somewhere in a bit.
A KO punch set wont do louvers. KO punches require a hole to be made so you can draw the dies together to make the hole. They're great for holes, or for making flared holes, but wont do a louver. I've got a Greenlee hydraulic KO punch set, and can't see any way you'd adapt it to make louvers unless you want to spend time punching holes first, and then welding each one shut after punching the louver.
1971BB427, Thanks for your insight. I have seen KO Punches in action but have never used one. I didn't think about the required hole. Without being able to draw the die and the seat together they just wouldn't do the job. I guess my search will center on some kind of Die and Press.
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