Looking to have a stamp made to cut radiator fins from thin copper. Have an example of the fin. Thanks.
How long are the strips ? that would determine the size of the die How many are you going to cut ? Hydraulic press ? By hand ? What is the thickness of the brass ? The thinner the brass, the more pieces you will be able to cut per die. Our family business is flatbed diecutting. We make all our own dies in house. We also make die’s for people who cut their own parts. Take a peek at this link. https://www.economydieandgasket.com/ If you think our dies will work for you to cut, drop me a message here.
I do love the HAMB! the fins are 1.835” in diameter and 0.015” thick. have a floor mount brake rivet press that i’d like to use as it has removeable dies.
The brake rivet press I just found locally and an example of the die. Would also like to get some different sized rivet “head” dies cut.
Would have been helpful to have posted this along with your question. Makes more sense as to why it would be pressed (rosette’s) vs rolled (ribbons).
No worries, anyways where’s the fun in that? Hell, took me until this AM to realize what your animation was!
I waited till your reply before posting this. But you won’t be sending strips of copper thru roller style die’s. You may ask why wood. Well in high school I had a great wood shop teacher. Also a great machine shop teacher. Just combine the two and well. You get the idea.
The round part you posted isn’t just die cut. It is also embossed with a male and female die. We used to do embossed aluminum signs but the dies ( matching male and female ) are very expensive. Our dies are made of 5/8 furniture grade maple board. An average single die is between $250 to $1,000 for the die. Embossing dies ( matching male and female ) run between $3500 and $6,000 due to all the extra ejection foam pieces needed I was under the impression you wanted strips cut to be folded like a normal radiator fin. Based on conversations here, buy a radiator for a lot less money. Just my 2 cents
The club had a set made in the 70s And somebody borrowed it and never returned it. It’s been a point of conversation since then.
Depends on how many radiators we end up making, Right now need at least 1000 pcs, which is about 10 rows at 24” wide and 2 deep. figure that 96 pcs gets one row at 24” wide x 6 rows deep thats 576 pcs per level, then stack that 6 times…thats 3,456 pcs for one radiator. If we’re going to do another radiator for the curve dash or something else London to Brighton era, it’ll be additional pieces.
Actually, anyone with a small CNC (Computer Numerical Control) milling machine should be able to make you a matching set of dies fairly easily. You need to make a drawing showing them what you need or provide an existing part that they can measure. If you have an existing part many of the machines can touch the surfaces and record the dimensions making plotting the moves much easier. Once the program is made, it's pretty simple to make multiple dies or a pair of plates that can make multiple parts in one pressing. You will need some decent steel that will hold its edge even though you are stamping brass. As for making the CNC program, if they know the dimension of one "seration (?)", they just tell the computer to put the number of serations you want and that area is done. Really easy . You may be able to find someone doing that stuff at home if you look on Facebook.
My wife and I were talking about this. If you are going to pull a 3D scan, you might consider a metal printer which does copper. I know nothing of this process except watching a Jay Leno's garage segment where they printed an aluminum piece. I decided to look. Holy shit !!!!! They have printers that print carbon fibre........ I did not look at the price but one scan could produce 10s of thousands of your piece Markforged Metal 3D Printer: The Metal X 3D Printing System
Pull 3d scan, Have any high-school kid with a 3d printer make a male and female die. Run a couple parts check results, if they look good should be places easily sourced on the internet, that can work off the cad file or you can send a set of printed dies to and have a hardened steel set made. I would think your best bet would to set up some dies for an arbor press that you can put a squared blank into and cut it round and form in one operation. The process would be somewhat slow but not bad (probably be able to make 200-500 per hr. Once squared blanks are made). If you find you find you need thousands then get dies made for a Strippit machine / automated punch press.
Go talk to a real machinist with a CNC, like was advised. If you are going to punch that many pieces it should be hardened steel, maybe A-2 or S-7. Machine it and get it hardened. Mount the pieces in an old die shoe, they are cheap. Have the blanks punched out by a sheet metal shop. You probably won't be able to press 3500 pieces with an arbor press unless you look like Arnold.
I’m sure somewhere they are in huge rolls just awaiting purchase and installation . I just don’t think they are custom built for every copper / brass radiator being built today .
Don’t waste your time scanning it… the part is too simple. The scanner will pick up all the minute imperfections and distortions, and they will carry over to the die set. Get out your ol radius gage set and make up a sketch of the part. Might consider trying a single side die used with rubber block, this way you don’t have to worry about timing the dies. Probably not gonna work on the ol brake rivet machine, but might work out good in a 2-3 ton arbor press. Start with a laser cut disk, drop it in the die, and squeeze like hell. The center break out is gonna be rough on the rubber, so would leave the center underdeveloped during forming. Piercing would need to be a separate step. Could be as simple as a hammer and star shaped punch over a block of wood
Yes a CNC machine would make the forming dies quicker and easier to produce. Being your dies were made in the 1970s don’t think that method was used. A simple lathe and mill with a turntable would make it . It’s going to take a bit of time and a few setups along with some hand work. I would recommend finding a used Di-Arco Roper Whitney punch and die to cut your copper blanks. I would then use the forming dies on your rivet machine to press the shape of the cooling fins. A simple form punch to make the raised ring and cooling fins on another forming die setup. This is one I made for screw holes to stamp .062 aluminum . This was made out of scraps and punch is an old ford steering shaft. We made millions of parts by hand forming on a kickpress
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