TonyK
True Classic
Working on these cars some times brings about an obsession in my way of thinking. Building an exhaust system from Stainless Steel in my mind is the only way to go, but the X has cramped quarters and needs tight bends so I wanted to try and make a stainless steel 2" fabrication donut.
It was apparent that I would need a punch and die set, so I purchased 2 slugs of steel 6" in diameter and starting turning out the punch and die on my lathe.
It take a fair bit of time to turn out a part like this and I have great difficultly is seeing the negative part ( die ) in my mind and when I make it. Templates from card board help me through this issue of perspective.
Here I am taking some measurements to figure out where the limits are for the die. I am using 16 Ga Stainless and I require a clearance of.050" between the die and the punch.
This is a 1 7/8" donut and is what I am trying to make but 2". The cost is prohibitive with the Canadian dollar being so low and the cross boarder shipping and import charges.
Projects like this take a fair bit of time and learning how to shape metal becomes a trial and error effort. I still like the challenge, but labour to dollars, well it would be cheaper to purchase than go through all of the machining I did.
The first shot at forming fell short. It is trying to figure out the stretch of the metal and how it compresses as well. The hole in the middle of the blank is only 5/8" in diameter but needs to be stretched to 1 3/4" for the internal radius. So a set of punches were made and my 20 ton press is used to form the metal.
More on this latter.
TonyK.
Grimsby Ontario Canada
It was apparent that I would need a punch and die set, so I purchased 2 slugs of steel 6" in diameter and starting turning out the punch and die on my lathe.
It take a fair bit of time to turn out a part like this and I have great difficultly is seeing the negative part ( die ) in my mind and when I make it. Templates from card board help me through this issue of perspective.
Here I am taking some measurements to figure out where the limits are for the die. I am using 16 Ga Stainless and I require a clearance of.050" between the die and the punch.
This is a 1 7/8" donut and is what I am trying to make but 2". The cost is prohibitive with the Canadian dollar being so low and the cross boarder shipping and import charges.
Projects like this take a fair bit of time and learning how to shape metal becomes a trial and error effort. I still like the challenge, but labour to dollars, well it would be cheaper to purchase than go through all of the machining I did.
The first shot at forming fell short. It is trying to figure out the stretch of the metal and how it compresses as well. The hole in the middle of the blank is only 5/8" in diameter but needs to be stretched to 1 3/4" for the internal radius. So a set of punches were made and my 20 ton press is used to form the metal.
TonyK.
Grimsby Ontario Canada