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Forming Press?

PAToyota

Red Skull Member
Joined
May 27, 2020
Member Number
1545
Messages
1,184
Loc
South Central Pennsylvania, USA
I'm trying to find someone who can make some parts. The last time they had them made was with a place in Indiana (we're in Pennsylvania) and they have no idea who they were or if they're still in business (they're not big on writing things down). They got three or four 55-gallon drums of them made and figured they were set for a lifetime. Well, the "lifetime" ran out the other week.

Here's the end result:
Tooling 004.jpg


It's a multiple step setup. The first piece of tooling takes a 3/16" thick piece of bar stock; notches the corners, cuts it to length, and puts a mounting hole in it; the second pass does the other end. Here's the tooling for that:

Tooling 005.jpg


The second piece of tooling takes the cut piece and puts the arc and dimple in it. I think they're planning to revise this so that it doesn't have the dimple.

Tooling 001.jpg


Obviously, they have the tooling available. They just need someone with a press big enough to make use of the tooling. The closer to Harrisburg, PA, the better. We've shown it around locally and haven't gotten anyone who could either do it or recommend someone.

Barring someone who can actually do it, any advice on what we're looking for to be able to do it? Like "you need to find someone with a _____ ton _____ press."

Here's some other pictures of the dies for reference.

Tooling 002.jpg
Tooling 003.jpg
Tooling 006.jpg
Tooling 007.jpg
 
You'll need someone with an OBI mechanical press. (also called flywheel press or just mechanical press) I'll guess less than 20 tons. Of course that tooling might go into a press brake as long as there is enough open height and some sort of support bed is made.

It might also go into an ironworker that has an open cavity.

There are calculators for all this stuff but:

hole dia x metal thickness x 80= tonnage required to punch a hole for mild steel.

I'd think having the blanks lasered might be worth considering.
 
Have you tried Big B? (Josh and Randy Blyler from the Line Mtn race series, but the company itself is pretty large)


They can certainly do it, including lasering blanks etc, might take some quantity to get them interested but it's worth a shot. Maybe an hour from Harrisburg if that.
 
Jamscal - We have a couple flywheel presses. One is at least 20-ton, but I'd have to check. There is no way the dies are going to come close to fitting in that. Laser cutting the blank and then just using the second die could make sense.

Thanks, VetteBoy79 - I'll contact the Blylers to see if they can do it.
 
when I was younger I worked in a laser shop, and pretty much did all proto work for die makers. I agree with laser cutting blanks and using the second die.

Hell, it's summer, I'd have a pile of blanks cut, pick up an H-frame press, and let some HS kid stand there all day and press out pieces.
 
Looks like 9" is closed height? It would take a little modification but it looks like it can be run in a mid size press brake. It would fit in my Chicago 4510d brake.
 
Are those proprietary or are they the same ones you can get from kartek, amazon, ebay etc?
 
20t may not do it. We ran stuff like that in a 60t Bliss. Punching them out will be way faster and cheaper.
 
I instantly thought beam clamp too.
Yep, Berrien buggy on the top plate in the last pic confirmed my suspicion lol. Looked on Acme's website and there they are.

My point being if those fixtures are from back in the day 40-50 years ago when there weren't very many outfits making these, today is it really worth outsourcing all the labor to produce something that can be had by an average joe for what the OP's company is selling them for? Seems like they could find one of the mfg's who's already making these in bulk for other retailers and just buy direct.
 
Yes, this is for Berrien. Their rail chassis put the clamps at a different point from stock and require (so I'm told) a slightly different clamp.

With the volume of them that they use, I think there are likely alternatives already out there.
 
I would look through aa-mfg.com catalog. If they don't make them, they might be willing.
 
If your still looking for someone to do this in two weeks, I should be able to set up and run them. How many?
 
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