"other" shaped punch & dies

[RedHeadKevin]

I was looking at some of the scratchbuilding work that gets done around ARC, and I see how many people use a punch-and-die set to knock circles out of sheet styrene. Do you think there'd be a market for other shapes? I'm sure we could all use a punch to make small square or rectangular buttons, or the bezels around MFD's. Let's say someone puts out a "1/48 standard shape" punch and die set. Since a lot of the small equipment in aircraft is standardized (MFD's, switches, etc,) you could make a punch with shapes for different screens, bezels, HUD glass, rear-view-mirrors, seat-belt buckles, chaff/flare bucket blanking plates, and so on.

I can envision that this would be more difficult to make, due to the fact that you couldn't use a drill to make the holes in the die, like you can with a circle. But how's this idea: You'd want the top-plate to be clear plexiglass or lucite anyway, right? So use the punches as a mold for the holes. Stand the punches up, and pour in your clear plastic/lucite resin around them. When it's dry, you'd be able to pop the punches out, and you'd have perfectly sized/shaped holes in the lucite. The tough part would be machining the small punch shapes, and that's something I have no skills/equipment/facilities to do.

Thoughts?

[Spruemeister]

I tried doing something like this with resin and hex shapes like an Allen wrench so I could make hex nuts and bolt heads. Didn't work, but maybe the Lucite would.

Rick L.

[RedHeadKevin]

I was thinking Lucite because of the clear-plastic top of the punch-and-die sets I've seen. Why didn't the resin one work?

Edited March 24, 2010 by RedHeadKevin

[Spruemeister]

Too fragile, plus I was trying to work with the smallest of wrench sizes. I never seem to do anything easy...

I do like the idea of the instrument bezel shapes, although I would prefer somebody just aquired the old Waldron patterns and started cranking out the photoetch again. ANYBODY LISTENING?????????

Rick L.

Edited March 25, 2010 by Spruemeister

[RedHeadKevin]

Forget the Waldron ones. Let's just get someone doing artwork for new PE bezel parts. We've got some really good PE'ers around here.

[PlasticWeapons]

Forget the Waldron ones. Let's just get someone doing artwork for new PE bezel parts. We've got some really good PE'ers around here.

Yes! You aren't the only one in need of bezels really bad. Please, somebody, make some PE bezels! I need plenty...

[Edgar]

Roll Models acquired the Waldron moulds, patterns, etc., so I suggest that you approach them. Historex do (or did) a set of hexagonal punches, but I can't tell you what the sizes were.

Edgar

[Adam Baker]

Making anything w/ squared off corners would be difficult, from a machining standpoint. The punch itself wouldnt be too incredibly difficult to machine, but the dies would be quite a bit more complicated b/c of the inside corners if it were a square or rectangular shape. Now if they were EDM or Water Jet cut, then it wouldnt be as hard, but both would be more expensive than traditional machining on a mill or lathe.

Making punches w/ oval or oblong shapes would be very easy b/c of the rounded edges though.

[Hawkeye's Hobbies]

Visit your local craft store. There you will find punches in various shapes and sizes. Some suitable even for punching through thin aluminum and brass. The other way to make hex heads is to make yourself an extruder. They featured a company on the food channel that make the dies for making pasta, which are done in some very odd shapes. They hold a patent on the process of their extruder dies...very small and very durable. You can make a die and use it with a play-doh toy extruder, sub something on the order of a putty or sculpy as your media. Press out a shapely turd and slice it into the thickness you need.

[Miccara]

...Press out a shapely turd and slice it into the thickness you need.

You wordsmith you.

[geedubelyer]

Hi Kevin, I think your idea has merit. If an engineering concern could be persuaded to tool some specially shaped punches I think there would be a market for them

.......... Historex do (or did) a set of hexagonal punches, but I can't tell you what the sizes were.

Edgar

I have a set of the Historex hexagonal punches and although I use them occasionally I don't rate them. They were comparatively expensive and only offer four sizes, two of which are too big for even 1/32nd scale aircraft models. (No surprise really as they are aimed more at armour modellers)

HTH

[jlcsr]

Assuming we are talking about die- cutting thin plastic. At work I use dies that are called steel rule dies,The blades are mounted in a block of wood and look like a cookie cutter.I've used them to even cut up to .025 alum.They can make them in any configuration imaginable with any kind of punches installed also.They do range in price starting at $10.00 and up depending on what you want. I actually have one in the shape of NJ. Hope this helps

[RedHeadKevin]

I realized that the holes would be difficult to machine, especially if you were trying to get square corners. That's why I suggested the "molten Lucite" method. That way, you'd only have to machine the punches, making the "positive" end of the operation. Imagine making allen wrenches in shapes other than hexagonal. That's all the machining you'd need to do. The Lucite "negative" die wouldn't need to be machined. By molding it as a liquid around the positive punches, it would create perfectly shaped holes with very little work done to the Lucite block. You'd probably need to sand and polish it down to create a flat/clearer surface, but otherwise, the holes would be created in the molding process.