Dimple Dies

[Boost Creep]

looks great jim

 

[NASTYZEN]

Now thats a rad top!
Looking good there Jim, thanks for showing your crafty work.

 

[NASTYZEN]

Been highjacking dirtbal's thread for too long now.
I started my own over here.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2924068#post2924068

Thank's every one, thank's dirtbal.

 

[WTBBlown]

Hello can these still be had? How much for both sets shipped to California 94519 thanks

 

[Dubbydoo]

heres my piece I put on my exo cage when I was building it been meaning to get around to put some more on it soon over my front fenders

 

[bowseruni]

Are you still selling these?

 

[Kaasdief]

Whenever I see this thread my first thought is "Dimple died"?

 

[bowseruni]

For the guys who have had these for a while now, how are they wearing when used in steel?

can they be used for 3/16 mild steel at all?

 

[skorpio]

For the guys who have had these for a while now, how are they wearing when used in steel?

can they be used for 3/16 mild steel at all?

These are radiused dies so short answer is no you can't form anything beyond the clearance between the inner and outer radius, it'll just bind up and you'll never get it all apart.

The longer answer is that there is a pretty low limit in metal thickness that you can effectively tighten a bolt to compress. A hydraulicly drawn stud that starts out with a thread fully engaged and static through the drawing process will probably double to triple the tonnage of pressure you can put on the part. Lastly an externally driven press will probably double that again.

What all this means in the real world, These are ones I did in my 16 Ga. rocker panels for my GMC Jimmy project:

The steel of these rockers is fairly soft and they are 2" beaded dies done initially with a Greenlee QuickDraw hydraulic draw punch and after the first side and one hole of the 2nd I killed the pump. That pump will draw 8 tons of pressure. I replaced it with the larger Greenlee punch with draws 11 tons and it seems to do it far easier. Beads take more pressure than simple radiused dimples.

These are dimples in the floor ends for the same project done with the same tool in up to 2.5", same sheet metal source same sort of steel:

These drew similarly to the 2" beaded, maybe even a little less effort.
And finally these 1.75" dimples in the rear roll pan:

...which is actually 18ga but a tougher steel, punched with more effort that the soft 16ga above but seemed to form with about the same.

I use Mittler Brothers punch and die combination tooling for the beads and dimples, and if I have access to the edge, I punch the center hole (1/4") with a Roper-Whitney ** hand punch, then use a 1/2" Greenlee Radio panel punch die to bring the hole out for the 1/2" drawstud for the Mittler punch and dies. so no drilling at all. The Mittler punch and dies are hardened for what it's worth.

 

[bowseruni]

Thanks for that, so for materials up to 3/16 I should look for dies with a chamfer rather than a radius? such as the barbed wire off road ones?

 

[skorpio]

Thanks for that, so for materials up to 3/16 I should look for dies with a chamfer rather than a radius? such as the barbed wire off road ones?

Well, yea, but it's still going to take a tremendous amount of pressure to dimple 3/16. I'd take a guess and say that to dimple a 2" hole in 3/16 you are probably looking at 100 tons or more. It takes 30 tons of pressure just to punch a 2" hole in 3/16 and dimpling forming takes a LOT more pressure than punching. You are probably looking at a big stationary hydraulic press to do such things, this is way beyond the capacity of even the largest Harbor Freight bottle jack based shop press.

 

[jeep_boy02]

Any one ever seen, modified or heard of dies to dimple tubing? I want to make some tread steps for my rock rails that bolt to the rail using the next size bigger tubing so it sits flush. How woupd one go about dimpling on a radius?