question

[burt]

Bent,
I don't know the shape of the components of your changer fingers, but they could probably be made on a fly-press, with a simple notching tool, in several operations.

You would need to make the tooling and all the stops for the different setups yourself, to keep the costs down, but once it's made, you (or your good lady!) could knock hundreds of parts off very quickly and easily.

A notching tool is quite simple to make, but it has to be made from tool steel, and then hardened.

If you haven't got an oxy-acetylene torch, the tool would have to go to a third party to be hardened.

I have done some rough calculations, and reckon that you would need a fly-press capable of at least 6 tonnes pressure, to shear 1.5mm stainless

I've looked on google for images of fly-press notch tooling, but can't find anything suitable.

If you want to learn more, I'll do some sketches of a notch tool, and give you advice on how to make it.

A lathe would be handy to make the die

[Leon Campbell]

Hey Bent, I think I'm going to try to make a press to stamp out the parts, I have a 1 inch thick plate steel to make it out of. I'm not a machinist ( wish I were ) I have a mill drill machine manuel operated,slow but I think I can. I have a 20 ton press to use for it. Hope it works. I'll let you know. Thank all of you for your help. Leon

[Bent]

Burt, I have never heard of a fly press or a notching tool before. But your suggestion sounds great. If you would educate me on this I would be very grateful!
Is your fly press, something akin to our arbor press? And this notching tool..I'll have to look it up on the net so at least I won't be totally in the dark when you start educating me! Thanks again.

Leon, Wasn't much I did except for the seed of a suggestion. Good luck with this at your end, and we'll both read and learn from Burt. Thank YOU for starting this thread!

[richard37066]

Bent -

Burt has suggested the use of a fly press. I may have seen one of these some 40-odd years ago. The major difference that I can see between the fly press and a garden variety bench press is that the fly press uses a giant screw as a means of applying the pressure as opposed to the rack-and-pinion on the bench press. Intuition tells me that greater pressures can be obtained in the same size package using this gadget. See the following for photos. Go to "used fly presses".

http://www.usedflypress.com/?gclid=CJj_ ... TAodkXFSkQ

Richard

[burt]

Here's a few rough sketches to give the general idea.

[Bent]

Burt, that is SOME cool, man! You drew it simple and understandable. Now I just have to get my shyte together and make up something that will work.
Now, the mating piece (that the cutter slides into, It wouldn't have to be hardened steel would it? Just regular steel I hope?
Here are the lowering fingers:

scissors~jigL-002.jpg (98.46 KiB) Viewed 1519 times

As you see, there are several rounded parts on it and drilled holes as well. It would be pretty tough to make a stamp with roundings like that. Maybe I should just leave them square and sand the rounds afterwards? What do you think? Richard mentioned I drill holes first and use those as registration by putting the holes over pins that have been installed on the base piece. You agree?

For the press, I visualize this: A car jack, bottle jack type, capable of 6-8 tonne should be plenty. I would make up a frame out of some solid I-beam (you might call it H- beam) The jack stands on a slider beam inside this frame, with the punch on the underside of the slider beam and the jack's piston pushing against the top of the frame. For safety I would have the base of the jack in a shallow frame, and the piston top in a round little pipe welded to the frame.Anything better you or anybody else could suggest.
Raise fingers:
The top rounds...I do them in the mill so no problem there. They can be cut square as pictured.

scissors~jigR-002.jpg (119.17 KiB) Viewed 1519 times

[burt]

Bent,
Both the punch and the die would have to be made out of toolsteel and then hardened.

I have drawn the die as a circular insert, as that is the industry norm.

The dies fit in a standard bolster (see photo) to allow interchangeability of dies with different apertures (they could be slots, rounds, squares, rectangles, triangles, anything you want)

I don't like the car jack idea, it would be very slow, and might be prone to sideways movement, which could chip the punch and die.

A secondhand flypress and bolster might be purchased for a reasonable price, and once you have a flypress you'll find all sorts of things that you can do eg you would not need to mill the groove in the changer finger plate (where you bend it) as a simple vee bending tool is easily made and will make easy work of it.

[Bent]

Burt, on second thought you are likely right about the jack. Thing is, it is not easy to get a fly press here in Canada as they are old style tools it seems like. I found some on a UK web site and there they start at 480 pounds! Too much for my budget, considering the little use I would get out of it.
It is starting to dawn on me how they work and it sure is interesting. I'll keep looking. Hadn't been for the screw, one could cobble one together....
The vee I mill in the plate is easy, really. That way I get a very accurate and pretty bend exactly where I want it. With a vee bending device, You still get some deformity and stretching of the material. I have seen the holes actually pulled oblong.

[richard37066]

Bent -

Could ya steal the "leadscrew" and parts from an old discarded lathe?

Richard

[Bent]

Richard..what exactly is the lead screw?
Anyway, I should be keeping a close eye on auction sales I guess. Who knows...

...four hours later. Now I think I know what you are talking about.The lead screw is the big long screw that transports the tool holder along the working length of the lathe...duh.
One good idea for sure but where do I find an old discarded lathe?