C-frame punch

[tsm1mt]

Finally bought a Unittool C-frame punch... so now what can I do with it? :D

http://tigger.tmcom.com/~tsm1/PlainGallery/2005ToolsUnittool/dcp_0002.sized.jpg

It came with a 1/2x1" ob-round die.

Where can I buy more dies and at what price? I don't suppose any of the Strippit or Turret dies I've seen for sale would work.

I had to test it.. so it went into my 20T press and a piece of 1/8" flat was located..

http://tigger.tmcom.com/~tsm1/PlainGallery/2005ToolsUnittool/dcp_0004.sized.jpg

Seemed, to me, to take a lot of pressure before it finally went bang and knocked out the hole.

I'm not sure if I have enough press to punch a 1/2x1 slot into some 1/4" plate (for U-bolt plates)..

http://tigger.tmcom.com/~tsm1/PlainGallery/2005ToolsUnittool/dcp_0007.sized.jpg

Nice clean hole, though.

[ironpig70]

i'd say it punches holes :D never seen or heard of one before but it looks like it could come in handy

[fabcam]

I don't know much about a uni-punch, however, I have been around turret punch presses all my life. One thing you need to know is the lower die in a turret press is usually 10% to 20% of the material thickness larger than the upper die. So if we use 10% and the material is .125 then the lower die needs to be .012 larger than the upper die. By having the die smaller it will take several more tons to push it through and you will increase your chances of busting the tool.

And if you go to .250 material when you had a tough time on .125 you will significantly need to increase your tonage or obtain a larger lower die.

[tsm1mt]

i'd say it punches holes :D never seen or heard of one before but it looks like it could come in handy

Here's what I do know about the gizmo.

The model I have will take up to a 1.75" die. I don't have the tolerance specs on the 1/2x1 die I have now to decide just what gauge it's designed for. I guess I'll have to put the two halves together and break out the feeler gauges.

I've seen these talked about from time to time, but rarely a picture or good description of the ins n' outs.

Basically, it's like having a little iron-worker.

I bought this unit for ~$50 to my door. As you can see, it slides into my 20T press quite nicely.

Put a hunk of metal in between the ends of the C, and start pressing.

There's a chart or formula somewhere that mentions how many tons to make how big of a hole in how thick of material, but I don't have one handy.

It could be a faster way to make a bunch of plain old round holes vs. using the drill press. Arguably a bit more accurate - particularly than my battered Chinese press. ;)

More fun that just making plain old round holes like you can with a drill.. get something like the obround die I bought mine with, and you can make slots.

To make the hole I just punched with my prior equipment, I'd probably try to drill two 1/2" holes next to each other (in something that resembles a straight line) and then use my die-grinder with carbide burr to make the two holes into a slot.

No way to make that as clean as the punch did.

Want some more fun? You can buy square dies. Or start dies. Or various other shapes and sizes.

Haven't found louver dies for something like this yet, and there's still the problem than I can't get a hood between the uprights of my press... :D

[4x4extreme]

There's a chart or formula somewhere that mentions how many tons to make how big of a hole in how thick of material, but I don't have one handy.




here ya go (http://www.unipunch.com/products/UniPunch%20Catalog/TheHoleThing110.pdf)

[D60]

That's kinda cool. Where did you get it?

As far as tons of pressure, don't ironworkers work so well because of their speed, ie, they're not slowly loading up? Isn't this kinda like "shock loading" or similar? Point being, does it actually take more force when slowly loaded?

Nice Homier press :flipoff2:

[fabcam]

Here is another way to reduce tonnage. As the chart shown on a previous post, the larger the tool the more tonnage is required. A way to reduce the tonage is to punch it with a smaller hole at the same spot and then come back and hit it with the bigger punch. This will allow some of the deflection to go into the 1st hole and reducing the tonnage needed.

[tsm1mt]

That's kinda cool. Where did you get it?


Ebay. I've seen them there from time to time. Freight is spendy - they weigh in from 20 to 50lbs.


Nice Homier press :flipoff2:

$100, 20T, no freight. Beats HF! :D

So, from the chart, a 1/2" hole in 1/8" flat is around 5Tons.

My die is an "obround" 1" long by 1/2" wide, so at least two 1/2" hole together, plus a little.

So a bit over 10T to punch the slot in 1/8".

1/2" hole in 1/4" is almost 10T.. so it would seem, assuming the die is up to the job, I might be able to punch the 1/2"x1" slot into 1/4".. but that's as far as I can go with a 20T setup.

OTOH, I could get another die and make 1/2" round holes in 3/8" plate with tonnage to spare.

Roughly, the limits on my 20T press would be a 2" round in 1/8", 1" round in 1/4", 3/4" hole in 5/16", 5/8" hole in 3/8" plate, and I might punch a 1/2" hole in 1/2" plate.

Since dimpling should take a lot less tonnage than punching, it looks like I could (with a set of dimple dies) dimple just about any sized hole 1/8" or less material - the very material that dimpling is effective on.

[D60]

Yeah, so the next question is - as you asked - can you get more dies??

[tsm1mt]

Yeah, so the next question is - as you asked - can you get more dies??

I was told they're readily available at around $20 each, and the company is still in business.. but I have yet to find an online vendor where I can actually see the dies, the price, and click "BUY" :D

[jeepguy616]

Well not sure if this pertains to this unit. I am a die maker and to find out what gauge material you can use it is pretty much a 10% ratio. Take the feeler gauges and slide between the punch and die when they are shut togther. Take that and that is 10% of the thickness of the steel to run in it. Say a .010 feeler goes in then the optimum thickness is to be .100 thick.

Also to punch out things with less tonnage if you sharpen the punches on a angle
1 1/2 to 2 times the thickness of steel the punch will act like a shear unlike having it use up all the tonnage and then break off. It also helps to reduce wear on the punch and die.

Not a bad little unit. You could make tabs and brackets with it and if you know some one that works in a tool room that has a wire burn machine you can make custom punch and dies for it? Hope this helps good luck.

[chumly2071]

A company I used to work for had hundreds of these. for non changing panels with lots of holes (obviously narrow parts due to the limit of the throat depth), they would build a mounting plate for several of the unitool bodies, and punch all of the holes at once in a press or if the tonnage was not too big a press brake. it made adding/removing holes in similar parts very easy, and the cost was a LOT cheaper than conventional hard piercing dies. things that changed a lot got run through the lasers or turret punches. not sure where to buy them, but they are definitely available.

[xdriver]

Quote "OTOH, I could get another die and make 1/2" round holes in 3/8" plate with tonnage to spare."

I would not recommend that. I am a fabricator by trade and you should NEVER punch a hole with a diameter SMALLER THAN THE MATERIAL THICKNESS. If you do you run the risk of breaking the punch and injuring yourself.
I would also not recommend punching a pilot hole first to lesson the tonnage required as first you lose accurracy since you no longer have a center punched mark to locate the hole. Secondly without that accuracy you run the risk of punching a partial hole....another NO NO that can break tooling and injure the operator.

[jstarnes]

Quote "OTOH, I could get another die and make 1/2" round holes in 3/8" plate with tonnage to spare."

I would not recommend that. I am a fabricator by trade and you should NEVER punch a hole with a diameter SMALLER THAN THE MATERIAL THICKNESS. If you do you run the risk of breaking the punch and injuring yourself.
I would also not recommend punching a pilot hole first to lesson the tonnage required as first you lose accurracy since you no longer have a center punched mark to locate the hole. Secondly without that accuracy you run the risk of punching a partial hole....another NO NO that can break tooling and injure the operator.


been there done that! flying bits of tool steel are not your friend :flipoff2:

[xdriver]

Yeah Man.....A sheet metal shop I worked in for a long time broke a press brake die bending like 10 gauge once....the guy got big shards of tool steel in in his arm and had to get A LOT of stitches. Doing unsafe stuff with Hydralic Presses of any kind is WELL...UNSAFE...LOL.

[PTSchram]

Doing stuff with Hydralic Presses of any kind is WELL...UNSAFE...LOL.

Fixed it for you :flipoff2:

Damn things scare me to death and I'm fearless.

As far as flying tool steel, I still have half a tap in my chest from one that exploded last summer.

[xdriver]

ouch!

[tsm1mt]

Quote "OTOH, I could get another die and make 1/2" round holes in 3/8" plate with tonnage to spare."

I would not recommend that. I am a fabricator by trade and you should NEVER punch a hole with a diameter SMALLER THAN THE MATERIAL THICKNESS. If you do you run the risk of breaking the punch and injuring yourself.
I would also not recommend punching a pilot hole first to lesson the tonnage required as first you lose accurracy since you no longer have a center punched mark to locate the hole. Secondly without that accuracy you run the risk of punching a partial hole....another NO NO that can break tooling and injure the operator.

Just so I'm positive here..

You said "don't punch a hole with diameter SMALLER than material thickness"

In this case, I was talking of a 1/2" hole (1/2" diameter) in 3/8" (less than 1/2")

Does this work? Or did you mean less than the radius (1/4" radius IS less than 3/8" thickness).. but that would seem odd, since no one has suggested my 1/2x1 "obround" die is a bad thing for 1/8"..

Just wanna be clear on the do's n' don'ts..

Thanks,

-Tom

[4x4extreme]

no he is saying not to punch a 1/4" hole in 3/4" plate

[tsm1mt]

no he is saying not to punch a 1/4" hole in 3/4" plate

That's what I thought he was trying to say, it just didn't make sense with the example. :D

Don't punch little holes in thick metal.

[Benny]

I need one of those things to punch 1 1/4" holes in 1/2" plate.

It would take about 50 tons :eek: I have a 55 ton press, but no way would I do that :eek: