Dimple dies

[rockcrawln]

I was looking at dimple dies the other day and started wondering why no one has Incorporated some kind of hole punch into the dies so that its a 1 shot operation? I know cutting holes with a hole saw in sheet metal can be tricky and the dimple dies them selves are already made of hardened tool steels so why not put a hole punch die on the bottom?

Am I missing something here? Sorry if this sounds stupid.

[Pook]

the required tonnage needed to punch that size of a hole is probably more than most people have at their disposal.

[Nordic1]

You need like 50 tons to punch cleanly (I think I read that somewhere on here... I could be wrong).

[Todd W]

Look up "Iron Worker" on google you can punch hole with 45 tons and up depending on thickness.

[JESSE_at_TLT]

Someone already makes them (Mittler Bros?), but they only work with really thin sheetmetal. They need to be registered correctly too, which is difficult without an iron worker because there's no pilot hole to align the dies.

[rockcrawln]

Yeah... I saw those and they are only good to 16 ga. I see dimple dies that are good to .120. What if you drilled a 1/2" hole thru the material 1st to align the 2 dies then pressing them in a shop press. I don't know, maybe I am trying to over complicate something that already works well.

[SJ410Rocker]

You may not always need to dimple a hole. I guess it would be more practical to have two different dies so you have the option.