can someone point me where can i get some information on how to make a
steel die for permanent use.
it will be used to build stator & rotor elements of a homebrew
variable capacitor. working with scissors & blades is very
frustrating.
any help will be appreciated

I think you are talking about using a rule die cut out the same
shape repeatedly from light weight material.

For limited manual production you might look at one of these:
http://www.ellison.com/

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Keep the whole world singing. . . .
DanG


"Lefteris" wrote in message
om...
can someone point me where can i get some information on how to
make a
steel die for permanent use.
it will be used to build stator & rotor elements of a homebrew
variable capacitor. working with scissors & blades is very
frustrating.
any help will be appreciated

"Lefteris" wrote in message
om...
can someone point me where can i get some information on how to make a
steel die for permanent use.
it will be used to build stator & rotor elements of a homebrew
variable capacitor. working with scissors & blades is very
frustrating.
any help will be appreciated

I've been using J.A. Richard's rule dies for exactly your kind of
application. You cut the form in plywood, lay in rule dies, use an arbor
press for short runs like a clicker die only powered by your arm.
http://www.jarichards.com/dies.htm

Wayne
www.rcsailcars.com

http://www.bonnydoonengineering.com/...terior24.shtml

Dave Shelton makes inexpensive die cutters that might do the job.

Randy

"Lefteris" wrote in message
om...
can someone point me where can i get some information on how to make a
steel die for permanent use.
it will be used to build stator & rotor elements of a homebrew
variable capacitor. working with scissors & blades is very
frustrating.
any help will be appreciated

One thing you may want to consider for the bad parts (bent parts) that you
have made is to whack them with a hammer. I often do thin metal work with
tin snips and a gentle striking of the edge area afterwords cleans up the
edges of the metal very nicely without deforming the rest of the sheet. In
addition, curved pieces often respond very nicely when they are placed on a
flat piece of metal and struck firmly and evenly with a hammer.
Rule dies work on very thin metal (on the order of tin foil) but anything
thicker and the edge becomes dull very quickly. That is the time to go to
full dies and those can be a real bear to do if you want a full cut piece in
one step. Often just dividing up the cutting so that a center hole gets
punched first along with a pair of alignment holes and then going on to
other partial punches that have the alignment pins and punching the rest of
the part is the best way. For example, punch a full round and then shear
off a part of that round to make the half moon part.

--
Bob May
Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less.
Works every time it is tried!

You might save a lot of time & frustration by finding someone with a
horizontal milling machine. A friend of mine used to sell these
things to sign making companies, they're pretty slick. If you can CAD
up a drawing they should be able to carve out all your parts very
quickly, shouldn't cost that much. With a whole 4x8 sheet of metal
carved up you should be able to go into production .

Out of interest, how are you notching the grooves on the rotor shaft &
what are doing for the frame?

Howard.


On 18 Jan 2004 08:49:15 -0800, (Lefteris) wrote:

can someone point me where can i get some information on how to make a
steel die for permanent use.
it will be used to build stator & rotor elements of a homebrew
variable capacitor. working with scissors & blades is very
frustrating.
any help will be appreciated

"Lefteris" wrote in message
om...
can someone point me where can i get some information on how to make a
steel die for permanent use.
it will be used to build stator & rotor elements of a homebrew
variable capacitor. working with scissors & blades is very
frustrating.
any help will be appreciated
---------------
I had a laser cutting job shop cut up a whole sheet of Al into over 200
pieces for the $50 minimum. I supplied them with a cad drawing.
Don Warner
---------------