"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
I need to figure out a way to punch out shapes from .025 aluminum sheet.
I've got the little taig mill of course, but I'm thinking it will be
incredibley slow, and if the project works I'll want to punch a lot of
them. The shape is roughly triangular with an outside shear length of
approximately 6 inches.

I also considered the idea of making some kind of punch that I could use
in my press, but I haven't any idea how to start or what material to use
for the punch itself. Also, I am thinking something as slow as a
hydraulic press is going to tear and distort the metal rather than punch
it out. I made a couple of custom punches out of some stainless rod stock
for another project a while back and even for paper they only lasted a
very short time.

Going back to the idea of using the mill. What do you think is the most
aggressive cut and cutter I could use? The spindle RPM maxes at 10,000
and my max IPM is about 30 for rapids, but with any force for feeding is
20. I have a couple details on the cut that could double as holding tabs
and be cut as a seperate operation.

Weeeeeelll.... I think I'm gonna give punch making a try again. I got to
thinking about it and its not much different than using a slug buster. A
tool of which I have a couple. One hydraulic and one manual. The key being
I'll have to design my irregular shape slug buster to use a c-clamp type
configuration instead of a bolt through configuration.