You can machine any part of those dies with a good carbide bit. Your die
clearance is not large enough. It should be one sixteenth larger for 3/8
material. With a new sharp punch and 1/16 difference in diameter you should
not have to worry about a burr.
Your hydraulics may be grunting with the 32nd clearance. If you were
punching 1/8 or under then I would go to a 27/32 die. The other precaution
with such a small clearance is that if your puch shifts or your bottom die
holder shifts the punch will take out the edge of the bottom die.
Randy

"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...
I'm in the middle of a job which involves punching 13/16" holes in 3/8"
A36 steel. As I didn't have a 13/16" punch and a 27/32" die, I bought one
from my local stocking Cleveland distributor. However, he didn't have a
die
of the correct height for my machine. The one he sold me *almost* works
but
really needs to be about 1/8" lower.

I'm wondering if I set this up in my 9" South Bend lathe's chuck, can I
face
a Cleveland Steel Tool ironworker die's back side (not the side the punch
enters, rather the side the slug falls out of) using carbide tooling? I
can
surface grind it later to get it dead flat again. But I don't have any
idea
how hard these dies really are.

I can order a new one online, of course, but I want to get this job out.

Grant Erwin
Kirkland, Washington