"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.

Probably too late to be of use, but here's my $0.02 worth. Not sure if your
machine will take such a load, but carbide should be capable of machining
that material. About the only common tool steel carbide isn't great for, in
my limited experience, is HSS. Hardened O1 machines fairly easily with
carbide tooling, but tool life is normally pretty short.

Taking 1/8" off using a surface grinder wouldn't be too hard of a job
though. I would definately plunge grind, forget about the cross-feed. Using
a 46 grit 6" wheel on a 6x18 grinder, one could probably have the process
completed in less than 15min. Coolant is certainly necessary as you run a
significant risk of burning your die (leading to very short edge life).

HTH.

Regards,

Robin