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