cold forming

[deltap]

I have formed a few rope thimbles to see if I could do it. Given the equipment I have, shop press and Hossfeld bender, is there a way to speed this up? Could it be done all in one shot on the bender. The material is .080 304 ss. This is only for small quantities not for long production runs. Thanks in advance.

[Rich Carlstedt]

I think you did good with the tools on hand.
As you found out, the requirement is for movement in two different axis's and retention/removal in a third axis.
To do all that in one shot requires a complicated die and the needed motion power.
In industry this could be done with a "Four Slide" machine quite rapidly.

You could weld the side guides onto the punch block to save the need for vicegrips.
Your strip guide on the die is good

Rich

[garyhlucas]

Looks pretty good to me as well. I think I'd change out the Jack on the press to an air over hydraulic one, or even convert it with a HF air powered hydraulic pump that has a foot pedal. We are using one on our Hossfeld with a HF portapower cylinder to push the Hossfeld on stock sizes that are just too much to do by hand. So if you went the air pump route a portapower could be added later.

I think I'd split the first bending die into two halve and hold the top half down with a pin through the shaft that you pull to get the part off the mandrel. That makes the bend one operation.

A convex roller for the tail support instead of the flat plate would likely hold the shape better and reduce bending force. Putting a convex edge on the adjustable block would help too.

I used to bend 1-1/4" x 1/4" hot rolled flat bar the hard way into a C shape on the Hossfeld. We limited the two guys on the 12 foot bar to only 200 pieces per day. We did maybe 3000 that way before we acquired a press brake and made tooling for that.

[Paul Alciatore]

That looks like a good job. Not sure you are going to improve it much for small quantities.

But what I want to know is how many did you have to make before you got the ends to come out even? I'm sure I would have needed at least three or four tries.

[kf2qd]

It could be done easier, the question is, is it worth the money. Adding more hydraulics and more pieces parts would make it more complex also...

Unless you really need high production I think you have done well. If you need bunches you can probably buy them cheaper.

[kendall]

I'm with the others, unless you need higher production, you really couldn't do a lot more without investing more time/money.
If you have use for hydraulics elsewhere, or think you may have later, then yeah it would be faster and easier to convert the press.

[boslab]

I think you did a hell of a job, yes I know you can buy them, but you can buy anything can't you, making it is the whole idea, well it is to me, it's a challenge, nice job
Mark

[JRouche]

Yup. I like it. Thats how I do it. I built a small lift jack press. Works great. Have welded up a few, not many, "dies" Homemade dies. They work great. So does yours. JR

P.S. Too many years ago I used to work in a metal forming company. I was the grunt (read unskilled) labor. But learned a lot. Learned how to use a file, prolly the best training. I had to file many TIG weld joints smooth, all day, loved it. I was good. Then the press brake. We had two. One beast at 150 tons and a smaller "computer controlled head" brake at 25 tons. Both twelve feet in width. Used a top die and a bottom die just like yours. Prolly moved just as slow also I like your process.