making a steel female die from CNC machined male die?

[xaco]

hello everyone, i am trying to make jevwelry die in steel to make a hollow object,like ,lets say a heart. I made a male part of the die(a half of 3D heart shape sticking out),in steel on CNC,now i want to make female part. i dont want to make it on CNC but i want it to be in steel(untill now i would just cast liquid resin to get female part).....is there any chance taht some steel can be soften to degree taht i push with my press(up to 10 Tons) and get a female die? anyone know the procedure? some 150 years old procedure? i cant melt steel.. thank you

[HughF]

Funny I should stumble upon this post. My dad is a semi retired coin and medal maker. What you want to achieve is called 'hobbing' and a normal hydraulic hobbing press is about 750 tonne.

My dad's dies, for thin sheet stamping of plaques are always cut in the negative from a resin positive on a pantograph machine, controlled by hand. We cut them in 'grane' a swedish tool steel or 'tyssen 2767' they are then hardened under vacuum.

We use them on a 1880's drop hammer, what press do you have?

[xaco]

Originally Posted by HughF We use them on a 1880's drop hammer, what press do you have?

hi..i use cheep italian manual hydraulic press,its 20T press,in shop its sold as 12T and when u buy they tell u "dont go over 10T"...................... do u maybe know what tool can make the most smallest details and angles in steel?..cos i bought piramyd carbid tool with 0.01(the smallest) tip from bitsandbits.com but it arrived broken(from custums)so i couldnt try it...now i have some cheep hong kong v-bits.... and i have a problem cos when male and female dies push into eachother ,the material (silver,gold 0.2mm sheet) starts to break on edges...is tehre eny step taht should be done to achive like "deep drownig" efect...? once i asked in profi company in italy how much would cost a progressive (bend and cut) die for a simplest shape...lets say teardrop half ...they said 600euros-like..800$... but i guess they need to have 5th axis to do that,cos teardrop half is on edge perpendicular to base....do u know if that can be cast somehow? cos i casted some in sand but in bronze that shrinked diferently...

[HughF]

How deep are you drawing? if it's as rolled sheet then it will crack for sure, is it fully annealed?

[xaco]

Originally Posted by HughF How deep are you drawing? if it's as rolled sheet then it will crack for sure, is it fully annealed?

i dont deep drow when i make half of hollow object..its fully annealed,but even a dead soft cupper breaks...problem is taht when i am making hollow object thats rounded,like teardrop,engles on edge r perpendiculr to base..there is that breaks on the end,there is too streched material...for example.i have male and female die...i wanna make hollow heart(i make more complicated,but let say i wanna make heart)..so my dies will make 1 doomed half ..but edge where is that "V" part of "heart" will strech too much and brake.... so i rather 1. put a sheet over male die and push it with urethane sothat urethane pusshes down the material rather than do it with female die taht would strech material...so i thought to make 1. step die that would push sides of hear 1. and than proceede with female die....cos female die streches material... i do deep drawing too but tahst othe thing...i anneal material but cos its 0.2mm a litlle strech breakes it...i bought "die makers handbook" J.Arnold but i didnt find much i could use...

[morehelium]

For gold and silver of 0.2mm thickness why not try using hard urethane as the female die? if the draw is shallow it might work.

You might need to try different hardnesses, but its worth a shot.

Chris

[xaco]

Originally Posted by morehelium For gold and silver of 0.2mm thickness why not try using hard urethane as the female die? if the draw is shallow it might work. You might need to try different hardnesses, but its worth a shot. Chris

its good for simple things and i used it,but now i wanna get extra detail,surface detail on female die...,problem with my urethane (80durometers) is that i heard it can be compressed to 1/3 as i remember,but when i get to taht point i still dont have enough pressure to get fine detail on surface...and problem is also taht the cilinder streches from the center...so i dont get rite angle on the outer borders... lead is also good gos pressure is vertical and goes deep......i used also derlin female die cos its a bit strechy so u dont need to do exactly offseted measure,and its faster to mill it..... but i want steel,i want high detail dies ...