Louver press upgrade... Interantional hood.

So some may have seen the thread a while ago on the building of my Louver press. Well it worked fine but sometimes didn't want to punch through nicely.



We have a '61 International hood that has been hanging around the shop. Chem Dye and a scribe and layout 5 rows. I went to louver it one day and it refused.



As beefy as the press was there was just to much flex and the damn International hood was to thick. So a few days ago I went about bracing the press a bit more so I can punch at will. Some 3/8 plate does the trick.



Well I go it all done and then decided I needed to do something to make it a one man job. Well it still takes 2 to load the hood, but then one person can punch it on up.



A few cheap rollers and some scrap and away we go.



Finish row one and email Bloody Knuckles a pic. I know he has a '61 and wanted to rub it in.



Punch Punch Punch...





5 Rows all pretty... Now to punch a customers '49 Shoebox hood...

 

Wow Zman that looks like it's really going to be a little slice of heaven. Now I don't have to take my shit home to Buffalo to get Louvers pressed! I'll swing by Raleigh when I need them.

Do you have different size dies?

 

Looks great!

 

Got a 3" and 4" right now. But I've got a buddy making two other sets for me right now. One is a more rounded 3" for the 30's and 40's stuff. Should have them in the next 2 weeks or so. The 3" one I have right now I can do a more rounded louver with by replacing the rubber insert in the female die. But I want to have a little different profile. With the thick rubber insert it's a little square for some body styles.



Shitty pic but you can see the difference.

 

Nice man, between you and Louverdude the vagabonds will be fully ventilated!

 

4 rows down on the 49 hood and 2 to go





I think it actually goes faster being able to do it solo.

 

looking good dude

 

Dude that's sick!

 

sweet!

 

Way impressed!

Dick!




BloodyKnuckles

 

good work, lovers for all..

 

any pics of the finished '49 hood? looks great by the way!

 

Why yes I am....

Got the other two rows to knock out this morning, then I'll put up some pics.

 

Super slick! I'd like to punch holes all over my '62, but that gets pricey if you have to pay a guy. Maybe the club can get together and build one of these babies. Nice work.

 

I wonder if rubber rollers would be a good idea, if you were to do it over? No scratching/slipping?

 

If you had a club, or even five buddies, $200 a piece or less, you would probably pay a lot more than that to have it done. Only problem, every thing in sight would end up with louvers in it!

 

Thats awesome, great jobs!

-Saint

 

Some of it is 1/4 some of it is 3/8, I used the 1/4 I already had where I didn't see a big need. Also had some 3/8 2x4 that is in there as well. The 3/8 will flex like a madman trying to punch 16 gauge.

Yeah and metal ain't cheap that's for sure, it adds up real quick. So I still need to to a few more hoods to recoup my investment.

Scratching bare metal? Both sides need to be stripped bare so I'm not worried. No Slipping issues either. As for rubber rollers, really not readily available or cheap. I can get cheap metal rollers all day long.

 

LOL, $1k won't even get you the ram, let alone the steel. The last time I added it up I had $2500+ in her, not counting the new dies, or the extra bracing. Plus the space it takes up, you can't just move it around, to damn heavy.

 

Is the weight of the hood & distortion from that weight an issue? Just wondering if the metal stretches after making a punch due to weight of the hood and there is now less area supporting becuasue you just punched a hole thru it? I hope i explained myself, not paricularly good at that. Thanks, oj

 

Nice work!

$1500 for tooling!!! If you can come up with a couple blocks of tool steel just make your own die. Carve out a positive & negative with a die grinder and angle grinder. Start with the positive side then dig out a cavity to match. Yeah, it'll take all day and $200 of materials, and yeah, you may scrap out a block or two. But when the buzzing in your hands stops a few days later, you can look back at your new louver dies with pride, then go spend $1300 savings in the champagne room. A "happy ending" indeed.

I saw a die being made a few years ago and have seen a bunch of panels it's louvered since. Really is a viable option.

Seek out a local surplus place that sells manufacturing equipment. They probably have a stack of useless industrial dies in the corner. One of em probably has some unboltable inserts that are perfect for louver die blocks. You don't wanna buy chunks of tool steel new.

good luck

 

The actual dies aren't the hard part, like I said I have a couple being made with different profiles. Heat treating them helps. The hydraulics is where they get you. Yeah you can put a rig together for less, but the cost of decent hydraulics is pretty high these days...

 

Some of the details of the Mittler Bros. help to keep bad things from happening. There is a spring loaded block that supports the metal as it is getting punched through. It helps to keep the metal in place while the die punches through then stretches the louver. Yeah the hood is weaker afterwards but it's just so damn cool....

 

if you find the need for rubber rollers you could switch to boat trailer rollers with a pc. of threaded rod using your brackets.

 

49 hood done...

 

shouldn't need rubber ones, but I looked at some here and they were $15 vs. $8 for the ones I got with brackets... Just went the easy way.

 

that looks great ZMAN! when you're pressing louvers on a '49 hood does it mess with the crown on the hood any?

 

Doesn't seem to. Personally I'd like to peak the hood, but it's not my call.

Pretty close, I varied a little bit, but can say overbuild it, it will flex.

Air over Hydraulic. Seems to be slow enough that you have some control. And makes it easy to do solo.

 

Ahh, "tooling" didn't mean just the dies did it? My bad

 

Bad ass man!