Making parts on homemade "draw" dies

Fantastic job and very well documented. Thanks for taking the time to post this amazing tech.

 

Well done!!!!! Thanks for posting.

 

Very impressive!!

 

Nicely done sir! Who says you need a Pullmax for everything

 

Metalman thanks so much for sharing your talent with us. It never ceases to amaze me how much talent is on this site. I know it took a ton of time to take the pictures and give an explanation on each step and for that I thank you so much! I really enjoyed your article.

 

Hey Metalman, that is very cool, nice job and thanks for sharing with us.

 

Great tech, metalman! I love the ingenuity.


In order to keep your new dies from wearing out prematurely, you can get them hard chromed. It is quite common to hard chrome steel in industrial applications.

hard chrome is like normal decorative chrome, except that it is the only plating, no copper or nickel. It is also applied very thick onto a part to prevent wear (not to look pretty, it will actually be grayish,) as the chromium layer is extremely hard, and can be reapplied as needed.

Just an idea anyways.

 

Awesome! thanks for showing that.

 

Chromeplater, that sounds interesting but we don't have a chrome shop withen 300 miles of here + I dought I'll be making so many wear will be an issue.

Hey Uptown, haven't seen you in a while. Get that 3 window running yet?!

 

my 3window has ran and drove for years! just never finished it. Im still trying to finish my 32, but been working on house stuff for the last few months, but I am about to tear apart the 32 and start painting any day now.

 

That is awesome! Great work! There are alot of posibilities with this.

 

Metalman, if you could get your hands on some draw quality steel instead of cold role it might be easier to pull allthough it would be more expensive.
Slobroy.

 

Very clever man....
Some serious work into the dies huh...
Got my vote for tech week..,
Really glad ur a determined m'fr
Let me know when the 5w set is up for my coupe and I get u the cake....

 

Have you thought about hardening the dies? Polish them up then Heat and oil quench. I've got a couple of lathe centers I made years ago that I used cold rolled. I got them red hot and oil quenched them. Many years of service with little scarring from use.

 

I appreciate all the comments but I think you guys are missing the point here. Yes, I could of built better dies or sourced better materials, ect. The point I'm trying to make is I used some scrap lying around and made it worked for what I needed. No expensive materials, no high dollar mills or lathes. ect. Just wanted guys to see they can do a lot even if they're bucks down at the time!

 

How cool is it top have this much talent in one place to learn from.

Thanks Metalman.

 

Hey Zeke. Did think about heating and oil quenching but didn't want to hassle with the oil. I did water quench after welding, I think that alone made them harder then the steel I'm pulling. So far really no wear issues.

 

This to me, what you say here, is the very essence of rodding. Making what you have on hand work for you with thoughtful planning, patience, and skill. Usually the skill is learned via the process of making what you want with the little you have.

Metalman, fantastic tech pice and it belongs in the Tech Archive. I (and many others, I'm sure) truly appreciate you taking the time to document and clearly explain what you did and the reasoning behind the process. Great work in the actual fabrication as well as the writing.

Thanks again!!

 

I can predict the future; great throngs of rodders beating down your door!!!

The only thing I can add is, could you instead of using a come - along maybe have a helper pull it with the pick-up truck? Or would this be a recipe for disaster, as you'd have less control?

 

OK MAW....the chains hooked up..FLOOR IT! LOL yeah, recipe for sure!
I have thought about an electric winch however. The come-a-long isn't really that tough to pull, just get old after a couple hours. Cheaper then a gym membership! I think I'm going a cheaper route, a 21 year old son that owes me some money I'll never see anyway so I might as well let him work some of it off by a day or two of pulling. It would be good for him anyway.

 

Cold rolled steel (or hot rolled) won't harden. Not enough carbon in the alloy to take a temper. Welds great, because the weld won't harden.
You can carburize low carbon alloys which forces carbon into the metal.

Nice work on the dies!

 

I'm just a metal bender, not a metaloligest (?) or engineer so I won't argue with you but I was told once that was the purpose of quinching in oil, the oil would add carbon, least to a small degree. I also know that once cold roll is heated and water quinched it won't work quite the same as if it was air cooled so it must do something to it.

 

That is craziness. Awesome job, and thanks for sharing.

 

Best "Tech" post of the year so far!!!!! AWESOME!!

 

I think you are all three, NICE WORK!

 

A great post, thanks for sharing, feel blessed that God gave you such a mind to make this possible, some are not so blessed but still give it their 110%.

Vergil

 

cool!!

 

Awesome! Nice to see the truly old school techniques being used and getting results!

Tim D.

 

Very Cool, thanks for sharing!

 

nice job ! I bet there's a lot of 32`s out there that need drip rails.