1972 Mazda Rx2- Moves to a new home

Started with the blanks for the two side panels. Milling machine got two long production runs coming up, so I jumped in after work. Punched some 12mm holes into oversized blanks,so that they correspond with bolt holes in the table. Bolted the two blanks and a sacrificial plate to the table. Then milled in a series of 6mm holes. Basically, sent a 4mm milling cutter orbiting down corkscrew style so it cuts a 6mm hole. Nice round holes,no burrs, and doesn't try pull the plate up when you go through.



Then trimmed off some of the excess. Still oversized. Will trim to final size once all forming complete.






Bit of oil and all ready for action at the weekend

Nice !!

Looks like I will have to come supervise at the weekend.

Not that you need it, seems you,can get up to enough mischief on your own.

Started out today by stripping the tool. Took the springs out and put the inserts with the full profile in.


First blank in ready for preforming



Preforming complete



Then stripped the tool,changed inserts and added a shim to the one insert





Pressed that side,then stripped tool again and changed inserts for other side

So, all in all,not a bad day



Nearly there!

^^
Following an incident with the dentist earlier in the week ,where he was intent on pulling my jaw out of my smile due to a tooth deciding even though it was past its sell buy date,it had no intentions of leaving,I have been on painkillers and antibiotics since. For the life of me, this morning I couldn't work out which was left or right as I started setting up.... So, before I landed up with two of the same hand, I decided to do a Debbie !

That looks amazing one day maybe next week you'll find some time to post some more jaw dropping work

I feel a bit stupid coming on here every post you do Johnny, but your work is just so bloody impressive.

The old term "n boer maak n plan" takes on a whole new meaning here.

So, as luck would have it, yesterday wasn't such a good day after all. The warning bells should have rung when I had to cut the forming plate. They should have rung again when the punching tool for the lower cutout was really awkward to position. All looked good until I did this....



That lead to this.....






Grrrrr

So, apart from a couple of days work landing up in the skip, it was still a good day. Grizz popped in for a cup of coffee and a bit of a natter early afternoon. Always good to chat with a proper petrolhead...

So, back to why everything landed in the skip....
Couple of reasons. Bottom line? Me. I cocked up..
Feast your eyes on this



Something that I posted before. The tool to punch the cut outs in the panel. Now,when you make a punching tool, you need to be able to align the punch half with the die half. Couple of ways of doing this. In this case I have used dowel pins. The dowel pin holes have been machined into the blank to give me a positive location for the cutouts. The two cutouts have different dowel pin spacing so you can't punch the wrong profile in the wrong position The thinner the material, the closer the fit the two halves need to be. If the two are not aligned/ guided, they will hit each other and it's game over. Now, if you look at the two profiles on that tool, you will see they are not symmetrical. Hence the three dowel pins. The top tool has two corners with big radii and two with small. If you put the two halves together even 90 degrees out, it would be goodbye. So, three dowel pins, it can only go together one way. Can never assemble the tool wrong and hit the two halves together. Great....

Now look at the bottom tool. Very similar,but this time the corners have the same radii, it's just not symmetrical around the centre line. Here lies the problem. It's got three dowels so it can only go together one way. You can't put the two halves together wrong and muller the tool. So,what's wrong? You can put the tool together with either half going on either side of the blank.



So, the two halves cannot be assembled wrong and vandalise themselves to death, but you can get the location wrong. How could I avoided this? If I had rotated all the holes 90 degrees it wouldn't have happened. If I had had one hole adjacent to the little bump,and the other two holes on the other side it wouldn't have happened. That little semi circle that protrudes into the cut out should be on the opposite side. It still needs to be drilled, but it secures a plastic panel to the inside.


The other thing wrong, was I pressed the rectangular dimples in from the wrong side. Knew it would be tight, but should have realised before I cut the forming plate that something was wrong.

Anyway, what's done is done. No one will remember in a years time. In a way, I am glad I ballsed it up. Good to keep you focused. Next little tool I make, I will pay more attention to locating dowels. I also wasn't overly happy with the profile at the bottom. The tool is a success. It does the job. I can tweak it a bit by machining two mm of the one punch and putting a 2 mm shim in the die. I also want to change the profile slightly, again, not a huge effort.

So,a bit of tweaking and seconds out, round number two...