Heavy duty die holder

[Brian Rupnow]

I have a story to tell. It starts out very sad, but it has a happy ending. My old die holder, which was a hand me down from my father, gave up the ghost. It was a junky piece, part of a junky set, and I wasn't sad when it finally died. I went over to my tooling supplier, and bought a nice brand new one. I had a 1/2"-13 bolt which I needed a longer thread on, so I took my 1/2"-13 die, and my nice new die holder, and set out to do so. It was very tough going, and I thought maybe I'd grown weak from being so old. So--I did what countless dumb-asses have done over the ages, and put a piece of pipe over each end of the new die holder. No consideration was given to the thought that my 1/2"-13 die was part of the original junky set, and was duller than a hoe. This is the result. I deserved it, for doing a dumb thing.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I thought about returning it to the vendor and lying like Hell about putting pipes over the handles, to see if he'd give me another one. I couldn't do it. If I tell a lie, its going to have to be for something a lot more expensive than a $15 die holder.--But wait!!!---I'm a design engineer, right? I'll design one and build it. So, I did.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I found a piece of 1/2" x 1 1/2" steel flatbar, and laid out the shape of the center piece. Then, while it was still rectangular and easy to hold in my milling vice, I drilled and bored the center pocket for the die, and two 1/2" holes that would eventually become slots. I then cut out the shape with my bandsaw, smoothed it up on my giant stationary belt sander, and drilled the three #10-24 holes for grub screws to hold the die.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Next thing to do was cut two pieces of 1/2" cold rolled for handles and weld them into the center plate. Darn I love my mig welder!!

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Next amazing stunt was to grind of all the extra weld and polish things up a little. Wowser, it looks great. It would take four men and a bulldog to bend this one. So, for the low, low price of $5 for material, I have a new heavy duty die holder. Never mind the fact that if I charged for my time it would be worth well North of $150. See--Told ya the story was going to have a happy ending.

 

[Ghosty]

What we can do when we put our mind to good use, as you say, waste a couple of hundred dollars(time) to make a $15 dollar tool. I made up one for the smaller dies because no one could supply one.

 

[Gordon]

All of us have been there. Spent hours building a $10 part. It gets worse when we retire.
Reminds me of one of my customers years ago who started to use Autocad. He said that he could make a 10 minute sketch is 2 hours.

 

[kinggt4]

Brian,

Always enjoy your efforts. Did you finally get the threads cleaned up?

George

 

[rmd55]

Thanks Brian.
Just what I need, but up sized for 1 1/2" dies
Richard

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Brian,

You’ve failed ! Those handles should be threaded into the holder.

And knurled.

 

[tornitore45]

Hi Brian,

You’ve failed ! Those handles should be threaded into the holder.

And knurled.

I am not sure that would be better.
The thread places stress concentration point in the worst possible spot.
Knurling in a spot where some hefty pull may be required just tear up your hands.

Through the description I was wandering why did he cut a slot instead of drilling a 1/2" hole, then I saw the welding and made a lot of sense.

 

[BaronJ]

Yes it is actually quite a nice tool. I do agree with you about stress concentration points. Welding as he has done provides more support for the handles.

Since Brian obviously intended to weld the arms in from the start, but I would have still knurled the handles though.

I hope he realised that my comments were not serious.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Baron--Of course I thought you were serious. I don't know you. I don't know that you are trying to be funny. I take every post at face value when I read it.---Brian

 

[BaronJ]

Apologies Brian if you were offended, I would have thought that the smilies would have given me away. In truth the only criticism was the comment about knurling the handles.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Baron--I find it much easier and quicker to weld things together, as long as I'm sure it never has to come apart for any reason. I have three different kinds of welding machines, and find welding much quicker than threading. As far as knurling is concerned--I never thought of it. I do knurl things that have to be adjusted by turning them in or out, but on something like the die holder handles it never entered my head. I'm not offended. Pissy sometimes, but not offended.---Brian

 

[petertha]

I made something similar a while back, mostly orientated to lathe threading using the tailstock face as a guide. Most of the modern cast/forged handles are really crappy. My idea was that the handles could just pop into closely fitting holes - short handles for lathe work clearing the bed, longer handles for bench work. If I need to keep them intact, there is a set screw in the body which engages in a detente. The torque is taken up between the surface of the round handle & its hole, so as long as its close fitting all is good. Kind of like a wrench face acting on a bolt head. If I made another one I would use even bigger diameter stock for more meatiness around the handle, but it was scrap on hand. The handles are O1.

It was kind of a design-as-you go type deal but the ID fits the die OD much better. One thing I noticed is that dies vary all over the map in terms of where the various set screws are located. Their retention countersinks can be at different angles. Some have a cross screw across the opening slit, others want it open &retained with a conical set screw. So have a look at some specs or the dies in your arsenal & make a few more set screw holes to accommodate them all.

 

[Tim1974]

Lol we all get pissy sometimes I recon you did a good job and will last for years job well dun

 

[harborfreight8x12]

I love it. I did the exact same thing you did by breaking my cheap Harbor Freight die handle and made a new one out of scrap on hand. The handles are LocTite red threaded and I didn't knurl it because I didn't consider it necessary, after all, it's for a cheap tap and die set that's only good for chasing threads, not serious cutting.