DIY die holder for Roper Junior No5 hand punch

[zelph]

Take one of your dies over to an auto supply store and search through the lug nuts till you find one that is the same size of the die thread.

Take a piece of Maple wood, drill an appropriate size hole in to fit the lug nut. Use some "bondo" to embed the lug nut into the hole. Place the block of wood on your drill press table, place punch in chuck and tighten. Lower punch toward die in block, line it up in the die, clamp block of wood to table. Raise die and lower several times to be sure punch is ligned up.

I made that set-up many years ago and it works great.

Enjoy!!!!

[DarenN]

the thread on the No. 5 dies is 7/16 x 20 T.P.I.

[zelph]

the thread on the No. 5 dies is 7/16 x 20 T.P.I.

Good to see you Daren

How would you mount the die so it could be used in a drill press? same as a lug nut?

1 lug nut costs $2.00-$3.00

Cost of a die????

[DarenN]

the thread on the No. 5 dies is 7/16 x 20 T.P.I.

Good to see you Daren

How would you mount the die so it could be used in a drill press? same as a lug nut?

1 lug nut costs $2.00-$3.00

Cost of a die????

thanks Zelph! it's good to be seen.

i like the idea of useing the drillpress as a punchpress. ingenious!
i don't know what the cost of a punch and die set would be, but i suspect that you could buy the hand punch kit c/w p&d sets for less than the cost of the p&d sets. i bought a 1/16" p&d set a few years ago, but that is a special size that doesn't come with the kit. it was pricey.

how would i mount the die? well....... i'm a metal worker, so i'd drill and tap a 1/2" thick steel plate to accept the die. the plate would only need to be about 2-3" wide by the diameter of the drillpress table. then; same as you; clamp (or bolt) the plate to the drillpress table. once mounted, you can change the p&d sets without haveing to adjust the center alignment. i'd also set the quill of the drillpress so that it can't over-travel and damage the die. a simple set of stops (back and side) could be clamped in place to make punching multiple holes repeatable.

Daren.........

[zelph]

Working metal is nice but wood is easy...................I like easy

Just think if we would take a tap and drill the appropriate size holes in a 3/4" maple board, like the stuff they use on floors, tounge and groved stuff and then use the tap to put the threads in. You could have as many holes as the amount of dies in a punch set.

It's nice to be able to have the drill press for the deep throat feature.

I think I'll order one of these taps for future use

http://www.ebay.com/itm/7-16-20-UNF-HSS ... 1c1e40305c

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Greenfield-7-16 ... 20b160b02e

http://www.ebay.com/itm/7-16-20-X-1-HSS ... 45fce5d483

Look at the deal on these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-taps-/32075 ... 8180838940