It used to be common practice for metal cutting and forming dies to be made by tracing the desired profile on a block of steel, rough cutting near the profile, and finishing the die by filing up to the line with a die filer machine. The machine moved the file for you, your job was to move the part around and stay within the lines.
That process has mostly become irrelevant to manufacturers thanks to carbide tooling, CNC, and EDM processes, but it's still handy for the hobbyist who needs to make a non-round hole in something. Sadly the files for machines like these are tough to get, and your ordinary hardware store files are seldom useful because they are tapered. Thankfully I at the rate I work this assortment will last most of my lifetime.
1 comment:
Now that is really cool! Keep 'em clean and dry!
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