Mini Press DIE setup, Pictures

[JTknives]

Ok after much (days) thought i solved my die securing problem. I wanted it to be easy to remove but tight and not sloppy. so this is what i came up with and i must say it kicks A$$ . what do you think. i quickly heated up a 7/8" bar of steel to a dull red heat a gave it a squish. man it almost pinched the bar in half. The dies are made from HSS shanks cut off of broken 1" mill bits "rougher's". Let me tell you it was a pain in the butt to weld them as a cold weld kept cracking. so i finely just kept the ark on the joint till in glowed red then i started to weld. with the dies at a very very dull red thy finely welded and held great. so i now have a set of hardened HSS drawing dies . here are the pictures. thy are very secure and are not going any where unless i want them to. now to make some more dies

 

[Bruce Bump]

Thats a nice mini press. You are a much better welder than I am. I like the die holders but if they had a built on handle so you dont have to find the wrench each time they would be even better.

Those dies are super aggressive and would bury themselves in the steel with my press. Most drawing dies are almost flat and slightly rounded only. You may have to make some stops on yours so they can only squeeze down so much and stop.

I have used radical dies like those before and they make a wild pattern on random damascus. Almost zig zag pattern.

 

[JTknives]

Yes i am going to weld a bar on to the nut to use as a handle. or maybe make a threaded knob

 

[Keith_H]

Nice work! I missed what those pieces with the slot and nut are for. Did you see these dies? http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6595469#post6595469