Raindrop pattern dies?

Will52100

Will52100

Joined
Dec 4, 2001
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Anybody ever made raindrop dies? Thinking of taking a 1" thick or so block of steel and drilling a bunch of holes in it and pressing rounded pins in and then welding the plates to larger keeper plates for my press. If the pins wear out shouldn't be to hard to knock them out and replace them.

Pics, ideas, or just buy a rather expensive set from coal iron works?

Thanks
 
Plates with through holes-smaller than the balls

Ball bearing balls set on top of the holes.

Plate set on top, flip the sandwich over.
Clamp together

Preheat in your toaster oven 400-500 degrees what ever she will do.

Plug weld the bearings in the holes with stainless rod.
They sell high dollar "maintenance rod" but really it's probably just 312. 308 or 309 would probably work

Post heat and slow cool down toaster oven.

The pre/post heat and stainless rod is so the balls don't crack

Their website shows they made the pins with mild steel.
That would work too.

with the price of those dies, I support DIY.
 
Wouldn't it be hard to keep the pattern random if the dots are always in the same layout? Raindrop with a repeating pattern would look weird to me...I like it random.
 
Could you not just do like on a folder detent ball and press fit them in? With the heated piece being softer they wouldn't press in farther into the die piece. You could place them into the die randomly so your pattern is still random but get the same on each individual piece you do
 
Count, you've got a good idea there, and I think combined with Jrmysell's idea of pressing the bearing is good. Drill thru holes smaller than bearing, this would allow the bearings to stay in place while pressing. The drilled hole allows the weld to come from back side so it's not on the front with possible problem of messing with pattern.

Now, what would be the size bearing to use? 1/4"? 3/8"? 1/2"?

When pressing the pattern, how deep should the bearing be pressed into the billet? I understand when pressing the pattern the result should be ground off to expose the pattern.

Are two bearing dies required so the pattern is pressed on both sides at same pressing time? OR, could a single bearing die be used as top die with a flat die as bottom die, press one side, then flip and press other side? Would that work? If it would that would save having to make two bearing dies.

Thanks for starting this thread.

Ken H>
 
Ken H> said:
Now, what would be the size bearing to use? 1/4"? 3/8"? 1/2"?
Click to expand...
Depends on the size of raindrops you want. If I were to do this, I'd use a combination of all. Just make sure they are all on the same plane so they all contact the surface of the billet at the same time.
Ken H> said:
When pressing the pattern, how deep should the bearing be pressed into the billet?
Click to expand...
Depends on how you are going to finish the billet. IIRC the standard answer for this and ladder patterns (from Jim Hrisoulas's book I think) is 1/3 the depth of the billet.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, gives me some ideas, especially since I've got quite a few odd ball bearings.
 
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