Hydraulic Press Die Material

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cartierusm

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Feb 23, 2017
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I'm getting close to finishing my hydraulic press and was wondering what I need to make my dies out of?

I know on power hammers you want to use tool steel, but for the hydraulic press what should I use?
 
Mild steel works fine. The dies typically get very hot so any hardness you get from heat treating another steel will likely get tempered out. Dies on a press are a consumable and making them inexpensive allows you to replace them cheaply. If I had a very intricate die that took a bunch of machining I may invest in a more complex alloy but for standard dies mild is fine.
 
if its just squaring dies etc mild steel will work ok. If you make punches use H13.
 
Yup, mild is the way to go, punches would be H13. For squaring dies I use 3/8" thick angle iron and when they get deformed just put new ones on top. My flat dies started life as 2"x4"x6" flat bar and every so often I surface them down as even as thick as they are the surface gets mangled.
 
Huh. I was going to use 4140 because I have a pile of it. Even unhardened it will last longer than mild steel, but I didn't really consider how hot they would get. I don't really have access to surplus H13 anymore unfortunately.
 
Sure, but the only piece of 4340 I have is going to be a 20mm receiver one day ;)
 
One thing about forging dies that are made from mild steel. if your just forging Damascus at welding temp then they hold up fine..when you start just regular forging, especially larger stock at lower temps then those mild steel dies wont hold up long before they need dressed. The next set of forging dies we make will probably be something of a tougher alloy like 4340. press dies can get pretty hot but 4340 still holds almost 50rc up to over 520° and is still about 30rc at almost 700°..
 
Last couple of presses I've seen done up here have used scrap railroad rail. There's quite a bit of it laying about up here, so it's cheap to use.

kuraki said:
Sure, but the only piece of 4340 I have is going to be a 20mm receiver one day ;)
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Ooooo, tube gun build?
 
A number of years ago,I was told by Charles Ochs that he got hold of some of the steel they use for decking on offshore oil rigs in the Gulf. He used it for the dies on his 50 lb. Little Giant and said the stuff was nigh indestructible..
 
I've been thinking about trying some high alloy Damascus once I get my press built (my motor is no longer in a snow drift. ;)) I don't think mild steel would hold up, but I'm sure Devin Thomas can correct me if I'm wrong. I've been doing some searching for H13 steel.
 
Willie71 said:
I've been thinking about trying some high alloy Damascus once I get my press built (my motor is no longer in a snow drift. ;)) I don't think mild steel would hold up, but I'm sure Devin Thomas can correct me if I'm wrong. I've been doing some searching for H13 steel.
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we use a lot of h13 for punches. stuff in awesome, incredibly tough and stays that way at very high heats.
 
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