Looks as though I will not be attending this one, have to leave that afternoon for a buisness trip.

Have fun at the show everyone.

Cheers,
Thom

I am going to see if I can make it to this one myself.

Cheers,
Thom

Let's go people we have a little over 9 days left till the show and the judging sign up is not looking so good lets see some of the regulars names hit that list.

Regards,
Thom

Z,

When the hell are you going to learn to spell, and I got your dip buddy.

Cheers,
Thom

(See how it is spelled)

Wish I had that kind of time.....

Thom

Hello Matt,

That is possible the only thing that would cause issues with that is the clearance on the holes in the prototype parts and the relative sharpness of the die plate. I will have to investigate this possibility.

Cheers,
Thom

JG,

It has to do with the hardness of the rubber, I can not remember off the top of my head what the durometer measurement of the ring is. As for using wood that would work as well if a hardwood but I think after a while there wood would have too many pockets in it from where you punched out the piece as where the rubber basically heals itself.

.028 is a standard size in most SAE allen key sets.

Let me know what your friend has to say.

Cheers,
Thom

JG,

Well I did a bit of a test here, took two allen keys that would not be missed and ground of the end creating a sharp end. I then took a scrap piece of styrene one 5 thousands thick and one 10 thousands thick. Using the rubber backing idea I was able to punch out some hex shapes.

The rubber disc is a sample I had from some vendor eons ago when I did a lot of design work the second is a common white rubber pencil eraser.





So the concept is sound but needs a little more work I also need to get the correct sizes of allen keys to match that of the Historex set.

Stay tune true believers...

Cheers,
Thom

JG,

It might work without a die, using a piece of vulcanized rubber as a backing plate would still provide enough stiffness but allow the styrene to be pierced. I'll have to find a spare couple of wrenches and grind the ends sharp to try. However I think I know how to make the die as well as the guide plate holes.

By using set screws one might be able to use the socket in the screws for both die and guide.

Cheers,
Thom

JG,

The four sizes that the Historex set can basically be found in a good allen key wrench set .028, .035, .050 and 1/16(.062) so I think they probably used allen key blanks to make the punches which can be purchased for as little as 25 cents a piece. However I do not think you could go much smaller then .028 and have the flats of the hex be seen without a magnifying lens, but you could go bigger. The smallest Plastruct hex rod I can get is .020 and I have to look twice to make out the flats.

I think I figured out how to make a set just have to design it up to make sure. 

Cheers,
Thom

JG,

I like to think of myself as more maniacally brilliant leaning towards tyrannical tendencies then just a sheer genius, but I digress here. Yes I have actually started to look to figuring out how to make a set the punches would not be hard to come by or make but I would like to see your set at some time to see how they did the die portion and the stripper plate (the clear plastic piece that sits on top of the die).

Then see what could be done to build a couple, to use as party favours and such..

Cheers,
Thom

Hello All,

Some of you may know this news already but I thought I would share it anyway.

I recently went out to the Historex Agents web site looking for their hex shaped punch and die set and saw that the web page said they were not available anymore. So I contacted them to find out if they were not producing them anymore or just out of stock and would have them again at a later time.

Well the information I received back from Historex is that the company that they had to produce the two punch sets the round and hex shapes were no longer going to produce them or as quoted from the reply "Sorry the company which made these for us has now stopped."

So unless someone else picks this up like Roll Models did when Waldron decided to retire and not produce the two round punch sets that made, we will not be seeing another set like this anytime soon which I hope I will be wrong on at some point in the future or unless you can find them on eBay.

And I was so looking forward to possible getting a set of them. 

Regards,
Thom

Hello Boyd,

Got your email and yes they are still available, sent you a reply email back.

Cheers,
Thom

Hello All,

A How-To was created by Iain and is now on the NMMA club website on the Workshops page, follow the link below to see this How-To.

http://www.ipmsnmma.org/workshops.htm

Cheers,
Thom

Hello All,

A How-To was created by Iain and is now on the NMMA club website on the Workshops page, follow the link below to see this How-To.

http://www.ipmsnmma.org/workshops.htm

Cheers,
Thom