Thanks for the read Doc, interesting stuff. First off, I misspoke about the thickness of my blanks I think. I am using 12ga and according to his table that is equal to 0.150, so am I correct that it is a touch under 1/8"?
And yes my punch and die will have plenty of tolerance, the punch is approx. 8" and the die will be exactly 10" (prototype). And that leads me to answer in the affirmative to your question about the sides, and I also now know why you asked. They will yes be angled, and the author mentions that the walls of my blank may well be thicker where the bottom of the punch lands. I am sure the punch will come out of the blank easily. Not so sure about how much persuasion might be needed to extract the blank from the die.
I took some of that into consideration, and chamfered the punch. Lubrication is mentioned, so maybe I can oil the blank or die? I figured it might be difficult to remove the blank, and I was hoping that there would be some kind of "spring back". Sure enough, that too is mentioned in the article, and here I was thinking I myself coined that term. I may cut some slots in the die just so if it gets stuck, I could get something in there to pop it out.
I am not too concerned with the wrinkles you mention, and what the author refers to as "bend bulging". After all, we are moving next to the forge, then some hammering. I would not object to the skillet itself having a more rustic look anyway. Kind of want a nice flat bottom to it however.
I am thinking it would be nice to maybe make say, 500-1000 pcs, but in reality If I find a suitable press, I would probably start with 40 or 50 blanks.
holycow 1/4" Yeah we all agree I will need some heat.