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I Forge Iron

New toy finally arrived!


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That's a real nice new puppy. As a safety note, when punching holes, don't try to punch a hole that's smaller than the thickness of the plate. ( don't try to punch a 3/16 hole in 1/4 plate). A buddy was trying this, the punch exploded, the shrapnel dented the 6 inch steel ruler in his apron pocket, which was just in front of his heart....

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Nice machine looper! I want one!!:) Good point, Mike. Also, make sure the male and female die are properly aligned. This isn't as much of a problem on new machines and/or round dies but on older machines they don't always line up with out a little tweaking. Square or slotted holes especially need good alignment. When one of these dies break "Murphy" will certainly be lurking! He just loves iron workers ;)

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Yeah, shouldn't be a problem with punch breakage since the heaviest material I will be working in this is 7ga. mild steel. I've been running these for 22 years and have never broke a punch except for a few 1/4" punches on the CNC Turrets while nibbling (before CNC Plasma and Waterjet became so popular). These machines are pretty tight, and my punch tolerances aren't excessive, so the burrs are minimized. As long as shear blades aren't abused and kept sharp, the edge burrs are minimal as well. If the rake is adjusted properly and you keep your punch oiled, there should be virtually zero deformation. Punch alignment should be checked EVERY time you change out a punch/die set, adjustment is as easy as loosening and tightening 2 bolts. Clean up is simply a matter of dragging a deburring blade across the edge quickly.
I've used some clapped-out, abused units that left some nasty burrs, but these Unihydro Ironworkers are some of the nicest (cost/quality) machines I've used. The gloves are a good idea any time you work sheet metal, but I never wear them while punching.

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  • 2 years later...

Congratulations!
That's a beautiful machine.
I bought a 55 ton Edwards about 4 years ago, don't know how I lived without it. What I love about an ironworker is it takes so much time out of some of the "dumb" fab stuf that I don't like to do. Time saved = better profit and more time to spend on more important stuf.

That puppy will last you your lifetime, just do all the grease, lube stuf your manual says to do. :)

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