Need to think outside the box

Maplehead said:
I had 3D printed versions of my guitar pickup covers made... wanting these covers in nickel silver metal
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I'm not sure how nickel silver works in stamped sheet-metal (nickels are coined, though, so it can't be impossible),
but if you have 3D print of the shape, can you use that to make forms for casting, or even
lost-wax style?

Multiple dies would likely be required to make a deep-drawn shape, but sometimes those aren't expensive
at all: one technique presses the sheet with a block of rubber against the die, so there's only one hard item
for each of the successive forming steps. Annealing between operations is required, and that kiind of
die-forming doesn't make apertures, as I understand it.
 
The 2 larger radii need to connect with a smaller radius, not a sharp corner. You also need a radius all along the top edge. Everywhere there is a sharp corner needs to be replaced with a radius. I have an idea how to form these without a press, but will require manual trimming and hole drilling, and this could be done on a mill with a hold down fixture.

I pondered this for the last few hours and remembered a project I done over 40 yrs ago.
This is definitely out of the box thinking, but it works because I have done it. I'll probably take some crap about it, but it works.
It's called "fire forming". Back when I was in jr. high school shop class, our instructor was into flintlock rifles and such, and built many by hand "old school". He had a lot of unique methods that he taught us. One of them was fire forming, a process he used to make powder flasks.
One of the projects we done was a copper ash tray that was formed in a die with black powder.
The die simply used a cavity formed like an ash tray, about 1" thick steel block. The copper sheet was placed on top of the cavity, and a 1" cover plate was bolted down to the bottom die. The top had a threaded hole in which a steel nipple was threaded into. We used 15 grains of FFF black powder, and set it off with a percussion cap, using a ball peen hammer. Once you unbolted the 2 halves, you had a perfectly formed ash tray. You then trimmed the outside with shears and finished up with a file.
 
Rubber die sure sounds like an interesting approach, but then so does forming it within an explosive chamber. Ha! This is thinking out-of-the-box. Interesting gents.
 
Based on the current thinking (both scholasticly and legally), can you even imagine how fast that would get him fired today, if they even had shop classes still. He would get pounded for making bombs, and again for making ashtrays. But if we get rid of the pyrotechnics, hydro forming is essentially the same process. Wonder how much pressure you would need. A portal power will get 10,000psi, intensifier would get some more. Containing that much pressure might get interesting. May get you out of progressive dies, even if you have to anneal in stages.
 
As GL mentions above, you might look into 3D printed metals.
They can do Steel, SS, Titanium, Aluminum, even precious metals.
Lipton went into a good amount of detail in Part 1 of his series.
 
See....I knew I'd take some flack about that idea. This was the same class I built a hunting knife that impressed the instructor enough that he told me to go to the office and show the principal. The principal was so impressed, he wanted me to make one for him. I was 14 at the time......those days of common sense, integrity, trust and honor are gone forever.
 
Have you thought about using a Hammerform? I don't know what the shape is or how many you want to make but hammerforms are easy to make and depending on complexity piece can be quickly clamped and parts made pretty fast.
 
derf said:
See....I knew I'd take some flack about that idea. This was the same class I built a hunting knife that impressed the instructor enough that he told me to go to the office and show the principal. The principal was so impressed, he wanted me to make one for him. I was 14 at the time......those days of common sense, integrity, trust and honor are gone forever.
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Yep- just like my High School dean was the man who taught me to make gunstocks...
 
We had a full on gun smithing class series at my high school, as well as
metal, wood, auto shop, Ag shop and drafting classes WTF happened to our education system ?!?!?!
 
Derf - Absolutely no flack intended. I wish kids today, and their parents, could learn like the old days. I remember riding in the back of station wagons on foam pads across the country on vacation. And riding in the back of pickup trucks sitting on the edge of the bed leaning on the cab. No seat belts, no cell phones, but no one really worried about where you were. Personal responsibility ruled the day. Other than that barely noticeable tic, we're all just fine - and that magnet doesn't really stick to the plate in our heads much ;). Life involves risk, our tools present many, but being so risk averse that we don't do anything, and blaming someone else for our mistakes, is a poor long term strategy. Nice to have a group of thinking people around where "out of the box" could be most anything, regardless of political correctness.
 
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