Heavy Duty die holder.

[Brian Rupnow]

I have a story to tell. It starts out very sad, but it has a happy ending. My old die holder, which was a hand me down from my father, gave up the ghost. It was a junky piece, part of a junky set, and I wasn't sad when it finally died. I went over to my tooling supplier, and bought a nice brand new one. I had a 1/2"-13 bolt which I needed a longer thread on, so I took my 1/2"-13 die, and my nice new die holder, and set out to do so. It was very tough going, and I thought maybe I'd grown weak from being so old. So--I did what countless dumb-asses have done over the ages, and put a piece of pipe over each end of the new die holder.  No consideration was given to the thought that my 1/2"-13 die was part of the original junky set, and was duller than a hoe. This is the result.  I deserved it, for doing a dumb thing.

[Brian Rupnow]

I thought about returning it to the vendor and lying like Hell about putting pipes over the handles, to see if he'd give me another one. I couldn't do it. If I tell a lie, its going to have to be for something a lot more expensive than a $15 die holder.--But wait!!!---I'm a design engineer, right? I'll design one and build it. So, I did.

[Brian Rupnow]

I found a piece of 1/2" x 1 1/2" steel flatbar, and laid out the shape of the center piece. Then, while it was still rectangular and easy to hold in my milling vice, I drilled and bored the center pocket for the die, and two 1/2" holes that would eventually become slots. I then cut out the shape with my bandsaw, smoothed it up on my giant stationary belt sander, and drilled the three #10-24 holes for grub screws to hold the die.

[Brian Rupnow]

Next thing to do was cut two pieces of 1/2" cold rolled for handles and weld them into the center plate. Darn I love my mig welder!!

[Brian Rupnow]

Next amazing stunt was to grind of all the extra weld and polish things up a little. Wowser, it looks great. It would take four men and a bulldog to bend this one. So, for the low, low price of $5 for material, I have a new heavy duty die holder. Never mind the fact that if I charged for my time it would be worth well North of $150. See--Told ya the story was going to have a happy ending.

[Admiral_dk]

.... and it probably last a lot longer than a new bought item (treated a bit better  ) 

[crueby]

Nicely done!

And put a pipe over a wrtench or ratchet handle? No, never. Uh uh. Not me. Not often... And thats my story, your honor!    Good thing it was a Craftsman ratchet and it was back in the days they would hand you a new one with no questions asked. At least we got that flat tire off the car!

[b.lindsey]

Nice job on that Brian!! Should be a lot stoutervthan the store bought one. Now for a sharper die button

Bill