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One of my hobbies is knife making, as most of you probably know, and I've been focusing a lot on folding knives recently. One thing that's tough to find is washers for the size of knife that I typically make, so I made a tool:


Bottom left is a set of punches, one to make the 1/8" inner hole, and the other to punch out the 1/4" OD washer. The 1/4" die has a pilot on it to make sure the holes are concentric, meaning I don't need to do any kind of rounding or grinding after the fact. That flat piece of steel in the center is the die, with an 1/8" hole and a 1/4" hole. At the top is a strip of .005" bronze shim material with a bunch of holes punched out of it, and the washers are scattered center-right.

Overall it took me about an hour to make, including heat treating, and I can churn out washers like a machine with everything mounted and lined up on an old drill press. I punch a bunch of 1/8" holes, then switch dies and punch out the washers. They need some minor cleanup with some 800 grit paper on a machinists plate to get rid of any burs, but other than that they're ready to use. Now I have too many washers.

Love it, Kurt! If I had more time, I'd be making tools like that AND pipes!

KurtHuhn wrote: Now I have too many washers.

So make a shitload more of those nifty little linerless slipjoints!

You know, Alan, I tried to make a slipjoint this weekend with stainless liners and bolsters, and failed. The freakin' linerless one was a walk in the park by comparison. I'm actually considering ditching the liners on this knife since it's otherwise finished, and just making it linerless.

Make one of those that punches out pipe stems, would ya'?

TJ

Don't tempt me further, Todd. I spend half my "down time" figuring out ways to make any given function take less time and produce the same high-quality result.

But punching out stems is probably a non-starter - based on my understanding of physics. And even if it were possible, that's a lot of waste of expensive material.

Waterjet cutting however....

What about a laser?

what about a 3D printer that can carve ABS, I would assume it could make stems.

I think this might really work, or maybe I'm just a sucker enough to hope it would for $15,000

http://www.dimensionprinting.com/

Check out their video, this machine can make some really intricate pieces

Vermont Freehand wrote:what about a 3D printer that can carve ABS

It doesn't carve. It builds up hot ABS material layer by layer. ABS has been explored by some here as a suitable stem material. I'm not sure how the "3D printer" ABS holds up as a stem material.

From what I recall, the "3D Printer" assemblies are of significantly less density than stuff machined from solid stock. That knowledge is probably quite dated though, having first been exposed to these things over 10 years ago or so.

kbadkar wrote:

Vermont Freehand wrote:what about a 3D printer that can carve ABS

It doesn't carve. It builds up hot ABS material layer by layer. ABS has been explored by some here as a suitable stem material. I'm not sure how the "3D printer" ABS holds up as a stem material.

'Zactly. It's called an "additive" process. Traditional machining processes (carving, sanding, drilling, milling, etc) are "subtractive". Although the processes & materials have improved tremendously over the last 15 years, 3D printing & stereo lithography can not yet produce a part I would consider using for a pipe stem.