Back in the 1950's when I was working in the electronics industry as a lab technician, when we needed to make a chassis for a prototype, or do a small production run (say 2 to 10, maybe ~20), we used a punch and die system made by the US company Whistler and others.
This system utilized a thick steel base and top plate, each of area greater than the chassis to be punched, and incorporating multiple parallel T-slots. Locating dowels were in each corner. You installed individual punches in the T-slots of the base, and multiple dies in the top plate, wherever you wanted holes. The dies and punches had an L-shape, so you could have chassis holes precisely wherever you wanted. Then you positioned a virgin piece of sheet metal on top of the punches, and then placed the top plate (dies pointing down) on top. Then you forced it all together in a standard hydraulic press and punched all the chassis holes in one operation.
Whistler seems to have long gone out of business.
Does anybody know where such tooling can be purchased?
This system utilized a thick steel base and top plate, each of area greater than the chassis to be punched, and incorporating multiple parallel T-slots. Locating dowels were in each corner. You installed individual punches in the T-slots of the base, and multiple dies in the top plate, wherever you wanted holes. The dies and punches had an L-shape, so you could have chassis holes precisely wherever you wanted. Then you positioned a virgin piece of sheet metal on top of the punches, and then placed the top plate (dies pointing down) on top. Then you forced it all together in a standard hydraulic press and punched all the chassis holes in one operation.
Whistler seems to have long gone out of business.
Does anybody know where such tooling can be purchased?
Last edited:
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.