Shear Blades Guildeline

When it comes to extending the life of your shear blades, use the CLEveland approach.

Clearance

Proper clearance between the upper and lower blades is crucial. A helpful tool to measure shear blade clearance is a "feeler gauge." Refer to your machine's manual for a correct clearance.

Lubrication

Lubricate the blade with Punch-Easy along the cutting edge as you would a punch. For blades that touch, such as a section bar (or round/square bar) set, make sure to grease the blades where they touch together. 

Edge

Occasionally check the cutting edges of your shear blades. If they show wear or chipping, they should be flipped or rotated. (if applicable)

What tips do you find to be helpful in your shop? Comment if you know any!

Louver Tooling

Pictured above is a 4” louver assembly designed and machined on our 28XX line of punches and dies. This type of tooling can be utilized on a variety of different ironworkers and punch presses including Boschert™, Piranha™, and Whitney™ to name a few. The customer will use this particular punch and die on his Boschert punching machine.

Louver tooling like this is used on a variety of products that need ventilation and temperature control. To the right is an example of a common application of louver tooling, air vents. The louver provides ventilation while also protecting the generator pictured. Other examples in which louvers are utilized are classic hot rod hoods, lockers and fireplace shields. 

Louvers can be on mild steel and aluminum up to 10 gauge maximum thickness. We do not recommend using this tooling for stainless steel due to material deformation issues. On machines utilizing a CNC positioning table, louver tooling has to be manufactured so that it forms up in order to clear the rollers embedded in the table. Springs push the louver off the die so that the CNC machine can advance the material for a new louver location. 

How to Install Corner Radius Tooling

The first step in setting up corner radius tooling on a Piranha™ ironworker is to remove the dust caps from the dovetail slide. Doing so will allow you to get to the bolts that hold the dovetail and stripper foot together. Remove the bolts, stripper foot and urethane strippers off of the stripper assembly. A stripper foot is not necessary for this application because there is no material stripping required. The corner radius punch acts similar to a shear when rounding the corners of the material.

Once the stripper foot is removed, the next step is to align your tooling the same way as if you're installing a normal punch and die. On a Piranha™ ironworker, a V-groove on the head of the punch and a whistle notch on the die is essential for alignment. With other ironworkers, CPD recommends the machine-appropriate locators to assist in alignment. By locking the tooling into position, there is no need to realign the punch and die after each hit. Make sure to set your limit switches on your machine to reduce cycle time and ensure the guide of the corner radius punch remains in the die at all times.

Click the video below to watch how Josh from Cleveland Punch and Die installs corner radius tooling on a Piranha™ ironworker.