Tipman clicker

[roncal]

I am thinking of purchasing a Tipman clicker. What all will this be capable of doing and do any of you reccommend it?

[K-Man]

I am thinking of purchasing a Tipman clicker. What all will this be capable of doing and do any of you reccommend it?

I have both their 7-ton and 15-ton. There's some significant differences between the two and what they can do. What are you looking to cut out?

[roncal]

I'm mainly doing repair work and making bridles and such. I need to become more familiar with what a machine such as that is capable of I guess.

[K-Man]

I'm mainly doing repair work and making bridles and such. I need to become more familiar with what a machine such as that is capable of I guess.

Here's my experience(s) with both machines.

The 7-ton has a cutting area of 12" x 12". This worked fine for the vast majority of holster and similar-sized dies I was using to cut out of the leather. However, I found that the thickest/heaviest leather it could cut through would be about 9 oz, and that was from the grain side. If you were cutting from the flesh side, it struggled (or I did) to get through it. The 7-ton is easier to manuever/move around than the 15-ton. It weighs approximately 250 pounds. I made my own table for it, following pics of one I had seen on an eBay listing. I used a 30-gallon, 150 psi air compressor with the 7-ton clicker.

The 15-ton has a cutting area of 12" x 24". This extra area allows for larger dies to be easily cut from the leather. It will also cut through the thicker/heavier leather a lot easier - obviously because of the double-the-tonnage pressure being applied. The 15-ton is NOT easy to move around. It weighs approximately 575 pounds. I use the table offered by Tippmann. We recently moved it from our old shop to our current shop, and we used an engine lift to do it. So, make sure you know where you want it placed before it gets there, because that's pretty much where it will stay for the duration. I use a 60-gallon, 135 psi air compressor with it. (Actually I can run both clickers off of the same compressor, going simultaneously.)

Hope this information helps.

[roncal]

I tried to download the video from Tippman but it didn't work. I am ignorant about how the dies work, do they punch from top and bottom? Where can you get die's made? Are they expensive? Sorry to ask so much, this is just a great place for info. Hopefully I can be of help sometime. Thanks

[Peter Ellis]

I tried to download the video from Tippman but it didn't work. I am ignorant about how the dies work, do they punch from top and bottom? Where can you get die's made? Are they expensive? Sorry to ask so much, this is just a great place for info. Hopefully I can be of help sometime. Thanks

Clicker dies and steel rule dies (I'm not entirely clear on what the differences are between the two - both are used with clickers) are, in essence, cookie cutters for leather. One side is razor sharp, the other isn't.

So the die cuts from one side only, the bottom plate needs to be something that won't blunt the edge on the die.

Makers price them by the inch, but I don't know what kind of price tag is involved. I haven't reached the point of ordering any myself. I'm probably about two steps further along in the process of working up to diecutting than you are.

[K-Man]

The dies are made a couple of different ways. One is where they're inset into wood. This style generally uses a thinner cutting material, and they also tend to rust easier/quicker. They also are more difficult to work with in trying to get the leather out of the die itself and sometimes are limited on how heavy/thick of a piece of leather you can cut from. The other is the steel rule die. These generally are about 1.25" in height, are "open top" and incorporate one or two braces for strength/durability. Most places do charge a $$ amount per linear inch for the total circumference of the die. In addition, there may be an added charge for the complexity of the die, i.e., how many bends/turns are being made. It can add up in a big hurry. I've found Tippmann to have some of the best prices and turnaround available in the making of the dies.

The Tippmann clickers are both air driven. In essence, there's an air bladder in the bottom half of the machine, which fills with air when you depress the two buttons on the upper portion of the machine. This causes the bottom half of the machine to raise up. (The leather and the die have been placed between the top and bottom portions of the machine.) The pressure created then causes the die to cut out the shape from the leather.

If you do a fair amount of the same kind of item, i.e., holsters, etc., wherein you're doing the same pattern repeatedly, then investment in a clicker and dies is essential and critical IMO. You get an accurate, consistent cut each and every time. This saves having to take the time to trace the pattern, cut out the pattern, and then hope you've got everything to line up correctly when you've got it assembled. By having the same pattern size, it saves in the clean up, i.e., slicking edges, etc., on the back end of the assembling of the item. In short, you end up with a much more professional looking item in a shorter period of time, so you're bottom-line profit has just improved. I've had the 15-ton for over 3 years and the 7-ton for over a year. I would estimate that we've clicked out approximately 4000+ items, so they've long paid for themselves in saved time. For someone just starting out, the 7-ton would probably work best. If there's any way that you can afford the 15-ton, both in cost and the space to put it in, I would recommend doing that.

[roncal]

This may be a dumb question but would a hand operated press work for single cuts?

[Art]

Hi Ron,

I used to work with Tippmann quite a bit, primarily in the paintball area. Their equipment was always robust and functioned well, and they have a very good guarantee. I was going to purchase a used 25 ton clicker (I don't think they make them anymore) for a remarkable price, but moving it had to be my problem and with Tippmann, weight grows expotentially with size, it weighed more than my first car. The only problem I have with the Tippmann is that the top does not swing out of the way. This is not a Big problem, just a PIA, takes more time to line-up. The Atom hydraulics are better but more expensive (not unreasonably so) and heavier, they are stand alone and don't need a table.

Steel Rule dies are quite the standard now and work for anything we would cut. There is a die from hell that has a thickness of about .2 that I have seen in manufacturing, but don't know who makes them; way overkill for what we do. The steel rule dies are usually less than 1/8 inch in thickness and you can get round or slot tubes in them (great for ranger belt billets). Make sure they paint them (not the edge) because they rust overnight.

Good dies usually run in the $100-$150 range unless they are really complex with a lot of tubes or inside shapes. They pay for themselves pretty quickly if you do a lot of the same thing. Weaver, Tippmann, Texas, Big Sky, or Schroeder for good dies. Send any of those guys a drawing and ask for a quote.

I've seen used Atom clickers in excellent shape going for around $2500.

Art

I tried to download the video from Tippman but it didn't work. I am ignorant about how the dies work, do they punch from top and bottom? Where can you get die's made? Are they expensive? Sorry to ask so much, this is just a great place for info. Hopefully I can be of help sometime. Thanks

[Peter Ellis]

This may be a dumb question but would a hand operated press work for single cuts?

There is a manual clicker on the market, weighs around 100 pounds and priced about $1,200 . An alternative is to use a shop press adapted to work with appropriate size plates for the dies you would be using. It's an alternative suited to small production, definitely not as fast as "clickers".