where to have clicker dies made?

[Michael Sheldon]

I'm looking into the possibility of having clicker dies made for some complex shapes I would like to use frequently.

The real question is though, what to use for a clicker press? I'm not doing huge volume, so an expensive powered unit is out of the question. What are folks here using? The dies in question would be up to 6-8" at the widest point.

Weaver's got a hydraulic bench press set up for clicking at $235 + 78 for plates, which doesn't seem too bad.

[Peter Ellis]

What's the rating on the Weaver press ? Harbour Freight has a 12 ton "shop press" - bottle jack in a frame set up, at $115. You have to come up with your own plates, but that's not very difficult and should be doable for well under $78.

I know there have been a couple of threads here discussing exactly this issue, and at least one person on the forum is using such a press for their die cutting.

I was doing some internet price checking earlier today on just this subject. I have a Harbor Freight pretty near by. between them having good prices to start with and avoiding the shipping charges on what are pretty heavy items, they look to be beating the pants off other possible suppliers. Northern tool, for example, has an equivalent press at about twenty bucks less. But the shipping from them is almost the price of the press again....

Now what did I do with that Weaver catalogue.....

[Michael Sheldon]

The Weaver press is a 6-ton bottle.

I was by Harbor Freight today. Yeah, their stuff is certainly cheap, in every sense of the word. Plus it would take a bit of modification to mount plates on it properly. Now I don't know what your hourly rate is, but I'm pretty sure the time I spent adapting one of those presses would equal or exceed the cost of buying a press already set up for the job.

I shop at Harbor Freight now and again. But I don't buy ANYTHING from them I plan on using more than a handful of times.

[Peter Ellis]

Harbor Freight is something of a crapshoot, no argument there. But the point really wasn't Harbor Freight.

If you look at some of the other threads discussing this general topic, I think you'll find that 6 tons isn't anywhere close to what people have found sufficient for the job.

[Calleather]

Michael,

I'm doing some small stuff too and have looked in to contract cutters. There seems to be a faurly good supply of people looking for work like that!

[Dink]

I do custom clicking with your die and the average price is dependant on size but are in the range of .75 to 1.00 per click also depends on volume

[johnstci]

I have a 27 ton clicker press which I use for my own production of rubber products--I would be willing to explore the possibility of cutting for you--you supply the dies and material and I'll charge you a nominal

fee for cutting--if interested let me know more details of what you are cutting and the quantities involved--regards