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Modifying Dimple Die

J

Jarrett

Member
Hey folks, I'm wondering what's the best way to reduce the diameter of a 1/8 dimple die. I'm currently dimpling flanges for my 14a fuselage and some of them are too small for my current die. I'm assuming the best way to do this would be with my bench grinder, but I'm not sure which wheel would do the safest job. Thanks!
 
It only needs to be narrowed down on one side, with a flat face, I did this on a belt sander.
 
You can get small diameter female dies from Cleaveland tools. I find these work well when the hole is close to a rib flange, but then grinding down one you've already got would be cheaper.
 
PaulvS said:
It only needs to be narrowed down on one side, with a flat face, I did this on a belt sander.
Click to expand...

I did this too. Just be careful not to take off too much (not that I learned the hard way or anything). A quick polishing on the deburring wheel and it's shiny and looks like it came that way.
 
Jarrett, that's good, you can even take off a bit more if you need the clearance from a flange, see attached pic, it will still work fine.
 

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Here's my 2 cents. .I put a marker stripe down the opposite side, so when the dies ate in my squeezer, I can verify that they are facing the right way and haven't spun a little. .
 
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