Design.

Luna is a punch and die set that produces useful punches and blanks from thin (.020”) sheet metal. Luna is intended to be used with copper or brass sheet but will also work well with aluminum. The clearance between the cutting edge of the punch and the die is between .001” and .002”, which produces high quality punches and blanks with clean edges and no burrs. This punch and die can be operated using a small, bench-top arbor press. Luna enables one to quickly create multiples of delightful products out of sheet metal, such as the folded night light covers and earrings pictured above.

Manufacturing lessons.

Luna is manufactured from low carbon steel and utilizes 3/8” steel dowel pins as both alignment features and slide linear bearings between the punch and the die. As a punch and die tool, Luna lacks longevity. The quality and life of the tool could be improved and extended if the surface were hardened with heat treatment. The punch side of the tool would cut even cleaner and last longer with a back taper of roughly 1°. Additionally, the alignment pins are prone to binding. In future iterations of the tool, the binding problem could be improved by lengthening interaction with the dowel pins, adding linear bushings, and by locating the slide bearings on either side of the punching force. The current design makes binding almost inevitable because the punching force applies a moment on the two linear bearings.