Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Tools needed to punch metal shapes from sheet metal?

So I've been doing a lot of looking online but can't find what I'm needing, perhaps because I don't know the lingo. Maybe someone here knows.

I'm wanting a have operated or possibly small hydraulic press that I can punch shapes from sheet metal. Most likely 20ga aluminum sheets or maybe brass, copper etc. Which ever is cheaper at the time.
I'm looking to make fish decoys and the fins are the only part I haven't been able to streamline. I have to cut each one by hand and then pair them and sand/grind to make them even. I'm wanting to speed up the process by using a punching die and a mechanical press similar to a reloading press or bolt cutter to generate enough pressure. I'm also needing the dies in a few sizes. It's more of a hobby/side gig that hopefully I can do if/when I retire some day.

Anyone know what I'm needing or a direction to point me that isn't going to be a $2500+ machine?

For what you wanna do I would think a pattern and a plasma cutter would do the trick.

We have a friend who has a small business doing art work and other small jobs like that. He uses a water jet. He cuts very intricate holes in some pretty thick stuff.

How big a fish? You need a punch press but more importantly you must make a die for that operation. The dies are expensive and have a finite life because they must be regroups from time to time to retain sharp edges. They will produce many thousands of parts. But the punch press and dies aren’t the only things needed. You need a shear to shear your sheet metal.
It’s much cheaper to go to a company that does that and get a quote for your parts. They’ll all come out dimensionally correct. The more parts you contract for the cheaper they are per part.

This +10

3D print the whole shebang and be done with it

I'm very much open to that as well, just not sure where to find a manufacturer that can and will make them.

The decoys I'm making are around 12" oal, I might make a few a little bigger but generally for spearing pike you don't need more than that, often a little smaller actually. Bodies are wood, fins are glued and pinned in place and lead poured into a cavity to make them sink. Tons of examples online if anyone cares to look, I can't post pics here or I'd show some of them I've done


I'm thinking something similar to this
https://www.amazon.com/KAKA-5-Inch-...&hvtargid=pla-571372283436&psc=1

Even if it's just the right shape of one side and I do a couple of passes and use a jig of some sort.

I doubt that you’re looking at sufficient volume to justify the expense of a die that would be entailed if you contracted with a punch press outfit. You mentioned not wanting to spend $2500 on a machine. A press die alone would be a lot more than that and would be of no value to anyone else if/when you didn’t need it any more.

Volume will determine your best options. You could cut what you describe on a bandsaw pretty fast. You could speed up production by stacking material and cutting several pieces simultaneously, but that’s not an option I’d recommend unless someone is quite experienced at bandsaw work.

Your best bet, if you want a few hundred pieces is probably contract with a shop that does CNC laser, waterjet, or plasma cutting. For what you describe, programming would be minimal and costs pretty reasonable.

If it were I, I’d probably go the bandsaw route.

Yep, the expense of having custom dies made for a simple punch or press would be catastrophic in the long run.
I think a plasma cutter will be your answer.

You wanna do this..



I've watched many operate, program in what you want and walk away.

A quick search online reveals one right on the money that you request. Quality unknown



Table Top Plasma Cutter

Then there is this..




Crossfire Pro

After these simple models the prices skyrocket, you can easily pay $50k for a deluxe model.

I also know an artist that builds realistic fish from metals, pretty much all soft copper.
It all done by hand, cutting and hammering into shape and his prices reflect that.





https://coppersculpture.com/

I do have a band saw and have considered that. Not sure how to secure a stack and still be able to slide it on the table of the saw

I appreciate the input and your time to make the response. That said everything you outlined is what I have already found and stated that I didn't want to go that route in the original post. My apologies if I wasn't clear enough on that. The artwork is beautiful but not what I am doing.

I'm really fast at composing a post, been writing html code for years,, lol.

I just keyed on your price cap of $2,500.00 for a machine that was capable of doing the job of repetitive cutting automatically.

Best of luck.

Kevin is a neighbor and I hangout in his shop and watch him work all the time

How many parts are you going to need?

Different sizes and small quantities pretty much negates punching them out. Possibly the plasma or water jet would work but the programming can be complicated. Depending on how many you want you might pay for material and get a local high school industrial arts class to try it. Nowadays many have plasma tables and do projects for people.
I once made a few Kant Twist clamps of various sizes and a Dimide clamp for my own use. Getting material cut and finished to dimension was the hard part.

I'd just have someone water jet them for you.

Not sure, depends on price a bit.
If I were to buy them and they were reasonable I'd think 3 sizes of fins, 200 each size, then maybe tails 2 sizes 100 or so each.

Ideally if I can settle on a good rate I'd line someone up that can cut them and I would buy once a year or so. The numbers would have to work for both of us though. These aren't precision parts by any means and they will all be painted once installed so material used doesn't matter as long as it's rigid and can be bent to customize the way it swims in the water.
I've used scrap trim steel from steel buildings, sheets of aluminum that are 20-28ga work nice and I prefer them to the thin steel trim but realistically it doesn't matter really. Something easier than a tin snips is what I'm after that's fairly consistent to speed the process up.

I used to make spearing decoys out of Stainless sheet. I found that just a plain "sort of" fish shape with planer fins underneath works as well as anything else. Northerns are neither bright nor discriminating. If it is sort of sucker colored and the size is more or less ok, they'll come in and stop to look it over. I never painted any of them that I used, but I suppose red & white wouldn't hurt.

make a punch and die out of clear knot free oak wood and then find 1045 steel flat and make a punch face and epoxy it to the punch face. Keep the edges sharp though.

1045 steel and carbon soak would let you heat treat it.

You could eventually make a steel die.

Allow about .002 die clearance.

Another path is to find someone who make custom leather punch dies

Look for people that do these service.

I'd love to see your spear decoys.

HD

Here is what Ryan is making and needing tools for....get them while they're hot. They're going to sell fast. They're bad ass.

For small gage material like 20ga, waterjet is not cost effective due to the abrasive cost. Laser runs circles around waterjet in this application.