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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    New Orleans, LA
    Posts
    3

    Default Looking to make dapping in quantity easier

    I have a successful process for dapping bottle caps into hemispheres and soldering them together, but I would like to make them in greater quantity than I can by hand. It currently takes me about 30 mins to make my :"steel marbles"

    Any advice on how to make some tools/machines that will help me automate this process a bit would be great. I'm mostly interested in the dapping step, like a powered stamping machine/hammer setup, but all I can find are either too little (stampers) or grossly overpowered (powered hammers for forging).

    I do love to work the metal by hand and continue to make art around this small scale, but if there's an opportunity to sell something that I can fabricate out of my creations I can't create what I have in mind and meet demand reasonably by hand.

    Thanks all!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Near Bendigo, Victoria, AUS
    Age
    72
    Posts
    3,102

    Default

    What do you use now for dapping?
    The intermediateor appropriate stize step might be an arbour press. I suspect a small one would suffice. They are powerful and fast to use.
    Cheers, Joe
    retired - less energy, more time to contemplate projects and more shed time....

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    South Australia
    Posts
    1,656

    Default

    I found this company who have a wide range of press's https://www.janesvilletool.com/C/137/ArborPresses

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Near Bendigo, Victoria, AUS
    Age
    72
    Posts
    3,102

    Default

    Lots on eBay and presumably on Craigslist as well... A 1ton press would probably do you.
    Cheers, Joe
    retired - less energy, more time to contemplate projects and more shed time....

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    New Orleans, LA
    Posts
    3

    Default

    My assumption is that I need to replicate the stroke I use to do the initial doming on the caps - I quick hard strike - rather than a slow press, which would produce creasing. I find the harder I hit that initial stroke, the better chance I get a dome with no creases.

    That's why I was considering building a machine that would give me a repetitive strike, like a much smaller and less powerful version of a forging hammer. That, and it seems like a fun project to try and fabricate a production line that loads bottle caps on one end and produces clean domes on the other.

    Am I thinking about your suggestion of the 1ton press wrong? My impression is that would be a slow application of force.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Murray Bridge S Aust.
    Age
    71
    Posts
    5,942

    Default

    Rather than trying to build a machine, I'd look at an incline press, something like this, or smaller.
    https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rousselle-M.../323537522493?
    hash=item4b5456cf3d:g:xUUAAOSwl29b4fme
    There are a lot of different types, have a look on Craigs LIst I think it is over there.
    ttps://www.ebay.com/itm/MultiPress-2-Ton-Hydraulic-Press-Model-WUA-2TR-Punch-C-Frame-Gap-power-Denison/143083372282?hash=item21506efefa:g:iCUAAOSwwqVcM7ZA
    https://www.ebay.com/itm/Miniature-B...oAAOSwSlpbbZvf

    Kryn
    To grow old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    New Orleans, LA
    Posts
    3

    Default Tools I use

    Quote Originally Posted by jhovel View Post
    What do you use now for dapping?
    The intermediateor appropriate stize step might be an arbour press. I suspect a small one would suffice. They are powerful and fast to use.
    Sorry it took so long to post these pics. Also, I thought they posted earlier but somehow the post was rejected.

    I use a dapping cube and brass hammers of varying size up to 2lbs. I picked this one up on a trip through the Caucasus (Armenia) back in the 90s.
    workbench_tools.jpg

    I use it to dome out bottle caps and weld them together to make spherical "marbles".
    bottle_caps_in_hand.jpg

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Near Bendigo, Victoria, AUS
    Age
    72
    Posts
    3,102

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by dhenry View Post
    .....

    Am I thinking about your suggestion of the 1ton press wrong? My impression is that would be a slow application of force.
    Arbor presses apply the force as fast as you can move the handle down.... In fact you can hit the anvil really quite hard with them. I do that when I want to rivet things. Not sure if it does the arbor press much good, but the forces are quite small, it's really a very well guided precision hammer strike.
    Cheers, Joe
    retired - less energy, more time to contemplate projects and more shed time....

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