die forms and hating parking at Towson

So I finally figured out after years of denial that in order to find a parking spot at Towson and make it to class, you must arrive at least an hour ahead of time. I drove around for over an hour and half and I'm beyond frustrated that I had to miss class because I couldn't find a space. From now on I am going to have to embrace mornings and wake up extra early! >:-/

I wanted to put up pics before I leave to go back to school, this time much earlier, to show the progress I've made with my first die. I chose to use a shape that had a sharp point first because I wanted to see just how crisp I could get an edge like that. These four weren't as successful as I would have liked them to be. I pressed 2 in 24 gauge and 2 in 20 gauge. My die has a piece of plexiglass on one side and a piece of masonite on the other. I pressed 3 on the side with the plexiplass and one on the side with the masonite so I could see the difference in the edges. Only one blew out in the end, but I think that's because I was a little timid with the hydraulic press. I didn't really push the limits to see how far I could go.

So I'm going to make another die. This time I want to then play around with a form that has smoother edges and push the limits a little bit more to see what the metal is capable of doing. I looked at pictures of vintage clock hands and took those forms and rounded them out until I came up with one that I liked. I am about to cut out that die and start pressing this evening.

Here is a picture of the information I recorded for my first set of pressings:




die #1 and pressings:







Here's die#2:


this still needs to be rounded out a lot more and filed