WaterBored

Posted by stephens on Sep 1, 2010 in Demos, Events, Rants, Tips & Techniques | 0 comments

Given a choice between sitting through an unorganized technical presentation with awful PowerPoint slides and torture by waterboarding, I will take waterboarding. Why? Because I know waterboarding lasts 40 seconds not 40 minutes. Plus, the psychological damage with waterboarding is only temporary. Shitty slide presentations are burned into my brain forever. I...

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Move Along

Posted by stephens on Aug 30, 2010 in Events, Rants | 3 comments

I think Christopher McCandless had the right idea. If I could turn back the hands of time, I would have chosen that path instead of the one that I did. I won’t be blogging on dies and stamping for a while – if ever again. I have said all I have to say for the time being. And all I say is met with skepticism or criticism – so I will save us all...

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Friends

Posted by stephens on Aug 19, 2010 in Rants, Tips & Techniques | 5 comments

I am getting old. The world is changing around me and I can’t stop it. Back in my day, being friends with someone meant you could go to lunch together. Share a good meal. Share a few laughs. Escape from the hell of your day for an hour. These days, I dine alone. Why? Because the people who I thought were my friends go greeting card shopping for lunch. What...

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Moved

Posted by stephens on Aug 17, 2010 in About, Rants | 0 comments

With any luck, I can get on a regular blog schedule again. I have been in the professional moving business lately. In the past 7 months, I have moved 7 times. I am not talking about moving from the couch to the kitchen table. I am talking about household moves. Seven. Five of these came in the past 10 weeks. Most recently, last week. And that was the last one. I...

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Have You Tried …

Posted by stephens on Aug 6, 2010 in Events, Rants, Tips & Techniques | 7 comments

“Have you tried a different process?” “Yes”, I say. “How about different form steels?” “Yes.” “How about different materials?” “Yes.” “Well, try different materials until you find one that works,” the engineer says to me. Now, nevermind that the forming condition is impossible to...

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Motor City Squares

Posted by stephens on Aug 2, 2010 in Engineering Decisions, Rants, Tips & Techniques | 4 comments

My view of dies is their architecture should be driven by both the production volume and material strength of the stampings. Unfortunately, this is fuzzy in practice. Many die standards and quoting systems do not take both into account. The illustration below captures how I believe dies should be built based on the combination of production life and material...

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Help Wanted: Sr. AutoForm Simulation Engineer

Posted by stephens on Jul 30, 2010 in Events, Rants, Tips & Techniques | 1 comment

The job scene for die guys is picking up here in the Motor City. Personally, I think it because there is more high strength and super steel automotive stampings than die knowledge. This always leads to more processing and more simulations than normal. Elongation limits be damned! At any rate, I have been getting a call or email at least once a week for several...

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Quoting Method Madness

Posted by stephens on Jul 26, 2010 in Engineering Decisions, Rants, Tips & Techniques | 3 comments

The quoting methods in the stamping industry are a blend of black magic and bullshit. You have your good old fashioned Sight Method. That is where someone looks at the part and says, “That is a $250,000 die right there.” How the fuck do they know that? “Experience.” Then, there is the Length-of-Line Method. You know that one. Measure some...

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Book Shelved

Posted by stephens on Jun 22, 2010 in About, Events, Rants | 6 comments

My die guy friend and loyal reader of past articles and current blog posts, Greg from Spaulding & Day Tool & Die emailed me a question yesterday. He responded with a “thanks” email and suggested I write a book on modern die practices, mainly because the books out there now are quite dated and have, for the most part, lost their relevance due...

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Where is Timmy?

Posted by stephens on Jun 15, 2010 in Events, Rants | 2 comments

My apologies for not posting in a couple weeks. I moved 1,250 miles across the country and just have been slammed busy. I expect to be back on track in a week or so. Thanks for your patience …

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