Extruder Dies

[Benzine]

I'm preparing to make a couple dies out of the blanks, that came with my new extruder.

 

In the past, I have used a die that made four half inch coils at a time.  This was very handy, and will be a big improvement to my two hand held extruders. 

Would there be any benefit to adding a fifth opening?  So it would be four half inch holes towards the "Corners" (It's a circular die), and one in the middle.

Would this be pointless, would it weaken the die too much, etc?

 

Also, I'm trying to think of what to do with the other die.  I could make it a handle extruder, though I do like to teach the students to pull their handles.  Not sure what other shapes I would regularly need.

 

Thoughts?

[JohnnyK]

Hey, Benzine,

You have a spare blank...go ahead and drill the fifth hole and give it a shot (or should I say "squeeze"). You'll find out soon enough if you've weakened the die too much. If you have a plastics supply store near you, you could probably buy material to make your own die blanks.

I built my own extruder and since it was a "custom" size I had my local supplier cut my square die plates out of 1/4" polypropylene.  My 6" square plates cost about $2 each. I don't know what round plates would cost.

JohnnyK

[Marcia Selsor]

I find steel plates at our recycling center in Billings, MT. I have one that is full of 1/2 " holes. I also have them for 1/4" and 1/16". I cut them to 4.5 " for the extruder.

That's how I make coils for firing my slabs.

 

Marcia