I will be making up a bunch of copper arrowheads to resemble broadhead arrows but have no sharp edges. I am wondering if it is feasable for me to make a hand press and a tool to form this, it wil likley have to be in 2 pcs and soldered together as the blade portion is thin and flat while the portion that recieves the arrow for mounting would be shaped to accept something similar to the end of a sharpened pencil. If a die could be made reasonably enough I would prefer to just have one made. Need advice on building the die or if it is even feasable. Copper is 24 guage.
Jewelry like charms perhaps? 24ga sheet copper? Or wire?
Need 50 or 500 pieces?
It sounds like essentially, you are making little arrows. It may be possible to pound a piece of wire flat at one end, and then with a very small grinder (Dremel?), fashion the flattened part into an arrow shape. In this way, it would already be attached to the shaft of the arrow.
I am thinking about 500 would last a while. The flat portion will be 3/4 wide at the rear, 1 1/4 long and going into a rounded off point. The arrow mounting hole will be about 3/4" long with about a 5/32 id at the base tapered to a blunt point. If I can mkae a simple set up to kind of quickly produce them I would prefer that.
Oh. Completely different than what I envisioned.
I can’t imagine being able to make the die and press without a pretty decent machine shop.
If you where making 50, you might be able to do it with some very heavy duty shears. Don’t know. It’s also dependent on your need for uniformity. Which is why I asked if it was for jewelry.
What about copper strips cut in alternating triangles. Throatless shears would be the easiest way to cut them if you have access to a set. But regular snips will work if that’s all you have.
Cut your copper shapes out with tin snips or metal shears. Get a block of mild steel, draw your arrow head shape on it and use a Dremel rotary tool and small mounted grinding points to make the shape you want. Some riffler files may be handy also, they are small spoon shaped files used to form cavities. Stick the copper shape to the hollowed out die block with a dab of heavy grease, lay a piece of fairly dense polyurethane over it and mash it in a vise. The urethane will mush the copper into the arrow head shape you’ve hollowed out, acting as the male half of the “die” set. The urethane just needs to be a little larger than the female shape you’re forming. You can make two parts and solder them together to create your 3D point.
I’ve been a machinist for 40 years, this is a fairly simple and common way to achieve this result. It’s also cheap. If you screw up one side of the block of steel, you still have 5 others to play with.
That sounds very doable, the cutting I am going to have water jet cut to save some time. the forming is what I was trying to find a way to save time on. I will still have to solder together but that should go pretty quick in a jig.
I am not sure I understand how to use the polyurethane but I will read it a few more times and see if I can figure it out.
HoneyBadger, what are these copper arrowheads for? Copper is my personal precious metal- i have copper jewelry, copper pans, copper nails to hang things on, machined copper bowls inherited from my dad, but copper isn’t a great weapon ingredient- too soft. I eat Copper River salmon, even. FIL was a machinist/technician/researcher, and my spouse inherited both ability and tools.
Just curious.
HoneyBadger, the idea behind the urethane is that instead of having a male die that matches the shape of the female (less the thickness of the material) you use the inherent “squishiness” of the urethane to literally push the soft copper into the female recess of your die. Normally, in die work, there’s a male and female die half, held in alignment by pins. The male die displaces the work metal into the shape of the female die as the halves close together. Since copper is a soft metal and readily formable, you can get away with using the rubbery urethane to do the work of the male. The vise simply applies the pressure needed to deform the urethane and make it push the copper into the female half of the die. By shaping the urethane similar to the arrowhead you’re not trying to apply pressure anywhere except where it’s needed, that is, right at the shape you’re trying to make. If the urethane were as big (in area) as the block of steel you’ve cut your female “master” into, you’d be trying to squash the urethane even in the areas where you don’t have detail. You could probably get away with using double stick tape to secure the urethane pressure pad to one of the vise jaws so repeating the process would simply require removing the female die block from the vise, using the grease blob to hold a new copper blank in place, putting the die block back in the vise (alignment marks would help) and reapplying pressure to form a new part.
McMaster-Carr (www.mcmaster.com) has information on the various types of polyurethane they sell to guide you in your selection of the right type. They have a chart that relates the grades available to common items like shoe soles, erasers and so on. They also would be a good source for steel if you would like to keep it simple.
Waterjet cutting is a good way to form the basic shape of the arrowheads but depending on the vendor it may be fairly expensive. Of course your quantity of 500 pcs. is large and using hand snips to cut the shapes would be labor intensive. You will get sore hands to be sure.
Hope this helps, sounds like fun.
can’t you make the whole thing thin and flat, only have the bit that will go around the shaft be two wrap-around flanges. Like the red bits here:
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Then you need a swage block to shape that bit around a suitably-sized steel rod as a mandrel.
Are there any casting product durable enough to form a simple die from an existing arrowhead?
The mounting hole could be fabricated as a flat strip which could then be formed around the shaft and soldered closed.
This is something I am considering, I would still need to compress the center area enough to center the arrow. Uniformity is important so I am trying to avoid as much handwork as possible.
Clear as a bell this morning, late last night and I was not comprehending well. I buy from McMaster and Carr all the time. This sounds very workable.
I may try to make a mold from resin and use a thin metal liner, it might be hard enough to mold the copper as well. Thanks again.
This is copper - a hardwood die and stamp would be good enough, if you’re wanting to avoid too much handwork (although - that’s the best bit, IMO).
You’ll actually want a minimum of 2 dies, one to bend the flanges into a U-shape, and a second one to curve it over. Although - you might get away with just having the single u-channel in a piece of hardwood, doing the one side (couple taps should do it) then flipping over so the ends of the now U-shaped flanges go into the channel, and tapping on the “bottom” of the U to curve the flange ends around the mandrel shaft.
The other option, of course, is solder like you said in the OP…cut out the flat bits, buy copper tube of the right ID, cut to size, cut a slot in the end, insert flat bit, solder.
Another thought - does it have to be copper? You could always do a resin cold casting with copper powder filler…