Book Review: Die Design Fundamentals.

This is an oldie but a goody! I say that because it was published in 1982, but better than that, I bought this book second hand and it had a library pocket in the back that showed the last time it was taken out of the library was July 13, 1999.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I read it the summer before starting my in-class portion of my apprenticeship, at that point, I had absolutely no experience on stamping dies. I felt this book really opened my eyes as to what was to come.

What you get in Die Design Fundamentals! 

This book is broken down into 20 chapters, several are introducing the general idea of cutter clearance and die life and then the bulk of the chapters focus on a specific component of the die, such as die blocks, finger stops, punch plates, etc.…

Chapters break down

Preface

1. Introduction to Die Design
2. Presses and Press Accessories
3. The Material Strip
4. The Blank
5. Fourteen Steps to Design a Die
6. How to Lay Out a Scrap Strip 
7. How to Design Die Blocks
8. How to Design Blanking Punches
9. How to Design Piercing Punches
10. How to Design Punch Plates
11. How to Design Pilots
12. How to Design Gages
13. How to Design Finger Stops
14. How to Design Automatic Stops
15. How to Design Strippers
16. How to Apply Fasteners
17. How to Select a Die Set
18. Dimensions and Notes
19. The Bill of Material
20. Types of Dies

As you can see from the chapter break down, the book is really focused on the basics, to help the novice start to grasp the idea of what you are trying to achieve when building the die. The first four chapters cover the bulk of the theory and then it gives you 14 steps to die design with no short cuts. All the diagrams are super simple and easy to understand. The book is a standard textbook so all the diagrams on the page relate to the material being covered. Overall, I give this book 4.5 stars for being a clear and concise read with good diagrams.
If you want to learn more about the die build process, check out the Stamping Die Build article here to get more tool and die content and don’t forget to subscribe to our email list.