Now here is a book I have a love-hate relationship with, Basics Die Making was the core textbook for my Tool and Die Apprenticeship at the college I went to. This book is the foundation of the stamping tool training that I received and it is all-inclusive when it comes to stamping dies. Let’s get into it!
What do you get with Basic DieMaking!
The book is made up of 16 Chapters encompassing all stages of a die’s life, all the components of a die, and any variations on those components.
Chapter 1 Principles of Blanking and or Piercing Dies
Chapter 2 Elementary Blanking and Piercing Dies
Chapter 3 Bending
Chapter 4 Screw Holes and Dowel Holes
Chapter 5 Die Life
Chapter 6 Punches
Chapter 7 Punches Mounted in Punch Plates
Chapter 8 Pilots
Chapter 9 Die Block Constructions
Chapter 10 Strippers and Stock Guides
Chapter 11 Shedders and Knockouts
Chapter 12 Nest Gages
Chapter 13 Pushers
Chapter 14 Die Stops
Chapter 15 Stock Material Utilization and Strip Layouts
Chapter 16 Die Sets
So I am quite familiar with this book, as I have read it several times. All the articles in our THE STAMPING DIE BUILD have been, essentially, a summary of each chapter of this book. I feel, if you’re studying to pass your C of Q, the first four chapters are fundamental. They cover what I would say is the bulk of the tooling/prototyping questions on the test. Of course there were questions from other chapters, but I personally feel the first four are the most important to have a thorough understanding of. This book has so much information as each chapter covers the standard construction of each component and so many variations that sometimes you will forget what you were reading about, which is why I read the chapters multiple times and felt that writing the summaries posted on this site would helpful, both to myself and, I hope, to you.
Something else I noticed, the book seems like it was written by two different people. Chapters 1-8 read like an instruction manual and, even though it is full of information it is easy to follow. In contrast, chapters 9-16 are very difficult to follow, almost like it has been translated directly from another language.
That, along with the fact that so many paragraphs will refer to a diagram 3 pages away so that you have to keep turning pages to understand the material, make this half of the book much more frustrating to navigate. This book isn’t my favourite and definitely doesn’t get a 5-star review, but the fact of the matter here in Ontario, Canada is that this book is the core curriculum for the test, so I do think it is worth getting and it is full of good information, despite being hard to read and a little dated.
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