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Old 01-21-2017, 05:47 PM
John Buchtenkirch John Buchtenkirch is offline
MetalShaper of the Month October 2012
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Glen Cove, Long Island
Posts: 1,675
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gareth Davies View Post
Thanks for the reply John. Obviously, it's not my thread but, I agree, it's in the wrong section.

Out of interest, what sort of thickness would the dovetail keys be? I'm guessing at around 3/16" to 1/4" but it'd be nice to know for sure.

I understand what you are saying about die height and that makes perfect sense. I've done a bit of scaling on other people's photos and it looks like the 3" dies sit at about 2.1/2" high and the 2.1/4" dies at around 1.3/4" height. Just estimations on my part but those proportions look about right to me.
You need several thicknesses of tapered die keys because when you shim your hammer dies closer & closer together you need thinner & thinner die keys. I have a rag tag collection of hammer dies I’ve picked up thru the years so my dies are several different heights. So to be totally honest I don’t even know if there’s a definitive answer to your question on die heights. I’ve been able to make what I have work for me by changing the distance between dies but the down side to that is it can be time consuming. ~ John Buchtenkirch
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