@rhettbruck and I are considering making some new dies for our blacksmithing hydraulic press. The base plate is 4"x8" 1/4" plate. The dies rest atop the plate. Here are some dies from the manufacturer of the press.
The dies that we have currently have been mishapen so the first order of business might be to refurb them, but I think it would be cool to mill some new ones, too. Here are some examples:
My question for the machinist in this group are how hard would it be to mill the different dies?
I know that there is also some welding involved @Mrholthaus, @FriendlyTitan.
Lastly, I think there is some 1/4 steel plate in the metal shop. @rlisbona do you think we could take some from it for blacksmithing to make dies? The plate is 8" wide I believe.
The priority would be to make another set of flat dies. We might need to acquire some 5160 metal to make them, but as long as only hot metal is pressed almost any metal should work.