Aggravated...

[WILCO]

Because my disk maker gets bound up with .016 aluminum sheeting making it nearly impossible to retract the 13/32 punch rod without much labor. It’ll punch thin stuff all day long with ease. .016 gives me the check diameter I need with my boolit shank. Anyone else have this problem or is it just me? Seeing as how I just bought a 14"x10' roll of sheeting, I'd like to make this work.

[JeffinNZ]

Quite the contrary actually. My Freechex gadgets will not operate on thin material (4-5 thou)but do well on anything over 8 thou. Is your 16 thou really soft? Sounds like it is stretching prior to sheering and the very thin stretched section is what is binding. PITA I know. Harder material would fix that. Have you tried similar gauge Cu? Brass?

[edsmith]

there is not enough clearance between the punch rod and the forming hole,you are swedging the sides of the check,you need a smaller dia. punch rod or open up the forming hole.I would try a smaller rod.you have some leeway on the size of the rod,if you open the hole up,you can't put the metal back.

[rbuck351]

I have made several gas check makers and I find that you have to use a different size punch for different thickness stock. Thicker stock needs a smaller dia punch. I would make another punch so that you can use both thickness of stock. You may not have tried it yet but using pop can checks you can put a check on a plain base boolit. Get or make another punch the same size as the one you have and chuck it in a drill and file a little off the tip until the check will come off easily.

[WILCO]

So thanks for all the help guys. I ended up taking an extra .001 off the I.D. of my punching die. Now it punches .016 aluminum sheeting and the punch retracts with much ease.