The quoins should not be placed directly against the sides of the chase, or against the sides of the wood furniture. Small strips of reglet, 6-points wide, placed on either side of each pair of quoins protects the wood furniture from damage by the quoins, and prevents loosening of the quoins at the sides of the chase.
An assortment of printers’ leads and brasses—2-point leads and 1-point brasses, in the smaller sizes, will be of great utility to the die-maker in blanking out. A lead or brass, inserted here and there between the furniture in the die, will often solve intricate construction.
Looks like plan for a monoplane, but is layout for steel die form for small drug carton. Plain lines represent steel cutting rules. Dotted lines represent steel creasing rules. As many as 24 complete dies are run together in one large form.
ACCURACY REQUIRED
The die should be blanked out so accurately that when the quoins are tightened all material in the die will “lift” without any of the furniture falling out. After the form has been locked up, the die-maker rests one end of the chase on a block of furniture. He then strikes the ends of the fingers over all material in the die to see if any parts of the die are loose. If all holds firmly, the form is ready for press. If any parts are found loose, the form is unlocked, and the loose places are fixed up by inserting small strips of manila paper between the loose pieces of furniture.
With the aid of a straight-edge, an L-square, or a T-square, the die-maker tests all lines of the die to ascertain if any rules are binding or out of register. All defects of this nature must be corrected before the die goes to press.
Intricate rule bending is made more easy by heating the soft steel rule in a gas flame before bending. When working with heated rule the die-maker wears canvas gloves to protect his hands. To harden soft rule, after bending, heat again and dip the heated rule in fish oil.