small, primitive Press with cutting and bending capability

[Ricardoco]

Hi m_c

I will be working with strips of 1mm aluminium so I dont think im gonna need major force applied
to get a cut out. Surely 1/2 tonne force would do that providing that the dies were of decent
quality.

I do prefer the idea of having seperate dies for the job. Technically, I could put together a
DXF file of a die that would do all three and maybe I will! when I get
the fly press later on. For the mean time though, 3 reasonably durable dies in
tool steel or something similiar will do the job just fine.

My only current concern is how much those dies will cost me, but I'll worry about that at a later time

Looking at your designs it occured to me that the male side of the cutting die could be concave across 1 axis thus allowing it to begin cutting at both end and finishing in the middle thus lowering the cutting force required even further as opposed to bashing through the whole cut at once...if you know what i mean.. lol