Dimple Die bending the part

I find when using dimple dies, they often bend/curve the part that I'm working on.

Here's a custom dead pedal I just made, you can see the curve after dimpling the holes.

Any tips on how to prevent this and keep it nice and flat?

Dimples put stress into the material and also suffer from a 'spring back' as part of the deformation is elestic.

A common problem is not fully tightening the die down, as this will reduce the affect, but either way it's not uncommon for some finishing to be required to remove the distortion.

G'day Wedge,

I work with dimple dies almost daily as part of our fabrication business that produces our own product line.

Hopefully this trick helps someone else too somtime

The thicker the material your runnning your die in...the more you will rely on this method...We often are dimpling with a 1" die in 2.5mm steel plate.

Do your dimples with the die, and make sure you are getting to at least 5t pressure whilst doing so, then after you have done your dimples...take the female part only of the die, and place the metal part down flat, with the dimple now facing up. Now place the female part of the dimple die on the partsdimplee...and press it back flat! Youl need between 1-2t force depending on your material thickness. You'll end up with a nice flat part again :)

its super simple to show someone, but I hope that makes sense lol