Step 4 of 5
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Running forge dies: why this course exists
The same die, built to the same print and treated to the same spec, lasts 30K hits in one shop and 120K hits in another. The spread lives in four operator-controlled levers, and that gap is the subject of this course.
Step 4 of 5Inspection cadence as the third lever
A 100K-hit H13 die on a commodity job follows a predictable wear curve. Heat-check appears as a fine network at 5-20K hits, matures around 30-50K hits, and turns into propagating cracks somewhere past 60K hits. Impression dimensions drift 0.005-0.015 inch over the same span. A shop that inspects every 5,000 hits with a 10x loupe, a portable hardness tester, and a calibrated camera catches the inflection between mature heat-check and propagating crack. A shop that inspects "when the parts start looking funny" catches the inflection 20K hits late, by which point the die is past saveable. Lesson 7 lays out the cadence by hit count. Lesson 10 covers the repair-versus-scrap decision that an inspection has to feed.
Quick check
A shop inspects its forge dies "when the parts start looking funny." On an H13 die with a 100K-hit ceiling, what specifically is that inspection cadence missing?