How plausible is it to cut my own dies?

Hi. Forgive me for my ignorance, but is it plausible to make your own simple coining or embossing dies at home, using a CNC machine?

Anyone actually done just that?

I'm wanting to coin or emboss something akin to a badge or medalion using sheet copper or brass.

Am also thinking of buying the book "Sheet Metal Stamping Dies: Die Design and Die Making Practices" by Vukota Boljanovic. Hoping it will teach me all I need to know to make my own simple dies. Thanks.

First, you have to realize that punches and dies are usually made of hardened tool steel.

We're talking 50-65 Rockwell 'C' depending on the application.

They can be machined close to size, heat-treated, and finished to size after or they can be heat-treated and machined by either the EDM process or hard-milling.

Now, while your home shop may not be up to this, if you are able to accept that your dies will not last as long as "professionally" made dies you can make your own and they should work reasonably well if designed and manufactured correctly.

As far as the book by Mr. Boljanovic is concerned, judging by the book I have (Sheet Metal Forming Processes and Die Design), if simple is what you're looking for you should look to another author unless you already have degrees in Engineering, Metallurgy and Physics.

My recommendations for a beginner:

https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/09599077

https://www.mscdirect.com/browse/tn/...134+4288053027

for a V-Twin motorcycle trade show booth "gimme", I needed to emboss a company logo onto 2" diameter 0.025" steel disc ( they were actually roofing tabs, so I have no Idea what alloy steel, but its not as malleable as anneal copper or brass).
I made a simple embossing die set ( male and female ) from 6061 aluminum 3" round bar. Use MasterCam Surface toolpath to cut them. I machined 0.010" all-around clearance between the male & female features. The smallest features use a 1/16" deep cut by 1/16 ball nose endmill for the female side, and 0.040" tall & wide mating boss, with a 0.006" X 45° chamfer on the male side. (this was originally just a "down & dirty" test die set to see if it was even do-able, however its worked so well I never bothered to remake it in steel).
The trade show was in Dec, so as a way to draw a crowd to our booth, I set up a hand-operated arbor press with the die set, a box of roofing tab, and let folks emboss their own shiny "Christmas tree ornament" :-) It is important to periodically clean the dies, and make sure the raw stock ( roofing tab disc) is clean & lubed. To achieve this, we simply had folks wipe the tabs off on a large sponged, which was sprayed with lemon scented Pledge furniture polish. The Pledge was just enough lube without being too messy for folks to handle after embossing, etc.
The die set worked great; it stamped over 900 tabs at that first show, and we've continued to use it at many other smaller events since then. I estimate we've embossed 1500+ tabs to-date, and the die set shows next to zero wear. One could make a similar die set from O1 and hardened/temper them. Tom AMS Motomachine & Supply - Home