I have a project where I need to cut a typical 5 point star shape (i.e. ★) out of brass sheet. The stars are small (~8mm across) and in high quantities. I was thinking of making a punch and die of the appropriate size but have stumbled on the best way to do this.
I'm stuck on how would I mill the sharp corners of the punch and dies - I was thinking possibly a gear cutter but the angle may be wrong? Would there be a better way to approach this entirely?
Approach a local sheet metal fabricator. They will be able to arrange a custom die or punch tool that suits their machinery. It is quite possible that they already have a die tool that meets your star requirements.
For such a small part and high quantities (10,000s - millions?) they would charge very good rates as the tooling setup is easy, and can be fully automated. The waste material can be easily managed too if using appropriate stock material (probably a large roll of half-inch wide thin brass that is fed into the stamping machine like a tape).
Typically they will use vibratory deburring to remove sharp edges from the parts, this is a simple process that is entirely automated. They would probably pour your freshly stamped parts into a large drum deburrer and set it going for an hour or two, each part would come out burnished and smooth.
Find a vendor with a Water jet cutter.
