Hollow points made on a lathe.....any new info or results????

[bangerjim]

There is an old thread a few years old about drilling out the nose of standard cast boolits to make HP's. Not much info I can find since 2010.

With my little 3C precision collet lathe with an adjustable collet stop for "chucking" depth control and a travel stop on the tail stock, I can control the drill depth to less than a thou.

I have played with a few cal's and on the 40 it takes a 175g to about 165g for a good hole. Diameter is slightly smaller than the meplate of the slug. Depth is about 0.2" depending on the shape of the nose.

Does the bottom of the HP need to be pointed? Or can it be a standard drill bottom?

Making them for 38,40,and 45's is sure easier that messing around with buying and learning cast HP molds.

And with the above lathe set-up, it is really fast to drill 'em.

Any comments or suggestions? Or new info?

bangerjim

[white eagle]

standard drill tip taper ,angle(°) won't hurt anything
there are a few here that use a drill to make hp's

[dudel]

Don't even need the lathe with one of these:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/371968/forster-universal-hollow-pointer-1-8

I made one by drilling appropriate sized holes in a 12" piece of wood, then cut a slit in it. Load the holes with boolits, and clamp the slit down to keep the boolits from moving. Then index them through the drill press as if you we drilling holes for shelf pegs. I found a counter sink makes large flat cavities (think flying ashtray), while a drill makes narrower deeper cavities (think 22 rimfire HP). You can experiment with a combination of drills/countersinks, depths, etc.

A CNC router might make an interesting project for this. (talk about overkill!)