Bought a verticle swaging press need ID

[JBMauser]

I could use some help identifying this press I picked up at the Salem gun show today. It has no dies (dealer may find some that belonged with it) I know Herters made one like this and Corbin and this may be a home made press. I can find no marks or ID on it. I have not removed it from the steel plate to see if any marks are on the bottom. Anybody know what I have. The small black ring that screws into the ram has three holes for inserting a rod to turn it out or torque it down. The Ram void is rather small, I don’t think it would accept a swag-o-matic die.
Any Ideas? Thanks in advance. JB

[Buckshot]

..............If it was shop made they did a good job. Very finished looking. The construction is a bit odd (not that there's anything wrong with it) with the cotter keys and clevis pins. You sure it's a swage die? Hard to guage the scale of it from the photo. How long is the operating lever?

................Buckshot

[Bullshop]

That is a Herters press and it will take dies for the old C&H swage-o-matic. I am pretty sure the dies are the same but I think the nose punches are differant. The herters are very simple large threaded shaft but must be closely fitted and hardend.
BIC/BS

[JBMauser]

Thanks Bullshop, I have some swag o dies, I will try one. The punch I will have to make I guess. I will have to figure out the thread in the die. I doubt I would be able to build one and make it centered to the accuracy required with my little unimat lathe and communist chinese drill press.
I am suprised it is a Herters as It is hard to believe George let any product out the door with out his name and "best darn swager in the world" stamped or embosed on the press and handle. Out of character don't you think....? JB

[JBMauser]

Buckshot, I am sure it is a swager as it is mounted on a steel plate that also has a lead wire cutter attached. (which I needed) The handle is 14 to 16 in. long. It is not at hand to measure. JB

[Bullshop]

I cant remember for sure but I dont think the dies are threaded. I think there is a threaded cap that holds in the die like on an rcbs lubrisizer. Then I think there was a spanner wrench that fit the cap. The nose punch just looked like a big headless bolt with one end turned to the shape of the bullet nose, and had a big lock nut.
Blessings
BIC/BS

[JBMauser]

Buckshot, the dia of the screw hole in the top is .57 and I think it is 14 pitch for the screw thread. I have found a pic of it and it is just a bolt with the top punch in it. I have a line on a .30 cal top punch. I guess this is just a heavy duty swag-O-matic. 1/2 jackets and all. Kind of bummed, I thought it was going to be like the M&M or corbin press. It does take the Swag O dies.

[JBMauser]

bullshop, in surfing this board, I read a post from '06 where you said you had one of these presses. do you still have it as I would like a better description of the punch die thread size and dia. I wonder If I can buy this turned stock and then make up a nose punch and mount it into the boared out threaded stock.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=4514

[Bullshop]

Sorry Bud I no longer have that. We have moved our swaging equipment more into doing full jacket stuff.
BIC/BS

[shooterg]

I've got a press looks exactly like this - since it came in a box of "stuff' with a No. 30 Herter's core cutter, pretty sure it's Herters, too. Got 2 .45 die sets, 2 .22 die sets, .357 die set and a strange .45 swaging die. Also got a .22 jacket making die in a very old box hand-labeled Corbin .22 LR swaging dies with some other pieces but nothing that looks like a point form die in the Corbin marked box. The .22 jacket dies have NO markings. I may be missing a piece, cause I ain't figured it out yet. I've reloaded for years, just started casting boolits(.45 only ). I'm very interested in making jacketed .224 bullets, and have been trying to follow some of the data on this forum, but dang, I'm slow and need more pictures !
Will the old Herter's press work with jackets or is it just OK for lead only ? Anyone have instructions that woulda come with the little beasty ?

[Bent Ramrod]

Shooterg,

If I remember right, when I had my Herter's "9-Ton" bullet swaging press, it had a bleed hole in the side of the die a little ways above where the Herter's half-jacket extended. In .22 caliber, these were about 1/4" long. Longer jackets would have interfered with the lead bleed, which would result in undesirable weight variations in the bullets and perhaps too-high pressures in the swage die. I recall that the instructions recommended using these half jackets and gas checks only. I don't know where such half-jackets could be found now; I see them very occasionally at gun shows.

There are some pictures of various dies on some of the posts in this section. I don't think the 9-Ton press used anything but Herter's dies. If Corbin made some aftermarket dies to fit this press, these are the first examples I've heard about. Perhaps you could post a picture of your "stuff." It would make it easier to see if what you have fits your 9-Ton press.

[shooterg]

Sent some pics to JB via regular email - looks like all mine exceed the limits for attaching here.
A box of .45 and a box of .38 Herter's half jackets were in the box. It apparently can't be used with full jackets in .22 either, so looks like it ain't gonna do me much good.
Shoot me an email at shootergdv@yahoo.com if you would like to see some pics via reply.
So they called it a "9 Ton" ? That mean I gotta lean on it that hard ?

[Bent Ramrod]

Supposedly it generated 9 tons of pressure with normal lever operation. Do NOT lean too hard on that lever. I don't, at this far remove, remember how the dies looked or worked, but I do remember that the whole operation depended on a hardened washer behind the die set in the ram. I had to order two or three of these washers from Herter's when I cracked them by overly enthusiastic lever operation. It took me a while to realize that swaging doesn't mean exerting enormous pressure on the human end; that's taken care of by the leverage design. Use no more than the minimum pressure that points up the bullets. If lead is squeezing past the nose punch or the base looks like a primer fired at proof pressures, back off a little.

Back in the '70's, I shot my home-made half-jacket .22 bullets in my Savage Anschutz .22 Hornet and my S&W .22 "Jet" Magnum with no leading or other problems that I could see. Accuracy was certainly good enough for the plinking and other shooting I did at the time. The bullets punched nice wad-cutter holes in things, too. It was only much later I got a micrometer and found the bullets were about 0.226" diameter. Loading lighter powder charges kept the pressures down, but you might check your bullets when you make them. Herter's was inexpensive stuff and the tolerances were generous.

[NoDakJak]

It would definetly appear to be the Herters 9 Ton Press. During the last year I have managed to purchase two of the little beasties along with several 22,30, 357 and 44 dies along with some half jackets. It definetly took me a while to figure out how they worked. Right now I am leaving one set up for 357 and the other is set up for 44. As of now my main use has been to use sized and lubed 311008 in a 357 half jacket. It comes out at about 135 grains with a lube groove just above the jacket edge. Seems to work really well in my S&W Model 60, Chiefs Special. The 311008 is cast of acww and is definetly tougher to swage than the recommended pure lead but the press is definetly up to the job. One of the main complaints with this set up was leading from the naked, soft lead. The harder alloy along with the exposed lube certainly solves this problem. The two inch Chiefs Special certainly cannot exploit the full potential of this little slug and I intend to test it in my six inch Colt 357.
My main problem is that when swaging hollow points the lead compresses around the nose punch so tight that I can not get it to release. I have broken most of my hollow point punches due to this problem.
The die set seems to be rather simpe and I am considering firing up the old lathe and trying to turn out a set to swage some 158 grain 358 round nosed slugs into .362 slugs for my 38 Webley and Scott revolvers. Maybe this fall when the weather cools off enough for me to get into my shop. Neil