My First M-die

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I had not been reloading cast bullets long untill I discovered the joys of an m-die.They are an absolute must if you want to start a bullet in the case correctly.Those expander / flaring dies you get with the set you bought are worthless.I have m-dies for every cal. I reload.I insert a vegitable wad over the black powder and I needed a m type die to compress it.What do- what do. I was walking thru my garage on the way to my reloading shop when I spied a lathe against the far wall.Then I had what could only be described as an epiphany.I thought why not make an m-die.It must have been like the time Edison said,I've got it I'll use tungston for my filliment or when Einstien said I think E=M C 2 or when Dr.Frankenstien decided to switch the neg.pole to *** and the *** pole to neg.After all no one seemed to be using the lathe and ther was a bucket of aluminum scrap settig next to the it ,much of which was bar stock.How I came to acquire the aluminum scrap is an interesting story in itself. I selected a piece of bar stock and put it in the 6 jaw chuck. Then I tried to remember the steps to set up the lathe for threading.Buckshot is constantly castigating me for whatching tv instead of practicing on the machines in my garage. As I have pointed out many times before,I only want to pull the trigger.I finnaly got the lathe set up and for some stupid reason I selected 13 tpi instead of 14.Well thats one more piece of scrap.I was just getting started on the second one when my wife called me to lunch. While we were having lunch my wife said ,why don't we go clear the back lot of more tumble weeds after lunch.Of course I thought that was a splendid idea.What else can you say?After several hrs.of that fun I finally got back to my project.After much mental anguish I succeded in turning out my first m-die.It was after7 pm. Then I had to ask myself one question,was it worth it punck?

[bruce drake]

Any time spent in the Man-Cave building something is worth it. I see it cost you a little time on the Honey-Do list clearing sagebrush but its's still worth it in the long run.

Bruce

[AZ-Stew]

Well, you might have bought one cheaper, but what would you have learned?

I've thought of this myself, but thought I'd probably buy the die body and make the expander plug to fit a piece of all-thread. I control the expander dia and save a few bucks, Lyman expends the CNC time to make the die body, saving me the time for that task. Win-win.

I still need a few diameters I don't already have. All I have to do is complete the other 56 more urgent tasks in my "IN" basket first.

Regards,

Stew

[jjamna]

I would love to be able to try to make one -No Lathe. One of these days I will get one. Good Luck with it.

[Southern Son]

I am in the same boat as Jjamna. I need a lathe, for that I need money, to get the money, I have to work, when I work heaps to get heaps of money, I have no time to use a lathe. Talk about a vicious circle.

[TCLouis]

Patrick McManus when he explains "sequencing".

The simplest of tasks is often fraught with issues.

I have found that many times I can use a lathe (older than I am) to convert several hours of time into a part that could only be obtained by laying out 2-3 bucks cash.

[44man]

How very true, TC. But it is a labor of love and we can make things that are special orders.
And then there are the parts you can't buy any more like a gear I have to make for an obsolete machine.
Then there is the satisfaction that allows a tipping of the glass when all is done! :drinks:

[crowbeaner]

I've found that as life progresses and spare time becomes increasingly short that the value of that spare time increases about 5x the rate of inflation compounded quarterly. As one sage aptly put it "time is money".

[EDK]

I've found that as life progresses and spare time becomes increasingly short that the value of that spare time increases about 5x the rate of inflation compounded quarterly. As one sage aptly put it "time is money".

It's a hassle to get anything done. I get up at 5 AM, work is 7-to-3:30 and I get home around 5. In the winter, I try to go on rotating shift: PM is 3:30-to-12. Then I can shoot during the week every other week. I also have access to lathes and milling machines at work...and some talented co-workers who like me and will set up and show me how to do things. No guns go in, but I can work on parts or reloading dies any time. I modified a base plug for a paper patch mould yesterday. AND next week is the first set of PMs...the first project is new seating plugs for 44 DILLON dies.

Good move on the "M-die." Let them make the difficult stuff (if you can afford to buy it) and then you turn out the custom modified part. I shoot a 50/90 SHILOH SHARPS....guess how many accessory items are available for that Big Boy!

AND thank God for the DILLON and STAR machines. You can run in and lube/size boolits or reload while waiting for the Mrs. to get ready to go out or whatever. You can get something out of the otherwise wasted 15 minutes, half hour or ? I bought a second 550B just to avoid wasting time switching from 357 to 44; 8 hours of double time (overtime at work one Saturday) covered the price of that. Unfortunately, casting boolits requires a longer window of time.

Time is money. But if I have the extra money, I'll spend some of it to get time to do what I want. I have a carpenter/electrician/landscaper step-son with teen age kids and not much of a job. I work overtime; he gets a project at my place and we're all happy.

:Fire::redneck::cbpour:

[454PB]

I made mine so the "pilots" could be inserted into a single 7/8" X 14 holder. I use a recessed allen head set screw to hold them in place.

http://fumpr.com/images/vjijghnr5v6lloyera.jpg (http://fumpr.com/)

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Dean Grennell gun writer extraordinaire did quite a bit of work on and with M Dies and wrote it up in one of his earlier books on handloading, titled "The ABC's of handloading"....I believe it was the first edition. He started with one store bought M Die and developed a system of creating the "plugs" to fit in the stem and shaped them usually conical and tapering to a point so that there would never be a question of any wrong encounter with the case mouth. The diameter of the plug varied with the caliber. The plug itself was turned on the lathe; it was bored to accept at the end that attached to the stem, a section of threaded rod which if I remember correctly was either 8x32 or 10x32. It was secured in place with loctite. He made a large number of them for all the various calibers that he loaded for and had a picture of them mounted in a small box with rows drilled to hold them in place. LLS

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Thanks 454BP for the pics of your soultion to the m-die fix.I never would have thought of it . Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees. As for some of you guys wanting a lathe, be carful what you wish for , you may just get it. A lathe is just the beginning. After you get the lathe then coms the tooling.It' a desease and there is no cure. I have not only my own experience to talk about ,I have also witnessed first hand what the illness has done to my friend Buckshot. He has it bad. Every visit to his garage reveals some new treasure he has just won on E-BAY. I must admit he is becomming quite the machinest unlike me who is worse than when I first started. It is also nice to barrow some tool that I don't have. My advise to anyone contemplating the purchese of a lathe or milling machine is ,don't do it.PUT THE MONEY IN GUNS AND PAY SOMEONE ELSE TO WORK ON THEM.When it comes time to sell them you will get more of your money back, and believe me the time will come. Excuse me if I misspelled some words here and there. I can't get spellcheck to work on this stupid machine and I am to lazy to look them up.I am also hoping you guys can't spell any better than I can.

[dromia]

Yes the "M" die is a fine idea that works well. How I wish I had the aptitude to do maching, however I'm one of those who have to work very hard at doing detail.