Buckshot
04-09-2005, 06:33 AM
.............In January of 2004 I finally got a capable lathe. After lots of dinking around and learning my way around it I did a couple small projects, but at the top of the list was some dies for the Comblain. I had changed the front struts on a '86 Chevy Celebrity we'd had, and seeing those loverly shiney smooth steel strut rods, I couldn't bring myself to throw them away. I just KNEW I could use them for something eventually? Kinda like a packrat, they were SHINEY!!!!
http://www.fototime.com/FEB48295FDD2804/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/2814C9B404C7122/standard.jpg
And so it was. The upper left photo is a size and seat die made form the material. I thought they were just really polished steel or stainless. A HSS bit just turned blue and went flat trying to cut threads. Turned out they were chromed. I broke out the carbides and cut threads!
The shellholder was made by boring to the right ID to fit the casehead, and then a single toothed form tool was ground to match the shape of the rim and it's circular recess was cut to the right OD. A mill cut made across the front and a bit of cleanup with the Dremel produced the shellholder.
The photo at left below is the result. I had decided to alter the brass to utilize the 209 shotshell primer. Coyote' on the British Militaria board had done so with 24 guage brass in the Snider and also the same brass formed into 577-450. After several loadings and firings with 120grs of 2Fg and 450 gr slugs they were holding up fine. Good enough for me.
Since the ram of the press doesn't have a hole large enough to pass 209 primers, de and re-capping had to be done elsewhere. In the upper right photo are the de and re-capping tools. On the left is a 7/8-14 threaded shellholder to screw into the top of the press. This is mere convenience to knock out the spent primer. The knocker rod is next to it.
Next to the right is the re-prime block. Set a primer on the short central stem and then set the case down over it, the rod on the right is put down into the case over the primer and you drive the case down over the primer. The slight elevation of the central stem assures that the primer is seated just below the face of the brass rim.
http://www.fototime.com/7C6776752B29618/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/8A2C7C8756BDCD9/standard.jpg
I had previously altered 60 milsurp Berdam primed 8x56R brass cases to accept the 209 primer. It was a pure PITA, but atthe time that was all I had, so I did it. Wasn't hard, just wearing and tiresome. I had a different setup this time! For the lathe, I had a set of 5C collets by 32nds. The 5C collet is a big help, but due to their design you can't hold stuff very much smaller then their design range, which isn't a whole bunch.
So as is shown in the upper right photo I had to make a tool to use a tool, which I've found out is preety dang common!
......................Buckshot
On to part IV. The LAST!
http://www.fototime.com/FEB48295FDD2804/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/2814C9B404C7122/standard.jpg
And so it was. The upper left photo is a size and seat die made form the material. I thought they were just really polished steel or stainless. A HSS bit just turned blue and went flat trying to cut threads. Turned out they were chromed. I broke out the carbides and cut threads!
The shellholder was made by boring to the right ID to fit the casehead, and then a single toothed form tool was ground to match the shape of the rim and it's circular recess was cut to the right OD. A mill cut made across the front and a bit of cleanup with the Dremel produced the shellholder.
The photo at left below is the result. I had decided to alter the brass to utilize the 209 shotshell primer. Coyote' on the British Militaria board had done so with 24 guage brass in the Snider and also the same brass formed into 577-450. After several loadings and firings with 120grs of 2Fg and 450 gr slugs they were holding up fine. Good enough for me.
Since the ram of the press doesn't have a hole large enough to pass 209 primers, de and re-capping had to be done elsewhere. In the upper right photo are the de and re-capping tools. On the left is a 7/8-14 threaded shellholder to screw into the top of the press. This is mere convenience to knock out the spent primer. The knocker rod is next to it.
Next to the right is the re-prime block. Set a primer on the short central stem and then set the case down over it, the rod on the right is put down into the case over the primer and you drive the case down over the primer. The slight elevation of the central stem assures that the primer is seated just below the face of the brass rim.
http://www.fototime.com/7C6776752B29618/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/8A2C7C8756BDCD9/standard.jpg
I had previously altered 60 milsurp Berdam primed 8x56R brass cases to accept the 209 primer. It was a pure PITA, but atthe time that was all I had, so I did it. Wasn't hard, just wearing and tiresome. I had a different setup this time! For the lathe, I had a set of 5C collets by 32nds. The 5C collet is a big help, but due to their design you can't hold stuff very much smaller then their design range, which isn't a whole bunch.
So as is shown in the upper right photo I had to make a tool to use a tool, which I've found out is preety dang common!
......................Buckshot
On to part IV. The LAST!