Disk Checks

[alamogunr]

About 2 years ago, an article was printed in The Fouling Shot that detailed how to make your own aluminum gas checks. I kind of filed it away in my short memory but would like to try it but am reluctant to spend much $ until I am a little more confident of success. I just retired last Friday, but was able to salvage some aluminum foil sheet about .004" tk before I left. I've miked some of it and it varies between .004 and .0045. This sort of fits the requirements outlined in the article.

Has anyone else tried this and what were your results? The foil I have is half hard but anneals pretty well in the oven (when the wife is not at home). I have enough of it so the thought of cutting up aluminum cans is not appealing.

I can send someone a couple of sheets in the mail if someone is willing to try it. I figure if anybody knows they are in this group.
Thanks
John

[scrapcan]

Not sure if this is what will help you or not but here is a link to an old post on making a aluminum gas checks.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=3260

[Bucks Owin]

Somewhere, I've seen info on making GCs from aluminum cans that can be put on plain base boolits...

Was it in this forum?

Dennis

[Pepe Ray]

A word of caution,
Aluminum is a bad contaminant in the lead pot.
It's not usually as high profile as Zink because its properties
are so much different than lead that they are readily observed and
thusly avoided more easily.
If you drive alum GC'd bullets into a site where lead recovery is likely,
be aware of encountering problems.
Pepe Ray

[Four Fingers of Death]

I dunno, gas checks are expensive, but there is a thousand of them in th ebox, man that's a power of venison or target shooting. You ain't gonna bother with them for plinking.

I have never got around to casting 22 boolits, but I went home on tne weekend and found that I have 3000 22 cal gaschecks in store. I'd better get cracking!

[Bucks Owin]

I dunno, gas checks are expensive, but there is a thousand of them in th ebox, man that's a power of venison or target shooting. You ain't gonna bother with them for plinking.



Think of it this way. A gascheck costs 3 cents. A primer costs 2 cents. I'd say it costs a helluva lot more to manufacture a primer than it does a lousy gascheck! The price of gaschecks is a ripoff but since we boolit casters are sort of a "specialty market" and I guess Hornady, Lyman etc feel they can charge whatever they want...

Personally, I'd rather make my own somehow....

Grumpy and frugal,

Dennis :Fire: [smilie=1:

Hmmmm...
I wonder how many gaschecks I could make out of a beer can? Maybe I should go into business!?! :-)

[Maven]

Alamogunr, The person who purchased Ed Wosika's "Hanned Line," Dennis Smith (?), offered such a tool (precision machining, work of art, etc.), but for $140 or so. That buys a lot of GC's and you don't have to punch out and form the checks one at a time either. Unfortunately, the Hanned Line went bankrupt and I've not read a single thing about either of the owners in "The Fouling Shot" in quite some time.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I suppose they make a whole heap more primers than gas checks. Only one firm making them too which doesn't help. I just hope Hornady don't get sick of making them, we would be in trouble then. Can you use copper sheet with the home made set ups? You can get copper sheet at the craft shops cheap. I'll have to get some drawings, I have a brother who is an industrial arts teacher and is always driving me mad for interesting lathe projects for his teenager students.

[alamogunr]

Think of it this way. A gascheck costs 3 cents. A primer costs 2 cents. I'd say it costs a helluva lot more to manufacture a primer than it does a lousy gascheck! The price of gaschecks is a ripoff but since we boolit casters are sort of a "specialty market" and I guess Hornady, Lyman etc feel they can charge whatever they want...

Personally, I'd rather make my own somehow....

Grumpy and frugal,

Dennis :Fire: [smilie=1:

Hmmmm...
I wonder how many gaschecks I could make out of a beer can? Maybe I should go into business!?! :-)

Thanks Guys, Since I had access to a whole lot of material that sort of fit the requirement in the FS article, the prospect of being self sufficient, if I acquired the tools, appealed to me. As I said originally, the idea of cutting up aluminum cans does not appeal to me. I hadn't thought of the possibility of contaminating the lead pot with material reclaimed from the range. I do that too. I guess I need to decide where I want to be frugal (cheap). This is beginning to sound more like a "can I do it" exercise rather than "is it practical".

John