Who makes their own dies? And is willing to help beginner /hobbie machinest.
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Who makes their own dies? And is willing to help beginner /hobbie machinest.
What dies are you wanting to make? I was a tool and die maker for 30 years.
Where are you located at?
I made dies for my 41 Swiss Vetterli. Converted the old dawg to centerfire. Reamed the neck of the chamber to accept groove diameter .446 340gr cast boolits. My dies reform 348 Winchester. Great shooter! Even shot Bambi a couple of years ago!
I'm in Wyoming. I'm wanting to use spent 9mm, 40s&w, and .223 into bullets I can use. Same as BTsnipers or C/H one shot dies to start. Maybe .380 as well. This seems simple to make a punch to seat the core and one to release it. I have purchased PTG blank dies and have grade 8 bolts to make the body out of. I need info. on making the cutter/reamer. and how to polish the body.
Best bet would be to tell us what machinery you have to work with, then you will most likely get some ways to attack it.
Haven't made swaging dies yet, but interested.
I think the OP is talking about bullet swaging dies, not reloading dies.
Yes about bullet swaging dies. I have a precision mathews pm727m mill and a bolton 12 x 30 lathe. This is my home set up. I'm an I&E tech by trade. So I wired a friend of mines CNC machine shop that lets me play around on his equipment when not in use. I have yet to do this.
Any dies you make will require different machining skills, Most will start with heat treatable steel, If you are working with this type of steel and plan to harden than plan to polish, It will be different than mild steel. I heat treat and polish with compounds, Other wise wet and dry paper and a wheel, cotton with brake in paste. Do you know how to heat treat? I am just trying to follow what your trying to accomplish
also not every grade of tool steel is as "usable" for dies There are some air hardening that actually will shirk slightly when hardened meaning you can machine to size harden and have a few thousandths to polish out to size from the hardening process. Another is when hardening you need to anneal or draw the part back some to avoid it being brittle.
A1 Will not require a draw back and will last for ever. Just not brittle. It is a be ouch to machine tho.
A2 and A6 took steels are very dimensionally stable during heat treat, if they are done properly in a vacuum furnace. O1 and 06 are less dimensionally stable during the heat treat process but are much easier to get “right” in the home shop. O6 is, in my opinion, the best swage die material you can use. If you are unfamiliar with it, do some research on it.
Realistically, for what we do, any tool steel heat treated properly and drawn properly will work fine. Some are better than others but whatever you can get your hands on you should use.
Forget about using bolts .....the majority are Chinese junk ,very hard to machine ,and of uncertain heat treat.
For punches I exclusively use 1144 stressproof. Machines great and is up to the task. Plus there is no heat treating involved.
GONRA agrees with john.k FORGET !@#$ BOLTS!
Make it EZ - get documented material (drill rod etc.) from actual industrial suppliers.....
>>> NO HEAT TREATNG GUESS VERK! !! <<<<
What does PGE stand for? As in PGE blank dies?
PTG = Pacific Tool and Gauge
Thank you.
I have made a couple of Swage dies for my Herters 9 ton press.
They are simple for hand gun bullets.
Rifle bullet Swage dies are more complicated and take much more time.
Thanks for the tip, I just ordered some 1144 to try. Need to spend some time at the lathe making punches for the different projects going.Quote:
Originally Posted by IllinoisCoyoteHunter