Homemade?

[Clark]

This is from a couple years ago, I made an improved co-ax press jaw holder housing:
1) Springs don't fly across the room with swapping jaws
2) Housing does not bend when stuck brass is pulled out of die
3) Screws self center
4) Screws hand tighten

Since then someone got the housing drawings from me and built them with CNC and sells them.
Since then I learned a retired machinist did the same thing over 10 years ago.

This is not brilliant engineering. This is what would happen if Gopher shooter supply, Bonanza, or Forster ever had an engineer.

[wquiles]

Great thread. I have a few things to share/contribute:

- My own DIY wet brass tumbler

I also recently had to modify my 44Mag dies to allow for the larger (.432") cast bullets I am now using. Not only I had to open up the floating sleeve:





but I also ended up making my own expander, with a smooth and gradual 1/2 degree taper so I would not over-work the brass:


New one on the bottom:



I have also done some of my own basic gunsmithing, including cutting my SBH to 4 5/8", cutting/polishing the new crown:



Silver soldering the new front sight:


Drilling and taping the frame:






And installing a scope mount. Here is the finished package:



Will

[oley55]

wquiles, just yesterday I was just thinking about what to do with my expander so that I can seat .432's without scraping lead. If it's working for you, ya wanna make another?

[wquiles]

That was for me several hours of work in my manual lathe. Too slow to make more manually.

I do hope to upgrade my lathe to CNC, and when I do, I should be able to make parts for others

Will

[Steve Steven]

Making a Forster Bullet Puller Collet

A friend was loading .22 calibercases with J-word bullets, and had to pull several for errors.He did most with a hammer-type puller he had,but had several that withstood several attempts with the hammer.

I told him I had a collet puller, butI had to make a .22 cal collet for it.This is how I did it:

Heres the sketch I drew up withdimensions, taken from a .30cal collet I had:


I started with a piece of 5/8 drill rod I had:


Cutting outside to size:



Drillingbullet hole, counterbore 7/16 not shown:



Cuttingtaper, compound set to 15deg:


Parting off from stock:



Setting upin mill for cutting slots, rotary table set up vertical, 4jaw chuck on rotary tableto hold collet:



Startcutting slots, cutter was too small:



Finishcutting slots with larger cutter, had to make mandrel from a 1/2" bolt



Finishedcollett:


Factory .30cal on left, Homemade .22Cal on right:
OOPS, hit 10 photo limit, see next post for last picture

Steve

[Steve Steven]

Factory.30cal on left, Homemade .22Cal on right:



Thats all,folks!



Steve
PS, I know its only $10 plus postage for a factory one, I just like doing it!

[Johnny_V]

Steve,

Great job on the bullet puller collet. Thanks for sharing. With the price of collets, this seems like the most viable solution. Again, nice job.....

[Johnny_V]

Steve
PS, I know its only $10 plus postage for a factory one, I just like doing it!

The best price I've been able to find is $14.95 plus shipping, and these days it's the shipping costs that eat up the dollars.....

[wquiles]

Steve,

Great job on the bullet puller collet. Thanks for sharing.

+1

Nice job, and great pictures showing the process

[Steve Steven]

Thanks Johnny V and wquiles, for the nice comments. My friend I made it for used it successfully so Job is done.

Will, I really admire your work, you are a better craftsman than I, your work is very professional! I'll keep practicing maybe I'll get better!

Steve

[wquiles]

Thanks Johnny V and wquiles, for the nice comments. My friend I made it for used it successfully so Job is done.

Will, I really admire your work, you are a better craftsman than I, your work is very professional! I'll keep practicing maybe I'll get better!

Steve

Thank you for your kind words Steve. I still consider myself a novice machinist, and I am fortunate to have a great machining & welding mentor (whom I have never met in person!).

Sometimes there is little to modify, like in this work from yesterday (Sunday). I wanted to find a way to improve my own round/swaged lead loads, and looking over my un-used dies, I started looking at the one for the 45ACP from Lyman and RCBS. The Lyman seating die showed promise, as it had the seating stem for a round nose bullet, but the die was not wide enough to allow the larger 45/70 case to go through:





So I bored it out a little, and that allowed me to use the seating die:



Now, where I got 100% lucky was with a left-over 45ACP RCBS expanding die. It turns out that the die performs exactly like a Lyman M die for the .460" sized bullets, and expanded the case just enough to allow seating my .460" bullets, without flaring the mouth much at all:



Here is a close up on my Accurate 46-300DG sized .460":



After adjusting the seating depth so that the round ball just has a light indention from the barrel, I then did a light crimp with the Redding profile crimp die - presto - ready for trying out some loads again:




In fact, the RCBS 45ACP expander worked so awesome, that it replaced my Hornady expander die "permanently" in my 45/70 die set:



I have a second turret holding the modified Lyman die to seat the round balls, so I don't have to touch/adjust my main OAL for the Acurate bullets (Ranch Dog 360gr designs). I might get the Lee collet crip for the second turret so that I can apply a separate, light crimp to the cartridges with the round/swagged balls.

Will

[Clark]

WQUILES,
I remember your name now, your post on a non gun forum about your new lathe in 2008 resulted in me buying Precision Mathews PM1236 lathe like yours. My lathe is always dirty, but we both bought PM1236s.

[wquiles]

WQUILES,
I remember your name now, your post on a non gun forum about your new lathe in 2008 resulted in me buying Precision Mathews PM1236 lathe like yours. My lathe is always dirty, but we both bought PM1236s.

That is me - guilty as charged

All that work above was my PM1236. No longer looks like new, but still works like new. It is capable of good work - "I" am the limiting factor

[Eddie17]

Good idea!

[Bullwolf]

I never understood why the RCBS loading block only holds 80 odd cartridges.

It never made any sense to me, since primers, components and ammo boxes tend to come in batches of 50 to 100's.

Maybe it's like the packages of hot dogs, and bag of buns conspiracy - The numbers never match, and you always seem to have either naked hot dogs, or empty buns left over when your done.

Anyhow, I've been wanting to make myself a wooden loading block, but until this year I hadn't really gotten around to doing it.

For the project I used a 9/16th Forstner bit to drill the holes, and set a depth stop on the drill press. For wood, I just re-purposed a piece of old cabinet front I had laying around, a dab of pecan colored wood stain helped it to match the wood top of my loading bench.



I rubbed a couple coats of linseed oil into it when done for a somewhat protective finish, that I could easily touch up.

My new loading block holds an even 50 pieces of brass, which makes the math work out better for me. It's not really original, or a new idea I know. People have been making loading blocks out of wood for a while. I just felt like sharing it here on Cast Boolits.




- Bullwolf

[Johnny_V]

Bullwolf,

GREAT looking job and an excellent way to "Re-purpose"..........

BTW, I thought of Steve Martin in "The Father of the Bride" the second I read "RCBS loading block only holds 80 odd cartridges" - way toooo funny.....

[bear67]

SHELLHOLDER STORAGE: Did not like looking in drawers below benches for shellholders, so I thought drilled angle iron. When I looked in "spare parts repository or junk pile", I saw some light weight aluminum 1 1/4" tubing and the light bulb lit. Laid out holes and drilled for bottom diameters and it works just like I thought. The green tape makes it easy to write on.

[bear67]

Fabricated Dillon Strongmount. Picked up another Dillon 550 on here as I did not feel I was getting my extra one home anytime soon from son in laws house. Wanted one set up for both primer sizes and rather than spend more of my money with Big Blue, I looked in the scrap pile and built this with some 3/16" plate 1 1/4" angle and 1 x 1/8" flat bar. Works good and duplicates height and placement of finished ammo bin, empty brass bin, and bullet tray. Took about 45 minutes, but time don't mean much to a hog. This was a temporary mount to try it, and now it has been moved across the shop next to the other 550.

[wquiles]

Awesome. Having a welder is sure useful. I only have mine for a little over a year, but I wish I had it at least 10 years ago

[lead-1]

Here is my fix for my Ohaus powder measure, the original bottle has so many hot glue repairs that it no longer fits right. I have been using a 20 oz. Sprite bottle for a few years, it worked but I never trusted it to stay put but this new to me set up seems to be fairly sturdy.
I cut a notch in a 3/4" PT male fitting to slide over the key slot, then added a 3/4" to 1/2" reducer and a piece of 1/2" PVC that just happens to be a press fit in a spare MEC powder/shot bottle, I chamfered the end of the PVC to allow a smooth flow from the bottle.
The lid from a pill bottle just fit the mouth of the measure so I cut a hole in it to fit the 3/4" PT fitting thru and snapped it to the measure. this also make it less apt to wobble during use.
It's amazing what a person will do to keep from throwing out a discontinued piece.