BTSniper Custom Tools and Dies

[BT Sniper]

Hot summer months and taking care of my girls while they are out of school for the summer slows me down a little but I'm still making good progress. Even with a small AC unit in the shop and a dip in a cool pool when needed. Luckily the hot weather doesn't last too long up here in the NW.

I did make good use of the days it was too hot in the shop by ordering and restocking necessary inventory and catching up on correspondence.

Thanks again for all your patience.

Brian

[DukeInFlorida]

Brian, you need to read, and try the LawnSteel game we have been playing down here in Florida:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...Steel-shooting

Great fun... shooting at small steel targets at various distances with a hand gun.... From the reclining position....

Check out the videos!

[anotherred]

Cooling down enough you can start warming up? Like many others, we're just wondering on progress. I don't want to come off a jerk, but I've got alot of money invested with you and I'm just wondering whats happening. Again don't take this the wrong way.

[adanymous]

BT
Id be interested in a set of your 40 from 9mm dies.

Also, I may be interested in a set of dies (if this is possible) to make a pretty heavy (175 ish) 30 cal bullet that was hp and heavily scored like your 40-9 bullets. Im looking to get at least decent expansion from a sub sonic bullet. But Id like to be able to shoot super sonic in my 308s without the scoring or hp. Or if its not possible to not hp or score them I need the bullets to work well on white tails and pigs

[BT Sniper]

AnotherRed,

Yes I am working on orders, I promise I will not disappoint.

Summer months (July & August) are a bit of a challenge for me, yes the heat in the shop slows me down a little, even with AC running but the biggest challenge is me being the one that stays home to take care of our 7yr old twin girls during their summer break. They are back to school in one week! That will open up an additional 7 hours a day for me to catch up. I realize this is not an excuse for keeping you guys waiting longer then you should be but I will follow threw with every order I have in the books with a perfect set of dies as promised. Every summer is a challenge for me to balance family needs with business needs, I'm doing my best and if you guys can still give me the time I need I will provide you with the high quality dies as promised.

I'll get a PM to Adanymous soon and be happy to help.

Thank you all for your support and continued patience.

Brian

[rolltide]

Brian,
I understand you are a one man operation that has other responsibilities. You have made that very plain. I was aware of that before I placed my order, and everyone else here had access to that same information. I really do believe you are making a good faith effort, in light of the known limitations you work under, to fill the orders as quickly as possible. You provide a unique service, are very open to input and feedback, and build a quality product. In your situation, I understand your production is extremely limited in the summer. It is natural for your customers, myself included, to be anxious to get our products because they are such wonderful innovative products. You seem to welcome respectful requests for updates and respond as appropriate. I would encourage you to not apologize or feel badly for taking care of your daughters in the summer. Enjoy your time with them. They will never be that age again. This is just a part of the cycle of your year and your life. I personally hope you take the time you need without any feeling of pressure, take your time to make each die to the very best standard, as you seem to do already, and let each of us deal with our own feelings of anxiety and impatience. These feelings are our responsibility to take care of, not yours. I will personally buy the place in line of anyone ahead of me waiting on 500 dies. If you don't want to sell your place, it is because you recognize the privilege of being in the que, and you recognize that Brian will deliver. If you think about it, the more we pressure him and take up his time reading messages and repeating explanations he has already made, the less energy, motivation, and time he has to actually produce what we are all waiting for. I believe Brian is a man of integrity who does his best because of the kind of man he is, not because of any pressure anyone else puts on him. He is really good at updating the work order page when he makes significant progress. If I don't see an update, I assume it is because there is nothing significant to report or because he is so busy machining he hasn't had time to type. Either way, patience and trust is how I choose to respond. YMMV. I have every confidence Brian is working as fast as his priority commitments allow, and will continue to do so. If I did not believe that, I was foolish to give him my credit card number and place an order. Lets give him a little space, or take a refund and go about our business.

(stepping off my soap box now, next?)

Roll Tide

[just bill]

Brian,
I understand you are a one man operation that has other responsibilities. You have made that very plain. I was aware of that before I placed my order, and everyone else here had access to that same information. I really do believe you are making a good faith effort, in light of the known limitations you work under, to fill the orders as quickly as possible. You provide a unique service, are very open to input and feedback, and build a quality product. In your situation, I understand your production is extremely limited in the summer. It is natural for your customers, myself included, to be anxious to get our products because they are such wonderful innovative products. You seem to welcome respectful requests for updates and respond as appropriate. I would encourage you to not apologize or feel badly for taking care of your daughters in the summer. Enjoy your time with them. They will never be that age again. This is just a part of the cycle of your year and your life. I personally hope you take the time you need without any feeling of pressure, take your time to make each die to the very best standard, as you seem to do already, and let each of us deal with our own anxiety and impatience. These feelings are ours not yours. I will personally buy the place in line of anyone ahead of me waiting on 500 dies. If you don't want to sell your place, it is because you recognize the privilege of being in the que, and recognize that Brian will deliver. If you think about it, the more we pressure him and take up his time reading messages and repeating explanations he has already made, the less energy, motivation, and time he has to actually produce what we are all waiting for. I believe Brian is a man of integrity who does his best because of the kind of man he is, not because of any pressure anyone else puts on him. He is really good at updating the work order page when he makes significant progress. If I don't see an update, I assume it is because there is nothing significant to report or because he is so busy machining he hasn't had time to type. Either way, patience and trust is how I choose to respond. I have every confidence Brian is working as fast as his priority commitments allow, and will continue to do so. If I did not believe that, I was foolish to give him my credit card number and place an order. Lets give him a little space, or take a refund and go about our business.

(stepping off my soap box now, next?)

Roll Tide

Food for thought, Roll Tide (oops) as the title says " BT SNIPER CUSTOM TOOLS AND DIES" the optimum word CUSTOM, not microwave, not cookie cutter but Custom. I've already soap boxed my self in other Posts and Threads. Brian, too, has apologized about some of my comments, which could have been interpreted as complaints, however the intent was not to bash or complain just to get clarification. Not a lot of his stuff are groundbreaking inventions, however as an entrepreneur, he has redefined and revitalized things that are comeing around again, I believe when some of us were wearing bell bottoms, peace signs, scoring dime lids and throshing around in the mud at Woodstock people like him were thought of as revolutionaries.
Bill

[rolltide]

That is ROLL TIDE you Virginia Cavalier you.

[adanymous]

BT
still interested in those dies. Pm me when you get a chance

[just bill]

That is ROLL TIDE you Virginia Cavalier you.

No cavalier here, my best friend is a crimson tide, I don't hold that against him.
Bill

[BT Sniper]

In the last few weeks while it is a bit hot and my girls have requested quite a bit of my time I have been able to make useful progress on work related tasks.

I've been catching up on all the little things that will greatly speed my production in the following weeks and well into the end of the year.

I've been casting cores for all the various calibers and organizing them on the bench with them ready to make all the sample and proof bullets from customer dies.

I annealed a bunch of 45 ACP and 40 S&W brass then SS media cleaned them and have since sized or expanded them into their respective caliber jacket with hundreds of samples now ready for .429, .451, .458, .475 and .500 cal jackets.

I am about to give up on the various ways of annealing and get serious with a good sized Kiln! I got a couple used ones I inquired about here locally today that I am just waiting for a call back. I still have quite a bit of annealed 9mm brass ready to turn into 40 cal bullets but my intention is to mass produce 9mm annealed cases in a 18"x18" kiln.

I already have several thousand 22lr jackets and cores ready to test in customer's 22 cal dies.

I trimmed and derimed a couple thousand 17HMR cases in preparation for upcoming 6mm dies.

Received a half dozen more new reamers that includes new 6.5 VLD, 30 cal AAC OTM, 17 cal and a couple others.

Cleaned the shop and made a bit more progress with the on going battle of trying to make things more organized in a small amount of space there for decreasing the amount of time necessary to locate tools and parts necessary to complete customer orders. I'll have some new pics up soon.

Updated all customer accounts on the QuickBooks computer program. With all the info and data in the computer it will save me a considerable amount of time ensuring the orders are correct and payments are up to date.

I have a few unanswered PMs to get to as well as a few emails and possibly a couple phone calls.

Things are looking good again and I am feeling very good about the progress I plan to make on all back orders in the next few months.

Thank you all for your patience and support.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Got this reply from a customer "down under" who I sent one of my 22 cal eleven cavity core molds and figured I would share with you all ....

Hi mate,

I received the mold ..very nice.
I have been casting cores like a madman and have since done about 88 kg (193lbs for you colonials) it works very well and the quality is superb. Oh and feel free to post my feedback on the board if you desire.

I did the math and HOLY SHEEP! 193lbs of cast 53 grain cores is 25,490 cores!!!! I don't think he has had the mold more then a month if that long.

Anyway lot of work to do and things are looking very good on my end to fill a lot of orders very soon.

Brian

[R.Ph. 380]

Ha, see................we're just as fanatical as you are. Just don't have the expertise in machining. So you sent the little ones to the gubmint scrool huh? Don't ya know they'll just get their heads filled with how terrible guns and gun people are? So Sad

Bill

[BT Sniper]

I'm in this business for the long haul guys! I plan to offer top quality dies for the foreseeable future and I'm continuously making efforts to improve my products, decrease future delivery times, increase production and increase the quality of tooling and efficiency in the work shop.

I know the last couple months I have been slow on the delivery schedule as my time available in the shop was challenged. I know the backordered dies are taken me a lot longer then both myself and the customers expected. I am taking matters to correct these issues. With my girls now back in school I am already seeing more time in the shop. The change in weather is a helpful change too.

With the recent unlawful practices and accompanying lawsuits of a attempted competitor in the swage die business I take notice of the failed attempts of these competitors and will do everything I can not to allow my business to make the same mistakes. Frankly the idea of you, my customers, being that unhappy to the point of taking lawful actions scares the heck out of me and I can't thank you, my customers, enough for your support and patience while I continue to grow my business. Should you guys ever have any concerns about the status of your order and my commitment to fulfill it please contact me. With prompt communication and truthful answers regarding any delays it is my goal to keep you informed and happy with your investment in my products.

Here is the latest exciting news..... Dies look great everything will be perfect with the dies as promised, got a good supply now of jackets and cores ready to test your new dies with, what has me really excited is I picked up a good sized Kiln today, $150 used! 18" diameter by 18" deep! I'll now be able to anneal a lot of brass with what I hope to be absolutely perfect results. Not only does the Kiln excite me but because it is larger it runs of 220 volts. My shop isn't wired for 220....yet! but my neighbor is an electrician! He is coming by this weekend to wire it up for me.

So with 220 available I look forward to upgrading my lathe as soon as funds permit, this will also increase production, quality and efficiency.

With the kiln in operation, the large SS media tumbler and the pneumatic press I may actually look into providing sized and annealed brass in the future.

Well I just wanted to get you guys an update, even if it isn't much of one, and reassure you of my commitment to fulfilling your orders and improving my business for the foreseeable future.


oh... and wait till you see the latest with the 50 BMG bullets! Almost there! Looking very similar to the 750 grain Hornady A-max but better!


Thank you all again for your support and patience. I'll keep you guys updated as much as I can in this thread and/or my work order list thread.

Good shooting and swage on!

Brian

[R.Ph. 380]

Brian, We know you and your quality. Thanks for offering all the free stuff, (what?...he didn't? what you mean,..................... see where he said providing sized and annealed brass in the future?) but we'll just wait for the orders............................................ hehehe

[Love Life]

I am anxiously awaiting the day you have stock on the shelves.

[BT Sniper]

I am anxiously awaiting the day you have stock on the shelves.

That is my plan. I think it may be the case some day in certain calibers.

Brian

[runfiverun]

just order and wait....it will be made properly.

[BT Sniper]

With the addition of the large Kiln and the space it needed for safe operation I spent the weekend reorganizing the shop.

Since I didn't get many orders out the door over the summer I figured I should at least show a few upgrades I did accomplish to the shop and the supplies I do have ready to install confidence in my customers with back orders that I am still here and intend to get your orders out the door as soon as possible.

Here is the 24" diameter Kiln in position and ready for use. The lathe had been in this corner of the shop for years and I had to move a ton of scrap lead and buckets full of metal chips, quite a bit of effort. All I have done with the kiln so far is simply turned it on to ensure it worked properly. I haven't used it to it's full potential yet. I figure it will serve dual purpose in the winter to heat the shop and anneal the brass at the same time. Had to hire my neighbor, an electrician, to come over and wire me an outlet for 240v. Now that I have 240v in the shop it opens even more possible upgrades.






Here is the old trusty lathe. I cleaned her up and moved her on top of this new bench.



The simple Grizzly Mill on top of a similar bench top as the lath. Works good!




A look at the swage table for setting up all your dies on. Lee Classic Cast presses and the RCE Sea Girt.




Here was last weeks project. Getting lots of jackets annealed, cleaned and organize along with pure lead cores ready for use in all you guy's dies. Even though this took me a little while I expect it will save me a lot of time in the future having everything ready in front of me.




My office table / shipping table.





A look at my personal die collection. I found these "tackle" boxes at WallMart. They hold 4 dies with base punch and extras with a water/air tight seal.





Here is a half ton of .185 lead wire. I estimated it is enough to make over 60,000 of our 22 cal bullets, certainly enough to last me many years.




Here is what I am really proud of, a cabinet full of all the dies and parts necessary to put customer dies together with. I have been adding to this inventory for years in the hope of someday simply grabbing a die off the shelf when an order is placed. I'm getting there! You should be able to pick out all the dies stashed in there ready to polished and assembled!







Keeping a small shop in a productive working order is a bit of a challenge sometimes but I am pretty happy with the progress I have made in getting it to where it is today.

I have been continuously making and stocking up on all the common parts that make up my dies, Making extras of everything I can rather then just making one at a time. I would hope you are able to see the attempts I am making to improve my business and stock up on inventory in attempts to make future orders both higher quality and faster shipping.

As I said a week ago, I am here for the long term and will be doing everything I can to improve quality and reducing wait times.

Thank you to all of you for your support and patience. I'll have your perfect dies to you very soon!

Brian

[midnight]

That lathe of yours sure looks a lot like my Logan. I just wish I knew how to use it like you do. I have a 5C collet chuck on mine though. I'm just figuring out stuff as I go along.

Bob