My Work Order List

[BT Sniper]

Once I receive a die back from nitride I still have the following steps to perform,

- clean dies of any left over scale from heat treat and any left over deposits from the nitride process

- ultra sonic cleaning of the dies to remove any foreign debris before lap and polish

- lap and polish the inside finish of the die till it is perfect bullet diameter, this can take 20 minutes to several hours depending on caliber

- ultra sonic clean and dry the dies again

- machine all internal components of the die, rifle caliber point form dies have several components to machine

- machine control bullets for rifle caliber dies

- machine and heat treat base punches for each die, shell holder style base punches typically take longer

- assemble dies and make test bullets with die to determine if additional lap and polish is needed till perfect diameter and bullet formation is achieved. If I'm lucky only one lap and polish is required otherwise I start the process over again

- prep the same brass the customer intends to use for jackets so I can provide the samples and test the dies, I try to keep a large supply of this brass/jackets ready for all the calibers I provide yet I tend to run out and have to make more on occasion

- prep lead cores to make the bullets with for testing the dies, again I try to keep a lot on hand but at times I have to get out the lead pot and make more

- final cleaning of dies

- box dies up with instructions and samples of each step of the process, just boxing everything up and properly labeling everything takes nearly an hour or more it seems

- drive to PO and send the new dies on their way

- update invoice and work order lists

- etc. etc. and I'm sure I probably missed a few things.


Right now I am working 100% on getting this latest batch of dies finished and off to heat treat. With this latest batch of dies I am finishing up it will cover nearly every die I have on order and then some. Typically once I get the dies back from Nitride the process doesn't take to long till the dies are ready to ship.

I expect to have a lot of orders ready to fill very soon.

Thanks for all your patience and support

Brian

[Bonz]

Thanks Brian for the detailed explanation. The length of time and effort required makes a lot more sense now.

[BT Sniper]

Your welcome, thank you for for asking... I'm getting quicker on my process and quality continues to get even better. A lot of you have been waiting quite a while, thank you for your patience, I am taking steps to ensure future orders will not have to wait so long.

Brian

[GregP42]

BT,

Have you ever thought about making a die set to swag pure lead for paper patched bullets? Something that is tapered with a nose sort of like a Postell in the 500gr to 540gr range?

Greg

[BT Sniper]

what caliber? Swaging pure lead is easy. Got any pics?

BT

[Lizard333]

Here's a website I considered. Pretty reasonable. Never used.

http://www.hawkbullets.com/swage-it.htm

[GregP42]

what caliber? Swaging pure lead is easy. Got any pics?

BT

BT,

Like this one, http://www.buffaloarms.com/Detail.as...60210&CAT=4161 it is 446 at the base and tapers to the end, but where it is cast there isn't a cupped base on it. I like a cupped base the tail of the paper in when it is wrapped.

Greg

[BT Sniper]

I'm up to 245 dies for the month. Check out list for all the numbers in blue!

Almost done with this batch. Should have it to heat treat first of the week.

Thanks

Brian

[BT Sniper]

I'm up to 272 new dies machined and ready for heat treat since the new year. I'm almost done with this run of dies and expect to have them to heat treat this week. At that time I will return to assembling orders for which I have dies here now ready to be assembled.

This latest batch of 272 dies represents the largest run of dies I have ever put together. My thanks goes out to all of you with dies on order that have given me the time I needed to machine these dies, many of which will fill current orders and many will go to fill potential new orders in hopes and attempts to lessen the lead times from order to delivery.

Many great things to come!

Good shooting and swage on!

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Latest batch of dies are scheduled for heat treat, dropping them off Friday (7th) morning. I expect to pick them up on Monday the 17th.

Then I expect to ship them off for Nitride processing on Wednesday the 19th. Then expect them back from Nitride at the end of the month.

I'll be busting tail rest of today and tomorrow to get just as many dies as I can ready to be dropped off! I'm up to 281 dies ready for heat treat at the moment!

BT

[BT Sniper]

315 dies dropped off at heat treat today!

BT

[Waldoone]

315 dies dropped off at heat treat today!

BT

Are any of these 40cal?

[enreynolds]

Are any of these 40cal?

Waldoone, if you look at the first page of this thread, BT has listed all the dies ready to go to Heat treat. There are 25 40 cal Point forming dies in the heat treat order!! YEAH~!!!

[BT Sniper]

YEP! 25 of them! Would have been more but I busted my reamer. I got two more replacments and will be making a lot more 40 cal dies in the next batch.

BT

[Waldoone]

Sorry if I seemed impatient. Just getting really anxious.

[midnight]

Now that Brian's got this huge batch off to heat treat and nitride I'm hoping he will assemble some of the dies in stock. I may get my 5/16 copper tubing jacket maker and the 5.7x28 draw die soon. I can always hope. Congrats Brian for making a lot of people happy soon. Now we need you to start making dies for the Walnut Hill/Sea Girt presses so I can begin ordering some.

Bob

[BT Sniper]

Yep! I'm on it! Got a lo tof back orders to work on including dies already here ready to be assembled and will be shipping just as soon as I can.

I can already adapt my dies to work in the WH and SG press unless you wish me to make a die that works just like RCE's

BT

[BT Sniper]

Sorry if I seemed impatient. Just getting really anxious.

No problem, Thanks for your patience. I'll have them ready very soon.

BT

[BT Sniper]

I'm getting as many dies and tools ready as I possibly can for this latest shipment heading off to Nitride processing. I expect the dies to be done with heat treat some time this week and will box them up and ship them off to be Nitride processed by end of week. I made some very good progress this weekend in the shop.In addition to the 315 dies I have at heat treat I now also have ready for nitride..... 28 universal dies, 16 BTX dies and 57 Lee Classic Cast ram tops. That makes 416 dies that will be going to Nitride. That is a lot! I think the most I ever sent in the past was 150 at one time.

I realize I am keeping many customers waiting with previous orders while I finish up dies for this Nitride batch. It is my attempt to "get ahead" with this batch. By taking a couple extra weeks now to send in ALL the dies I need for current and future orders it will save months of waiting for both current customers and customers in the future.

As I said all these dies will be shipping out to Nitride as soon as the 315 dies are done at heat treat. After that I will be returning to putting current customer orders together.

Thank you for your continued patience. This is going to be one heck of a run of dies!

Good shooting and swage on!

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Picked up dies from heat treat today. Will be boxing them all up and sending to Nitride in a couple days or less.

BT