Making 30 Cal Dies

[Cane_man]

here are the loaded rounds, Norma 7mm-08 Rem Brass:

[customcutter]

CM, just re-read this again, great looking work on the bullets. I see you made a tool for cutting your ogives on the lathe. I've still got to figure out a way of doing it without so much material hanging out of the chuck, it is causing lots of deflection. I'm hoping that the grinder set up will work better than trying to cut with my set up.

Finally back to cutting grass every other week now, so I'm back in the shop. I started lapping my core seating die with 40 micron diamond paste. I've got to try and get some cores poured and sized so that I can measure my core seating die ID. I'll get some 55gr .224 ordered tomorrow for lapping the point forming die, I finally made a D reamer from HSS 1/4" round ground down to .217. I may try forming my own brass laps if I can get the proper ogive figured out. Electrician is supposed to be here tomorrow to hook up VFD to my 9X42 mill I bought 2 years ago and have converted to CNC. It'll be nice to be able to work in the shop finally. Still having lots of headaches and migraines, need to get that checked out now that I have time. Thank God I made diagrams and wrote lots of notes before I quit this project last spring. Most of the info is there just need to read it again. I looked through your posts didn't see anything about your radius turning setup. Did you post any pics anywhere else?

CC

[Cane_man]

CC, so good to hear from you and great that you are back in the shop!!! I only have pics in this thread of the radius attachment, and yes deflection is an issue but manageable...

[Pink_Vapor]

I wonder if the lines in the Berger bullet are there to assist in the "mushrooming" effect.
CC

The Bergers are very thin skinned like a match bullet, the only reason they work great for game is the much steeper pointed angle so they explode @ 4" in, instead of on impact.

[Cane_man]

since the 9mm cases are thicker near the base they open up some at the tip and then keep driving at impact and hold together well...

[Cane_man]

Anyone make the 30 cal dies?

[Chad G]

I know this is a couple of months old but its still a great thread, and I've been slowly working toward making my own drawing die and reamers.

But I have hit the wall, when it comes to heat treating the O1 tool steel, I get it to orange color then quench in a big pot of canola oil and then put it into my preheated to 400degrees toaster oven for an hour. The steel is still able to be cut with a file. I made a boring bar to test the theory out before going gungho on the dies. When I chucked the bar in the lathe and trying to cut down a steel rifle case, the tip of the tool dulled and then chipped away. It is still magnetic, but so is my M2 part off blade and Cobalt drills.

Fired in a coffee can forge with mapp gas. Duration of soak is ~4 min, quench till it turns black and into the oven. I am tempted to build a small gas fired kiln and put a thermocoupler in it so I can monitor the temp, but its overkill IMO.

Any ideas?

[BT Sniper]

Sounds like you didn't apply enough heat for a long enough period of time. Any playing around I have done with 01, I too didn't heat it enough and long enough the first time and wound up softer then I wanted. Just a thought?

BT

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

If you do the magnet test you need to do it while heating it. It will not be magnetic when it hits the proper temperature. Plus, do the file test BEFORE you temper it...right after the quench. Tempering will lower the hardness a bit, and add a bit of toughness.