Lafaun's extrusion die and hard lead...

[Salmon-boy]

I've got one of Lafaun's wire extrusion dies and managed to throw exactly almost 2 slugs of 50/50 ww/lead mix through it by mistake.

Now, the second is stuck firm and I can't make any headway with it.. Any ideas on how to recover???

[GRUMPA]

If it's what I'm thinking of can't you melt it out?

[Salmon-boy]

I was thinking of that but didn't know if it would anneal the die at all..

Luckily I grabbed the IR laser thermometer and crept up to 400 deg.. Some minor griping about grabbing the hot die to turn it (even with gloves) and I was able to squeeze out most of it and add a couple of slugs of .22 lead.

I think I'll need to weld up a collapsable nut and arm to be able to turn the die easier..

[alfloyd]

Salmon-boy
Does the die that you have got a removable nut top?
If so, you can take the top off and punch the lead out with a punch.
If it does not have a removable top, send it back to me and I will put one on it for you.

Lafaun

[Salmon-boy]

Lafaun, It is an early die. Thanks for the offer, I'll PM you..

In the meantime, since I didn't want to get into the same position again, I figured that I'd take an old Lee 124gn 2R TL that has gotten beaten up and re-purpose as a slug mould.

I grabbed the first drill bit I found that was slightly smaller than the punch and drilled out the mould to create 3/4 in or so slugs for swaging..



A couple hours later and I had a can full unmistakable swaging material of 22lr range scrap.