C-H Swag-o-matic dies

[wmitty]

Anyone with machining background have a rough idea how many manhours would be involved in making up a set of dies for this press? I see the original die sets listed on evilbay now and then and they seem to go rather high in the bidding wars. Was wondering if demand would be enough to justify making some die sets up and offering them for sale. Any thoughts?

There's a set of .308 dies now up for auction with the bidding approaching $40.00 and 5 days remaining.

[runfiverun]

pretty much everything I learned about them was searching this site.
I'd be in for a 45 set and maybe a 308 110-120gr rn type die set.

[rmatchell]

I have been playing around with the idea of making core swage dies for mine, but haven't found the time to sit and figure it out yet. Im sure you would find a market. They are a great lil press.

[rbuck351]

How long depends a lot on the machinery you have. With a CNC lathe and a Sunnen pin hone you could make a set in a few minutes. I have only a 7x14 mini lathe and a set of adjustable hand reamers and it takes me 3 or 4 hrs to make a set but I now have dies in sizes that don't exist. Bullet weight is controlled by how much lead you put in the die. A 308 die could make bullets from about 50gr to maybe as big as 200gr. I use mine mostly for changing size and or shape of boolits. I also use it for making an 85gr half jacketed bullet for the 7.62x25 at .310 using spent 50BMG primers for the jacket.
A guy with the right equipment could make money making dies for these if there was enough demand to cover set up and manufacturing time. I recently bought a Lee 459-405HB that casts a bunch under size and out of round so I made a .4585 die and bump them up after lubing them. It works very well. Half jackets are getting hard to find and expensive so I don't know how many of these are still being used. There may not be much market.

[wmitty]

My use for the press and the .358 die set I own has been bumping boolits up in diameter for a .35 Whelen. I was thinking of dies sets in .311"; .312" and .360" might be desirable. Also .460 and .461" might make some of the Lyman moulds useful in the Marlin 95s with microgroove rifling. I bought a 457124 when I was a kid and tried to shoot cast in Dad's old Trapdoor Springfield and found out the meaning of the term "keyholing" firsthand. Soured me for 15 years on trying to shoot cast boolits in a rifle.

[rbuck351]

Swaging cast boolits, even relatively hard ones is not difficult. One of the methods I use is to make a die set a few thou bigger than I need then just size them down to what I need. Let's say make a .314 swage die, lube a boolit and swag it to .314 then size it down to .312, .311, .310 or .309 in a lube/sizer as lube sizer dies are easier to get and cheaper than Swag-O-Matic dies. You have a .358 swag die which could easily be opened to 360 then size the boolits down to fit different guns. I have found the Swag-O-Matic to be very useful for changing cast boolit sizes and shapes, flattening the base and making them round with nice sharp base edges. Getting someone to make dies for you might get a little expensive as the nose punch probably is going to take a hand made cutter to form the cup for the boolit nose. If you could find die sets in the size and shape you want, I believe even $50 to be reasonable if not cheap. I make my own but I wouldn't even consider making them for sale as it takes way too long on my simple equipment.

[SOFMatchstaff]

I have turned out a number of die bodies and ejection stems in sizes that I didnt have, The nose punch is the biggest issue if its a spire point or non wad cutter design. I used a simple trick to get a semi hollow base by dropping a ball bearing of the proper size into the die and then a simple flat or concave nose punch to expand the diameter of the bullet I am using by a couple thousandths, .499/.500 to .5015/.502, and the .410 to .413+-. These are generally a plated bullet I use for my 50AE clone in an AR and the M95, 405 win 220gr plinker.

Not real difficult, but still not a beginners project as the tooling and such is not cheep . Im with Rbuck on this, make what I need and hope I get it right the first time. I found that the single cut die grinder cutters make some interesting and useful nose profiles for a quick and dirty test project.

[DukeInFlorida]

Word has it that CH4D will make/supply tool sets for these presses.

I'd give them a call:
http://www.ch4d.com/

[rbuck351]

SOFMatchstaff
Thanks for that tip. I hadn't thought of using die grinder cutters. You are correct, the top punch is the hard part.

[clodhopper]

I had given the die grinder burrs thought for making points in dies. But I do not have any .25 calibers.
Never gave any thought to nose point punches.
I have a brand new CNC mill sitting in my garage, and spend my spare time studying software that runs it.
Have only made a few tool racks and such in the two months since first "power on" cycle.

[Reverend Al]

I realize that this is a very old thread, but I've been trying to clean things up in my reloading shop and wondered if these 3 items that I found are of any use to anyone here? There is a CH Swag O Matic .308 spire point bullet nose punch and two other items that I am not sure of whether they are Swag O Matic parts or not? One is an unmarked seating plug (?) and the other is some sort of threaded die marked 6.5? If you can use any of these items please send me a PM ...

Cheers,

Al