Pat Marlin's gas check makers

[Walter Laich]

order his 45 PB pistol checkmaker. Wouldn't you know it, I was part of a swamping of orders to him.
The wait was worth it.
USPS delivered it at 3:30 today and by 4:15 I was punching out disks. Most of the time was used to find a L-N-L bushing and a locking ring for the check maker.

I was using soda cans and had made a poor man's cutter for the aluminum. I was off by half a turn on a 10-32 screw. The strips worked but I made them just a hair wider cause the wider ones would still fit.

After punching out 50 or so disks I had to see how the check maker worked for making the actual gas check. Less than 2 minutes later I was making them and each one was perfect. Got so I wanted the printing on the soda can on the inside of the check--picky, picky, picky.

Turned out 25 or so and couldn't wait to see them on the bullets. Pat recommends putting them on freshly cast bullets. I has some Lee 200 gr RNFP ones that were cast 6 weeks ago--same day, 6 weeks: that's close enough

Used my Lyman 450 for the first batch and it required me to take a second to have the bullet square and then push/pull the handle and I had my first PB (plain base) gas checked bullet. It was on there, too. All that followed were mirror images of the first.

Next came the Lee push through sizer and it was even easier than the Lyman 450. Snap a gas check on, put the bullet on the ram and push the bullet through the die. Wow, they were going on as fast as I could place them on the ram.
NOTE: I RAN THE BULLETS NOSE DOWN THROUGH THE PUSH THROUGH SIZER. Since they have flat noses the can go either way.

We're about to get hit with another massive thunderstorm 'experience' so I folded my tent and came in the house.

next will be trying it on some powder coated bullets--why you ask? Why not?

This is a great new toy for me to play with

[buckwheatpaul]

Walter, I appreciate your report....been wanting to try a plain base check maker.....need some pictures.....Paul

[RogerDat]

Thanks for the feed back report. I have been holding off on buying more checks as I ruminate on buying the checkmaker and making my own.

[Walter Laich]

on left are the disks that get punched out first
You then reconfigure the check maker and make the gas checks seen in the right foreground.
That's it for the check maker which is the 45 PB pistol one

the .452 bullets you see above all have gas checks on them care of the Lee push through sizer. I tried one on a .457 bullet and it fit so the checks work on them too.
the three bullets, upper right are powder coated and bevel based. The gas checks are well attached to them as well as the bare lead bullets on the upper left, It might look like there are wrinkles along the side of the checks but the sides are smooth to the touch.

I'll get some shots of my jig I use to make strips from the soda cans but it's raining cats and dogs and Houston is under another flood warning--it's the new normal down here.

[JeffinNZ]

How I love 'recycling'.

[buckwheatpaul]

Walter, Thanks for the pictures....you are helping me spend my $'s....

[cainttype]

What was the "wait time"?

[Walter Laich]

wait time was 15 days from time I ordered till it arrived. Pat said he had a bunch to do and as they are all special order I kinda understand

Here is a shot of the bottoms of the above bullets; one is PC and not gas checked for comparison

[Walter Laich]

I didn't want to ruin or at least dull our paper cutter so I cobbled this together. Just a couple of plywood boards with adjustment screws on the back. This way I can adjust down to the 1/1000 th.

I ran both piece through the table saw so I would have slots for the screw hole. Screwed them together and drilled and taped where the slots matched up. I found a small framing square in my junk collection that I like cause I can keep my fingers a bit further from the blade. Good old box cutter with a new blade and you can see one of the 'processed' aluminum cans.

I cut the top and bottom of the cans off with a bandsaw then trim the end on the wooden jig.

[Walter Laich]

In these two shots you can see how the screw goes through the jig. After threading the hole I took it apart and ran some super glue on the treads to keep them from wearing. Each screw has a lock nut to hold the adjustment.
the nuts sit proud of the wood which is important as you will see

[Walter Laich]

these show you the positions of everything when cutting. The left one shows how the framing square butts up the end ends of the screws. You can see how the framing square needs to have them above the wood so they will act as a stop for it.

As with most of my efforts there is trial and error involved to get the proper setting.

The other shot is with the aluminum can in position--it is butted up to the narrow board

[Walter Laich]

A strip that has been cut off. It usually takes two light passes with the box cutter to make the cut. You need to exercise care that your blade doesn't wander off into the body of the strip--it need to say tight against the framing square


I am cutting .667 strips so I can get 5 per can. Each is 8" long. depending on the caliber you would be making gas checks for the number of strips would vary.

[Walter Laich]

Final thoughts.

since your knife blade has thickness you will need to set the spacing wide enough to allow for this. This is where the trail and error comes in. Set it, cut, measure and adjust from there. Be sure to have both set to the same length so you don't get a taper in your metal strip. There is a bit of leeway in the gas check makers as far as width goes however I wouldn't cut all my strips without trying them.

I used old greeting cards as my test material as I'm very cheap and didn't want to waste any of the can aluminum.

[woody290]

Nice! I was thinking about getting the Pat Marlin but was not sure about it... I think you pushed me over the edge!

[Walter Laich]

my biggest problem now is getting my wife to drink the soda so I can get to the cans

[TreeKiller]

my biggest problem now is getting my wife to drink the soda so I can get to the cans

Switch her to Arnold Palmer Ice tea they you will get bigger cans.

[MrWolf]

my biggest problem now is getting my wife to drink the soda so I can get to the cans

I have been making my supply of cans for awhile now for when I can finally start playing again. I just cut the tops and bottoms off and flatten out the sides for storage. I have already filled a full hd 55 gal plastic garbage bag with just the tops and bottoms for scrap yard. Got a paper cutter for a buck but your idea is pretty good.

[Walter Laich]

whatever works for you is the way to go.
I've read things on this forum that gives me ideas to modify my methods or come up with new ones. That's why I like the place so much

[oldcanadice]

By all means get the pb checkmaker. I use .002 coke can material and have had nice success with some long-ago cast 173gr Kieths by running them straightly into a lyman 450 sizer. They also stay on. I have recovered them from a bucket based rubber-mulch bullet trap at 25 yards and none had lost the check.

[mold maker]

Is Pat Martin no longer a member, or why can't I send him a PM?