Alternatives to Corbin Die$ ???

[seppos]

BulletFactory, just fyi I source tooling in China for our plant there. There are several shops where I feel they could be sourced for a landed cost of about $300 a set. It would be most likely a minimum order of a 1000 sets of any one caliber and bullet profile. Also would need to put about 1/2 of the money down to start. Let me know and I'll hook you up. Would take a trip there for introductions and the flights from Chicago are about $3000 and it is about 16 hours to Hong Kong. Then a 2 hour ride into the PRC. Altogether with expense you will have about $320 in each set. That leaves you 1 to use and 999 sets to sell

That is the beauty of it. China and other low labour cost countrys could only compete in big volume products.
Agility is the word that will bring also the USA grate again. One need education and to follow the future trends of manufacturing. Automation is a ever growing trend in industry, and there is never going to be turning back even that I and others might hate it.
Modern technology makes possible to produce smaller series with custom design for competitive cost.

S

[Blanket]

And then hope like hxxx that once you push a bullet up into that die, you can get it back out X 999.

That's up to the contractor to check quality, If someone wants to wrap up 320K so he can get a set of cheap dies, that's his business

[seppos]

On the other hand if one sells the programs to all of those keen CNC DIY guys all over the globe so that they could produce they own sets of dies and the dies to they fellow swaggers.. that does not require so big investments..

I bet that in future we will have different kind of 3D printers and other manufacturing stuff at home, and we buy ready programs to do different kind of household items by ourself. That would change drastically the manufacturing and logistic.

S

[Blanket]

That is the beauty of it. China and other low labour cost countrys could only compete in big volume products.
Agility is the word that will bring also the USA grate again. One need education and to follow the future trends of manufacturing. Automation is a ever growing trend in industry, and there is never going to be turning back even that I and others might hate it.
Modern technology makes possible to produce smaller series with custom design for competitive cost.
S

Not what you think. FYI I am an apprenticed toolmaker and ended up managing a 50 hourly and 8 design engineers internal shop that built tooling and automated machines for 20 years. That included EDM's, VMC's, CNC lathes, sinkers, jig borers, grinders and all sundry. Yes I am very familiar with how it is done. All of your design and cam software is worthless unless you have a skilled person to set up, run and then finish the product. Yes China deals in volume more because of logistics but be very aware that there are skilled folks and class A shops there as well. I know this for a fact as I have visited them and use them for a source for our plant in Dongguan that makes products for the Asian market. Back to the subject if you want a quality set of swaging dies it is going to cost you

[ofreen]

I bought my first Corbin swage set, a reloading press set for .224, along with the RF jacket maker back in 1983. I got tired of pushing on the plunger to eject the bullets from the dies, so then bought the ejector gizmo Dave sells. I liked the idea of being able to swage cores for consistent weight so I soon sprang for the CSP press and Mity Mite dies (haven't used the reloading press dies since) and ended up with .30 cal dies in 6S and 8S, along with .44 dies with various nose punches. I got the cannelure tool and other odds and ends. I bought my last Corbin dies in 1989 or so. When .30 cal jacket prices became similar to the price of finished bullets, my .30 cal production dropped off considerably. I doubt if I've made more than a 1000 bullets with the .44 set over the years because swaged .44 jacketed bullets just don't offer much advantage over my cast bullets in handguns. I still use the .224 dies a lot, cranked out 850 of them this weekend. Cranked is the operative word. It takes 5 throws of the CSP handle to make a simple 60gr open tip bullet with RF jackets. Not to mention making the cores, which I do with a Corbin core mold. Can't justify the cost of wire since I scrounge scrap lead for free and the main reason to go through this exercise is the "free" bullets. Did I mention the time spent cleaning and annealing the fired RF brass? Like others, I also enjoy making something myself, plus I am not as dependent on the marketplace and its vagaries for my bullets. But I doubt I'd get into swaging these days. I am glad I bought the equipment when I did and at some point I'll sell it off for someone else to enjoy when I get to the point where I am drooling on myself. I am sure not going to live long enough to wear it out. I agree with others who say that swage dies are cheap even at Corbin prices. Even if swage dies were as cheap as reloading dies, I doubt the market for them would ever be large. People these days won't even take up reloading because they think they don't have the time. Bullet making takes an even larger investment in time. I enjoy it, but I am not the typical shooter and reloader.

[R.Ph. 380]

You going to advertise them as "Made In China"? Per my experience, close tolerance not that accurate. Might get ready to eat a bunch of them.

Bill

[Blanket]

reading comprehension is a wonderful thing