Aluminum soda cans as jackets, can it be done?

[seppos]

About 150 cups after the first draw.

I made a test for possible galling. I drawed them without any lube and did not notice any visible sign of aluminium inside the draw die. Very easy to draw. Could imagine that it would be almost as easy with a jacket making set ment for regular reloading press.

S

[clodhopper]

Very nice seppos, I really like the explanation on leadchucker's thread about indexing and the twelve marks.

[Lizard333]

What are you using for the aluminum?

[seppos]

Very nice seppos, I really like the explanation on leadchucker's thread about indexing and the twelve marks.

Sometimes the solutions are so simple that one does not realize them.
It works also in other dies when one knows the thread, and how much it will move on one full turn. Just devide the full circle appropriate way. One could mark the spots to the die body and the locking nut with permanent marker or something else, and use the nut for indexing.
Easy and cheap..

S

[seppos]

What are you using for the aluminum?

Dont know the quality. It is just a piece of 0.030 aluminium. Some left over that I found.

S

[rancher1913]

got to say I am loving this thread, went from it will never work to lets try it, and its showing some promise. thanks seppos for taking the time to do this write up.

[Gew]

I think the aluminum jacketed bullets would really benefit from low friction coatings applied via the tumbling method.

[Lizard333]

I don't know. If aluminum was so bad, I think it would not have been made into jackets by RCE. I'm thinking the aluminum oxide everyone is so concerned about may be a non issue. Testing will definitely benefit all.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I'm thinking the aluminum oxide everyone is so concerned about may be a non issue.

"Everyone" would include me, and I never thought it would be harmful. Unless maybe some member of the intellectual classes used hard anodized aluminium.

Those cups looks extremely good, and augur well for jackets. But .030in. would be quite a bit thicker than soda cans.

[seppos]

I think that soda can aluminium is too thin. First I wanna test the aluminium as jacket material and maybe afterwords check the can material. One almost free material would be the aluminium plates that they use in offset printing companys. We have couple of those companys in my town, so I will check them out too.

S

[Lizard333]

Those plates are a great idea. Thinking out of the box!!

[seppos]

Just remembered it from the gas check discussions.

S

[Tracy]

I'm pretty sure Winchester Silvertip jackets are aluminum.

[longbow]

All aluminum is not created equal by any means. Plain old soft aluminum would likely form easily but I suspect (my opinion only) would gall badly when shot if not lubricated. Aluminum gas checks ride on a film of lube as at least most people shooting GC cast boolits lubricate them.

Some aluminum alloys can be very tough and slick but also likely harder to form into a jacket. Large companies can pay to get the alloy they want whether it is readily available to the public or not. If aluminum is cheaper than copper and a certain alloy is suitable for jacket material then they could use it and save money or sell bullets at lower cost.

My bet if you use soft aluminum and knurl or groove to add boolit lube is that it will work fine.

It will be interesting to see how you test goes.

I am with the others saying aluminum oxide in this situation is not a problem. I think BIS summed it up well. Again, your test should provide some indication if barrel wear is rapid or not. I suspect not.

Longbow

[runfiverun]

you just need to coat the aluminum to prevent the oxide from forming.
aluminum oxide is used in wet/dry sand paper.
keeping the oxide from forming is a good idea.

I think this is a really good place for using hi-tek as a coating.

[seppos]

I checked the Endoscope that my friend has. Aparently it seems to be broken, so now I have to try to find a replacement for it to inspect the barrel. Other thing is that it does not have any datalink so that it could be attached to computer. There is some endoscopes available that one could attach to mobile phone or tablet as well as some that uses the USB port of a computer.
Have to see what option I will choose.

S

[seppos]

I was thinking as one solution to have a quick lye bath for the jackets that I will copper wash. That might ease up the copper to fuze to the aluminium. As the casutic soda eats aluminium, it should brake the oxide, and if I just wash it quickly in distilled water and dump them quickly to the copper wash solution.. That should do.
When I am that far, I will post the exact procedures.

First the plane aluminium.. After that those other additional spices..

S

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Some aluminum alloys can be very tough and slick but also likely harder to form into a jacket. Large companies can pay to get the alloy they want whether it is readily available to the public or not. If aluminum is cheaper than copper and a certain alloy is suitable for jacket material then they could use it and save money or sell bullets at lower cost.

There are aluminium alloys which could make a much tougher cartridge case than the brasses. But they are so difficult to form into such shapes, that they haven't been used. The few aluminium cases we see are medium-pressure pistol and flare pistol cartridges in much softer alloys.

Aluminium and copper alloys in close association tend to produce rapid corrosion. With boat fittings secured by brass screws and immersed in seawater, you can sometimes see the emission of gas bubbles. The highest strength aluminium alloys contain copper, and corrode rapidly as a result.

[seppos]

That is good to know. maybe some other metals could be used?
Maybe Zink? http://www.ssab.fi/tuotteet/terasluo...galfan-coating

S

PS. Yes.. I think that zink would do.. http://https://www.galvanizeit.org/h...h-other-metals

[Tom W.]

What Tracey said. I know the .45 acp silvertip bullets were aluminum jacketed.