Pneumatic Swage Press

[Mauser 98K]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8BV-t2g_MY

this is what i got done on my pneumatic swage press so far.. it got the stand done today and just got to clean everything up and paint it and put on my logo.. im thinking "Bullet Farmer Industries" lol.. yea, like the bullet farmer off mad mad fury road.. im not that crazy yet though.. but i still got to mount my control plate where the control lever will go for up and down control. also still have to mount the ejector cylinder and the shear lever for removing the trim material off the trimmed jacket.. if i can get everything to work like i want it to it i can trim hundreds an hour, seat hundreds of cores and hour, and point form hundreds and hour.. basically a hand feed pneumatic production press. originally i thought of 3 cylinder setup where on the trimming it would trim, remove trimmed material, and eject the trimmed jacket all in one actuation. we will see how that goes though. i might just use 2 cylinders and use a lever actuated shear plate the remove the trimmed material b4 the ejection cylinder is actuated..

[Earlwb]

That is very impressive. Nice work. Do let us know how it does making bullets when you get it going.

[Mauser 98K]

i done tried it out while it was laying down. i just held the dies where they should be and shot the air to it.. it will trim, seat the core, and point form pretty well..

this here is one of the bullets i made with it. did the trim, core, and point forming with it to see if it would generate enough force. this is a 130gr .308 varmint bullet.

[jmorris]

Looking good, be sure to post another video once you have it all together.

[Mauser 98K]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2175rDeXmU

it is getting there. i put the bottom cylinder on yesterday and made the junction block and added the lines and valves today.. the press is pretty much done except for a few tweaks and making the die plates and a few stops.. im still going to have to make some new levers for my valves to make them a little easier to actuate.. i was going to put a small 1in diameter cylinder on the press to remove the trimmed jacket material b4 the bottom cylinder is used to eject the trimmed jacket but decided to just put a small lever that slides on the die that i can tap b4 i hit the eject lever..

the bottom cylinder was the 3in one i built and was gonna use on the top for the main cylinder but it was too small for that. it should work good for the eject step though.. im still thinking of putting a big spring in the bottom cylinder to return it to the retracted position so i can eliminate one valve or use it for something else or some other operation.. all it is for is the ejection process and only need to put pressure in one direction anyway..

[jmorris]

Looking forward to seeing it in operation, looks good so far.

Reason I asked about your stroke length is I had seen some rather large (an inch tape measure in the photo) pneumatic cylinders at a surplus store in town a few weeks ago. At the time I thought one would make a great can crusher.

[Mauser 98K]

oh it would crush a can to smithereens.. that looks to be around a 5in bore and that would give you well over 2,000lbs of force with 120psi..close to 2,400lbs if memory serves.. mine is just a 4in bore and 5in stroke. the bottom cylinder is a 3in bore with 5in stroke... im not using anywhere near the full stroke..

[jmorris]

What dies are you going to use in the press you are building?

[Mauser 98K]

im making them myself.. im using 1in grade 8 bolt to make the point forming, core seating and trim dies. they will heat treat harder than a file and the inside will polish up like a mirror so should work just fine.. that is what i used to make the dies that i made the bullets for my profile pic out of..

[jmorris]

im using 1in grade 8 bolt to make the point forming, core seating and trim dies.

I am sure I am not alone at being interested in more details on them.

[Mauser 98K]

im just using the grade 8 bolt like i would regular steel bar. im annealing the bar and machining it, reaming it, then heat treating the die to harder than a file with a water quench, then im polishing the inside to a mirror finish using Clover brand fine lapping compound..

but here is a pic of my bolster plate i did today that my die plate will bolt to.


i got it set up with a grid so i can set it up for anything i want to do with it. im making it infinitely adjustable so it is easy to set up for any operation or any task i want to do with it.. i can use it like a swage press or a regular pneumatic press..

[Mauser 98K]

got my die holder made.. now i just gotta make the lever that slides a trimmer plate across the top of the die to remove the trimmed material after the taper punch trims the jacket.. this holder will hold the trim die and the core seating die i already got made, ill just have to make an adapter so i can use it with my point forming die.. i also gotta work on my dang air compressor b4 i can take a video of it in operation. i think it broke another reed valve..

[jmorris]

i also gotta work on my dang air compressor b4 i can take a video of it in operation. i think it broke another reed valve..

Looking forward to your video. I had a broken reed valve on a compressor around 2003 and didn't have time to wait on replacement parts. I measured the broken valve and replaced it with the same thickness blade off a feeler gauge. The new part came in the next week and is ziptied to the side of the compressor but the feeler gauge blade/valve is still going.

[Mauser 98K]

press is working now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrtULtvJMZw had to replace a reed valve where it broke in my compressor but it is back in operation.. this is a test of the trimming operation.. this is a lot easier than the way i was doing my trimming with an arbor press, now i just exercise my thumb instead of my entire arm.. there is still a few little minor bugs to work out with the setup but it will actually work as it is now. im just going to have to turn up the set point on my compressor where it cuts back on another 10psi and that will be lovely.. but im now ready to setup my other dies and punches for the core seat and point forming operation.

i am the bullet farmer.

[Mauser 98K]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFe1Sbn0dp8

got my dies setup for point forming now.. i know these are not real pretty, these jackets were rejects from my regular swaging operation and were just used to test the point forming operation which is why i was not too worried about cleaning the jackets up b4 testing.. the ones i will be using for my final bullets will be a lot prettier.. all that aside it works pretty well..

[Mauser 98K]

a little tinkering and here is what they look like after all steps except the polishing are complete.. now i gotta cast some more cores..

[jmorris]

Looks like a neat project. Do you have more information/details on how you built the dies, what dimensions you made them etc?

[Mauser 98K]

just 1in grade 8 bolt. there are no threads at the moment and they just plug into the die plate with a set screw holding them in place.. im making 30cal so 30cal internal die dimensions is what im using..

im still going to have to make another main cylinder.. im teetering on the verge of the trimming pressure and get 1 trim per cycle of the compressor at 135psi.. would go higher pressures but im not sure my water separator will handle it.. im going to cheat a little bit so i can use everything setup as it is now. im going to most likely build a 4in tandem/stacked cylinder.. it will be about 7inches longer but i got enough press frame to do it.. what i will have is 2 cylinders in line with a common rod. with a double 4in stacked cylinder ill be able to get another 1,500lbs of force, and that will be plenty as im already almost there now and i can regulate the pressures down a little. it is so close now that i can just tap the ram with my hand and it will trim every time, only once per cycle of the compressor if i don't tap it.. other than that it works great for everything. get the new cylinder on it and it should be perfect.. it is all still a figuring it out game at them moment and trying to work the bugs out..

[Mauser 98K]

it is coming along.. this is the final cylinder for the press. this is going to be a tandem cylinder, which is just 2 cylinders stacked. this effectively increases piston surface area and force output but doesn't take up as much space as a larger cylinder. i also don't have to change anything on the press and it will just bolt into the same mounts as the other cylinder.

the cylinder used to be a medical oxygen tank that i cut down to make my new cylinder.. the bore is around 4inches and will operate at a max pressure of 150psi. at 150psi it will do 3,650lbs of force, that is 1,880lbs more force than the old one. the walls on the cylinder are 1/4in thick and being it used to be a oxygen cylinder i could go to 200psi and get 4,870lbs of force, but being i was teetering on the verge of it being enough with the last cylinder and 1,773lbs of force i can regulate this one down to 90psi and still get 2,190lbs of force, which should be enough.. it will also be a lot easier on the compressor and other parts using it with 90psi..

[Mauser 98K]

cylinder made, installed, and ready to be hooked up and tested.. im still thinking i might have to add some braces to the top angle plate, but we will wait and see..