Home made Swaging

[Traffer]

I have been working on making a swaging setup for 22lr bullets for about 3 years. Before that I have never reloaded a bullet. Made my own tools and dies with Harbor Freight drill press and a dremel type tool. I have many videos but they are all really crappy. This crappy video shows where my work has come so far. I have wanted to be swaging for 9mm by now but things have slowed me down. I am now working on a decicated die machine which can crank out dies on the cheap so I can eventually sell pistol bullet swaging dies.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/he6ikj05em...00003.MP4?dl=0

[NoZombies]

Nice work so far.

[marky123]

Hello
What is the purpose of the 2mm pin?
MARK

[Traffer]

Sorry for the crappy explanation. There are two pins involved in this video. The one that is shown being driven into the base of the bullet is just a wire. It's only purpose is for powder coating. With pins on the bottom of the bullets, I set the bullets in a block with pin holes to hold them. It makes the bullets sit nicely in the oven for baking. The other pin (the 2mm pin) is on the top of the die surrounded by the spring. That is the extraction pin. I pop it with the hammer to knock out the bullet. It creates a 2mm metplat on the bullet. When I make the next generation dies, I am going to make an extraction pin with a wider tip, like a little tiny car valve only with a hollowed base that will continue the round form of the nose. That way the bullets will not have a metplat at all. The noses will have a continuous curve.

[marky123]

Sorry for the crappy explanation. There are two pins involved in this video. The one that is shown being driven into the base of the bullet is just a wire. It's only purpose is for powder coating. With pins on the bottom of the bullets, I set the bullets in a block with pin holes to hold them. It makes the bullets sit nicely in the oven for baking. The other pin (the 2mm pin) is on the top of the die surrounded by the spring. That is the extraction pin. I pop it with the hammer to knock out the bullet. It creates a 2mm metplat on the bullet. When I make the next generation dies, I am going to make an extraction pin with a wider tip, like a little tiny car valve only with a hollowed base that will continue the round form of the nose. That way the bullets will not have a metplat at all. The noses will have a continuous curve.

I think we are trying to achieve the same thing

[Traffer]

One of the challenges of the 22lr bullet is that both ends, the nose and the base have narrower diameters than the middle. That means that the bottom and the top both have to have perfectly formed dies that join perfectly in the center. Otherwise for say pistol bullets, all you need is a ram with a flat or convex surface and a point forming die. Super simple. I am going to make swaged hollow based bullets for my 9mm with a deep hollow base. Several folks do that now. Starting with a molded bullet, they just use a sizing die with a top punch and a ram on the bottom. Good enough to size and swage out any grease grooves. The little 22lr's are tough little buggers to make well. I wish I hadn't even started reloading these devils. But now I am in so deep I have to ride this bull to completion.