Pure Lead swagging pressure

[nvreloader]

Guys
I am new to this style of forming lead, and I don't know the answers.

I am making dome headed bump/sizing dies, that I need to make larger by a couple thousands on pure lead Pellets.

How much pressure from a press would it take?
I have several type/sizes of reloading presses.

These pellets would be held inside a steel sizing die, there would be a steel pin in the top and one on the bottom.
these pins would be formed/made to the head design of the pellet,
and the bottom pin would be conformed to fit the skirt design and taper etc.

Then the top (head) pin would be used/moved to bump the pellet head to size,
while the bottom (skirt) pin would hold the pellet in place.

The increase diameter would be less than .004", which depends on what ever pellets I am forming.

The pellets head diameters are approximately .214/.215" and need to be bumped up to .217/.220" dia,
the OEM design of these pellets is a semi domed HP or FP design.

Your thoughts or suggestions.....

Tia,
Don

[firefly1957]

Not sure if I am getting you correctly , I have a old set of Pacific swage dies in a modified Lyman Orange crusher press i routinely swage .30 caliber bullets to .452" . I had some pulled 200 grain 44 caliber jacketed bullets given to me i even bumped them to .452 ! While they shot well the jacket was to thick to allow any expansion at 45 acp velocity.
I use a t-40 bit adapted in these dies to make a wicked hollow point then push it in a 300 Savage die to form the point .

I also made a set of dies that form .25 caliber pellets for #4 buckshot they work well @ 20 grains lubed with lanolin velocity about 840 f/s. The flat base version shoots best for me .

[garandsrus]

It won’t take much pressure. Any sturdy press will work fine.

[Traffer]

It takes a surprisingly small amount of pressure. I can only think of one caveat... polish the dies well. Not that they will be a lot easier to swage but the so you can easily extract the finished boolit. I haven't tried swaging in any light duty presses but you could probably get away with just about anything that will reload a cartridge.

[nvreloader]

Thanks Guys

I am converting a Thalson 12 ga, single stage press, I have several, different styles, I got in a junk box buy),
I have the operating spec's worked out.

I tried a one handed push down (unk amount of pressure exerted) and got a complete compression of a 22 cal dia lead slug,
sized to .216" dia, but I had a lot of flashing (very very thin) pushed out around the .216" push rod and the sizing die walls.

So, I think I have to turn another larger dia push rod to fit each diameter I want to work with, for each die size.
Would a .0005" clearance for the push rod, be tight/close enough, for head bumping?

The sizing dies are NOE for 22 cal air gun, .216, .217, .218 diameters.

I just have to figure out the adjustable stop for the stroke, so to have the same approximate stroke/pressure,
when head bumping etc

Tia,
Don

[Traffer]

You are going to get flash from pure lead. I try to make the "push rod" fit as closely as possible without getting stuck. I have worked out a "pinch off" kind of union of my top and bottom dies (swaging 22lr) . This caused the flash to either fall off or "flick off" easily with my finger.

[midnight]

Pin gauges are made 0.0002 undersize so you can actually get them to enter the hole you are trying to measure so a punch that is 0.0002 to 0.0003 under the hole dia. should be about right.

Bob