C V Schmitt #24 press

[Jackpine]

Several years ago I became the owner of a C V Schmitt #24 press. It was part of a lot of reloading stuff from an estate. I really had no desire to own it, but wanted some of the other items, so I bought the lot. I wanted to include a couple of pics, but they would not load to the sight. (Seems like everytime I try to load pics here, it is a long involved process for me to figure it out, and then by the next time I have forgotten what I had to do. Need a twelve year old to help me out.)

Anyway, I am trying to obtain some more info on it, and assume that those of you with knowledge of these units will know what they are. For those who don't, it is a heavy, cast unit, with lots of engineering and mechanics, operates on a horizontal plane, includes a primer feed, almost for sure uses proprietary dies and weighs something over 25 pounds.

I found an old thread here, but it did not give a lot of info. There are two of them currently listed on ebay for what I $750 and $1000, but are a set price, and not auction, so I am sure is someone fishing for somebody with more money than sense.

Am wondering if any of your smart folks have any knowledge or experience with this unit, if there is a practical use for it, and if not, would like to try to come up with a realistic ball park value, and if the Classified and Sellin pages here are a good place to market it, or if there might be a better option, or another site to gain more info on it. My online searches have not lead me anywhere worthile.

Thanks again for any help,

Jackpine

[Pressman]

Do you have any dies for it? It's an interesting design for certain, and well advanced for the 1920's when Constantine Schmitt designed it.
I have one along with it's little brother, the Model 12. There is very little Schmitt literature available, I have a couple of small booklets. I wrote a brief description of the Model 24 several years ago that's published in the ARTCA Journal.

As for the folks on eBay, the 1000 dollar one has been listed for 5/6 years. The 750 one just over a year. Think they are too high? Neither have the dies or priming tube parts, just a plain press.

Ken

[Jackpine]

Thanks for reply Pressman. I think "interesting design" is an understatement. And lots of precision machined parts, with adjustments. Kind of like looking at the insides of a Winchester 97. Looking at the bottom, I assume there was a special base or mounting brackets for it, for quick removal, or am I making an incorrect assumption? I can only speculate how the dies looked and mounted into the press, but would guess the horizontal mounting made for less than convenient processing, but would make use incredibly stable.

I would love to read the article you wrote, if a copy is available. Would like to know a little more about it, how the dies connected, and the base. I have pulled it out a couple times to show to someone when there is a discussion about how the "old craftsmen" did things, but other than trying to adopt it to a special use a few years ago, which did not turn out to be practical, have not looked at it in quite a while. Am anticipating a move in the next couple years, so am trying to clean up some accumulations.

I recently saw a post on another reloading tool (can't recall now what, but sometimes can't remember my own name) that was made years ago in Minnesota and have a set of dies (White maybe?) that were also made by some long gone machining company in Minneapolis. Were there similar examples all across the country, or was Minnesota home to a bunch of the old German craftsman, maybe with Schutzen backgrounds, that was responsible for this happening.

Thanks again,

Jackpine