Primer pocket swaging, how to hold cases?

[elmacgyver0]

Looks like a center drill to me.
Is the mandrill just to keep you from going too deep?
Hard to tell from the picture.

[gloob]

A hand drill is part of the equation, but it is not shown. The mandrel chucks into a drill, and that's where it stays while using it.

After power reaming a pocket, I twist the finished case off and twist on the next one. It's at least a little faster and more concentric versus chucking a case right into the drill, like Hicks has mentioned. (Which works pretty darn well).

I am probably going to experiment with mounting the reamer bit under the edge of my bench, so I don't have to pick it up and put it down. Next to my permanently mounted mouth chamfer tool.

This also got me thinking about ways to make my own neck turning tool.

edit: the pin on the end does limit the depth of cut. But the thickness of the casehead varies slightly between headstamps. So I have the length to where I'm getting some reaming on the bottom of the pocket. The odd LC08 case won't get a full ream on the bottom, barely touching the outside of the bottom, but I don't have very many of them. I really won't be able to dial it in until I actually prime a bunch of these cases and see how badly I have messed them up. I'm not sure if I even want any reaming of the bottom.

Measuring with caliper depth stop, I'm getting 117.5 to 118 thous deep on the majority of my LC brass after reaming. Measuring the uncleaned pockets of my nonmilitary brass, I'm measuring between 115 up to 120. Height of a SRP is coming out at 116-116.5, prior to squishing the anvil in.

Google's first finding for me says a small rifle pocket should be 117-123, so there might be enough leeway to rely on the depth stop, but I think feel/judgment comes into play. I mean the bit will stop cutting once the chamfer gets to a certain size (or at least slow down significantly), unless you push harder.

[gloob]

So I took a closer look at what is going on.

The Hornady bit doesn't appear to be shaped to cut in the very center. So it shouldn't be able to cut too deep, unless you try real hard.

Most of these pockets appear to be somewhat dished in the center, deeper at the hole than on the edges of the pocket. The reamer should only level the pocket, cutting a little bit of brass from the outsides of the pocket.

I tried to overcut a case, just going to town on it. And I succeeded. The pocket got too wide, and the primers will fall in/out. But the depth is still right.

[gloob]

I think I'm going to give up on power reaming. My power reamed cases have been cut on the entire sides of the pocket, top to bottom, and the crimp can't go very deep.

I cleaned up my reaming bit under the microscope, blunting the angle of the edges in a taper. So the end should be slightly smaller in diameter and scrape more than cut. The chamfer and the adjoining 7-8ish thousandths of the straight part should cut. And I'll mount my case-holder in a handle and do these by hand. It seems to only take a few turns.

The resulting pockets are getting cut where the crimp should be. The bottom of the pockets and the bottom of the sides are getting cleaned up, too. But there's some dirty untouched area on the sides of the pocket in the middle, when I'm done.

Anyone else having this much fun on Friday night?

[sigep1764]

Dillon Super Swage is the way to go. I used the Lyman multi hand tool, the RCBS primer pocket swager, and the Dillon. Dillon is the most consistent, the fastest, and the easiest to use. Buy it and don’t look back.

[gloob]

Thanks. Swaging seems the fastest way to do this consistently.

I'm starting to remember last time I did this, I just countersunk all of my LC brass. Then I kept the reamer by the press for the stubborn ones that were still tight, only doing them by hand.

If I had more disposable money, I might buy a swager. Right now, I'm just trying to make enough 223 jacketed to fill my mags. And I only have 4 mags.


I suspect reaming could be pretty fast and consistent if maybe the bit had a pilot that went through the flashhole. I know some rare cases might have an offcenter flashhole, but I'd be happy to just throw those away!

[Big Wes]

+1 On what sigep1764 said!

[JoeJames]

I have been using the same a RCBS swage tool for around 40 years and it still works great.

Same here ... I use 'em for 556, 308 and 30-06.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

I've used the little Lee Case chamfer tool to remove the crimp from many, many crimped primer pockets. Have an RCBS pocket swage but using it is tiresome, also have RCBS 5 station case prep with crimp remover tool that works well. Prefer cutting away crimp to swaging, usually uniform primer pockets on military rifle brass JUST BECAUSE after removing crimp. I just hold case with fingers, use a mechanics 'gripper' glove for larger quantities. I use ablock of parafin/old candle/lump of beeswax wiped across cutter as a cutting lube, makes process easier, won't bother primers.

[gloob]

Seems like it's a personal thing. I see a lot of people who have tried swaging went back to chamfer/ream.

I've read swaging isn't always enough, especially for the 4 line crimp. I have probably 200+ LC11 with the 4 line crimp.

It would be pretty trivial for me to grind a swaging button into the end of a hardened steel rod. I might do that and just try swaging with a hammer. I guess I could make one that fits in a shellholder, later, if it works, and get a 21-22 caliber rod in a die for the anvil.

I suspect I'm going to end up back where I started. Power chamfer, hand ream.

One of the best solutions I read about (assuming swaging works on my LC11) is to buy a swager, do all your cases, then put it on eBay.

[gloob]

Here's my free pocket swager version 1.

It left a nice shiny ring around the top of the pocket, where I expect it needs to be. The primer is starting in the pocket perfectly.

The most time invested, so far, has been what I spent looking for dropped primers.

I just ran into my first dilemma with swaging. When you've got a pile of brass, how can you tell if the pocket has been swaged already or not? After the first firing, I assume you can't see any difference by eye? I'm thinking maybe I'll add some features, somehow, so it leaves a distinct mark around the rim of the pocket.

[imashooter2]

I run a batch of once fired cases and then keep them segregated. Once I find a couple I’m that batch ready to fail, I toss the lot and start with the next batch of once fired.