New source of gas check material for those who roll their own...

[Red River Rick]

Now here's another harebrained idea for gaschecks. ............................ CNC is a wonderful thing!

Cap'n Morgan, I couldn't agree with you more. I often wonder how I managed without one. Now, I'd never buy another conventional machine.

RRR

[Cap'n Morgan]

What mill are you using! Love the jewellery! High tech solution to replace a low tech problem!

I'm using a three-axis Cincinnati Arrow WMC with a two-axis rotary/tilting head. Nothing fancy, but very versatile.


Consider the parts catcher/strainer idea stolen, too! That's awesome!

You're welcome. I just wish I saw the light sooner! It would have saved me some nasty dumpster diving in the chip tray.

[Charlie Sometimes]

Hey I know some of you are laughing your rears off.... but this is why we're shooting Boolits instead of rocks on the end of sticks......some guy was thinking how to .......
Jimmy K

I shoot sticks, and sticks with rocks on the end, too. Must be flexible these days- you never know what will be available to you.

[trevj]

Thanks Cap'n Morgan,

Looks like a decent machine to operate! I run an older Milltronics machine at work sometimes (when it runs) but am definately not what I wouldd think of as a qualified operator/programmer.

Cheers
Trev

[JimKirk]

Charlie..
Shot many a stick ......killed some deer( lots of foam deer) ...with sticks with steel on the end ....never shot rocks on the end of my sticks....picked up around 150 rocks..while plowing ...some rearend made off with my rocks....fields now planted in trees ....no more plowing ...no more rocks for sticks!
By the way...I once could shoot sticks(at 45yds or <) about a good as boolits > ...but now I don't either as good as I would like! Had to quit with sticks..auto accident....no shoot sticks anymore.
Jimmy K

[Willbird]

Actually an old Brown and Sharp 00 could make gas checks, and they really are not used for production work any more(the work all went to china). They would run out a 8' bar with no help from the operator. 513 (there would be less due to a bar end tho) checks to the bar if they were .100" long with a .06" cutoff

8' bar of 3/8 brass costs $21.60 though, BUT your scrap can sold to recoup some cost.

If you made your checks from 12L14 steel it would only cost $8 for an 8' bar.(thats inflated price at onlinemetals.com)

here is a B&S #2 in action, an 00 is smaller

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot6_4R1oZpM

Bill

[Cap'n Morgan]

Actually an old Brown and Sharp 00 could make gas checks, and they really are not used for production work any more(the work all went to china). They would run out a 8' bar with no help from the operator. 513 (there would be less due to a bar end tho) checks to the bar if they were .100" long with a .06" cutoff

Bill,

I was actually planing on having the checks made on a swiss machine. One of our customers had offered to do it at no charge, but I already promised to make him a mold for pilk casting in return for a bunch of turned brass bullets for my 270 Win. and I wouldn't bugger him further before the mold was delivered.

These were made on a CNC swiss machine, but he had a couple of old B&S which also would have done the job. The bullets shoots great, but I gladly admit it's cheating compared to casting... no challenge in getting them to group





It takes 15 seconds to make one of these babies. Something to remember next time you're forking over 25 bucks for a box of 50 similar Barnes bullets...

[oldtoolsniper]

Now I have to buy a cnc lathe... this casting to save money is getting exspensive!

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Roger the money saving OldTool, but I've been told you gotta invest it to make it..??!! If this is true, I should be rich any time now...

Semper Fi , S.L.

[akraven]

KTN and TrevJ
Did you guys use hardned steel for your checkmakers? Though I realize that copper and aluminum are soft I was curious if you felt you needed to use steel that could be hardned or regular steel. I have some 4140 and O-1 that I wa thinking of trying for making one. Thank you. akraven

[303Guy]

Isn't aluminium supposed to be abrasive? Well, the ever present oxide on the surface, anyway! And I thought aluminium had a tendency to smeer. Is there no aluminium fouling of the bore?

But on to making gas checks - I am planning a forming punch to make boat tailed gas checks in one step.

[trevj]

KTN and TrevJ
Did you guys use hardned steel for your checkmakers? Though I realize that copper and aluminum are soft I was curious if you felt you needed to use steel that could be hardned or regular steel. I have some 4140 and O-1 that I wa thinking of trying for making one. Thank you. akraven

I used 17-4 for my die body for the cutting edge. It is heat treated, but I am not sure to what state.

The punch I made was just as-is stainless rod of some sort, from the scrap bin.

I can make a new punch in a few minutes, or clean up the end of this one.

When I get keen and decide that I have the be-all to end all, I'll make the last one with a High Speed Steel punch and probably a hardened and ground or lapped cutter body.

Or not. I can make another if it wears out.

Still have not got moving on my check former yet. Oy yoy!

Cheers
Trev

[trevj]

Well,

To drag this back to the top.

I got a few minutes to play in the shop this afternoon, and have a somewhat working check maker. Somewhat, because half of it sits in the lathe chuck, and the other half is pushed by the tailstock ram.
Kinda handy to be able to adjust things on the fly, as it were, simply pushing the lathe tool out of the way, trying it, then making changes as required.

So... I got a punch that is .208 and a bit in diameter, tapered down to .200 over the last 40 thou or so. My "die" is a chunk of bronze bar stock bored to .230. I counterbored a hole at the working face, out to .296, and about 10 thou deep, to suit the blanks I made with the punch, already mentioned.

I am not even gonna grace these tools with a picture. They's UGLY! Good enough for test hack stuff, though.

With everything aligned correctly, I can slide a blank into place, bring the punch forward with the tailstock ram (holding it in a drill chuck) and it pushes a decent looking check out the back side of the die.

I seated a couple of them on some 225450's that I picked up at a gunshow, and pushed them through the sizer die the same way (I really need to build or buy a sizer, or build something along the lines of the Lee) using the tailstock ram for motive power. They seated nicely, almost seamlessly (a clue that my .295 punch unit is on the upper edge for size!) and are pretty tough to remove from the base with fingernail pressure.

I think I have something here!

Now I have to get my head around making a stand alone press to process these checks with, keeping it all in alignment, and make up some die and punch pairs that are not as prone to wear.

Pictures when the tool is done... Maybe not soon, but I'll update when it happens!

It all started today when I was looking at my Lee Autoprime and trying to figure out whether I could use it to form checks...

Cheers
Trev

[JIMinPHX]

Now you have it in a nut shell Jim. You can with a concave punch get enough pressure on a reloading press to cut 0.020 material, but the knock out is what you want to make the check out of and if it is not a near perfect circle with an evenly cut edge it will not form properly. I am never said you couldn't cut it with a reloading press, I said you couldn't cut it and have anything worth making a gas check out of. I just don't see any way around a flat bottom punch cutting out flat circular disks.

Even at the Sierra Plant all of their punches that punch jackets start out and maintain a flat bottom all the way through the drawing out process even on the boat tail bullet the punch has a flat bottom. Round does not work for bullet or boolit bases.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

Beware ye nay sayers, for judgment day is at hand & I have made my offerings to the machinery gods in preparation for this momentous event. Our lady of the blessed concentric parts don't fail me now.

[JIMinPHX]

As you can see in the picture above, there are two little red disks sitting on the package of thread wires. But can it cut 3 at once?

[JIMinPHX]

It can! & the disks look good. Now I need to find some sheets of copper somewhere.

[35 Whelen]

Jim,
I am SO relieved!!! Not that you were able to punch out a disk, but that I'm not the ONLY one with a cluttered loading bench!!
35W

[JIMinPHX]

Jim,
I am SO relieved!!! Not that you were able to punch out a disk, but that I'm not the ONLY one with a cluttered loading bench!!
35W

A clean desk is a sign of a sick mind.

[trevj]

A clean desk is a sign of a sick mind.

I must have one of the healthiest minds around!

Cheers
Trev

[JIMinPHX]

Trevj, I suspected that you & I might be somewhat alike, even if we do have slightly different tastes in cutting fluids.

Clean desks (or work benches) frequently belong to people who never make mistakes. The only people that I know that never make mistakes are people who never actually do anything.