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Thread: Home made dies

  1. #1
    Boolit Buddy KTN's Avatar
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    Home made dies



    Thought I share with you all my little succes on swaging die making. I have been thinking and designing these dies to make .224" bullets from .22 RF cases for a year now, and finally last week I started making them.



    These bits are the bisnes ends of core seating and point forming dies with swaged lead slug to measure the cavity. These need some honing and polishing before heat treating. I have my own ideas how I want these dies to work on my Rock Chucker press, so theres more to come. Still need to make derimming and core swaging die, core mould and punches.
    I'll keep you all posted as I get more parts and dies made.


    Kaj

  2. #2
    Boolit Master


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    nice work, how did you make the ogive?

  3. #3
    Boolit Master

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    KTN,

    As usual, nice work. keep sharing.

    Did you finish the press pounted cast bullet sizer?

  4. #4
    Boolit Buddy KTN's Avatar
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    Deltaenterprizes,
    I made a reamer out of O-1. Step drilled hole and reamed to diameter.

    Manleyjt,
    I did finish it, and it works ,more or less , like I wanted it to work. It still needs some testing and adjusting with lube hardnes and return spring tension ( and maybe some O-rings), but these other neat projekts have kept me busy. Some day I will return to it, and I have some ideas on how to improve it allready.


    Kaj

  5. #5
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    1 question...


    How much?

  6. #6
    Boolit Master
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    Looks great, figuring out the dies is next on my list of things to do

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    ................I'd final hone to size AFTER heat treating, even if you have a controlled atmosphere furnace. They DO look good. Any reason you didn't use a radiused leade vs the angle on the die mouth?

    .............Buckshot
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  8. #8
    Boolit Master

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    Buckshot

    12:18 am post, it is hard to get the night owl siyndrome out of your system isn't it.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master


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    He may have done like I did and just used a 60* centering drill to make the angle. It saves time.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master

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    Looks like a 45 degree angle to me
    Both ends WHAT a player

  11. #11
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    shoot you get that figured out i would love to buy a set to swage .224 bullets at home, I can never find the ones that i want to buy.
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  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by manleyjt View Post
    Buckshot

    12:18 am post, it is hard to get the night owl siyndrome out of your system isn't it.
    ..............HA! Twelve years of getting up at 1430 and going to bed the next day at 0700 is a powerful habit to break.

    ..............Buckshot
    Father Grand Caster watches over you my brother. Go now and pour yourself a hot one. May the Sacred Silver Stream be with you always

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    "The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president."

    Shrink the State End the Fed Balance the budget Make a profit Leave an inheritance

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Buckshot View Post
    ..............HA! Twelve years of getting up at 1430 and going to bed the next day at 0700 is a powerful habit to break.

    ..............Buckshot
    Thats what I've been doing for the past 13 years and counting. But I hit the sack at 0800.
    "Life isn't like a box of chocolates...It's more like
    a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn
    your ass tomorrow."

  14. #14
    Boolit Buddy KTN's Avatar
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    Storydude,
    Good question, even thought I'm trying to make these dies as simple as possible, with least amount of material and machining, there is still lot of work making these small dies. A lot harder to make than that .40 cal test die I made few weeks ago.

    Buckshot,
    I intend to hone to final size after heat treating. These dies are made from Böhler K110 air hardening tool steel and it should keep it's dimensions during heat treating, and my heat treating oven is from the good old USSR. What could go wrong ?
    If I do mess these up, all I lose is 1.25" of tool steel rod/die, and I can always anneal these and ream to .243". This first try is to test how close I can make these parts before heat treating.
    That angle leade was made with 90 degree counter sink bit because all I need is little help to guide core/jacket into die. Few more days and I should have all die parts ready to show. Then it will be easier to explain how these dies should work.


    Kaj

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    I am new to this forum but not to bullet swaging. It is good to see that you have chosen a very good steel to make them from. K110 is the go.
    What is critical in the dies dimentions is the diameter difference between the core seating die and the point forming die.
    The core seater should produce a jacket diameter that is only about .001 to .002 under the diameter of the point former .
    If it is too large it will mean a poor ejecting point former die.
    If it is too small it means that too much swage up will be required and excessive spring back can happen making it hard to get correct bullet diameter out of the die. Also the more you have to swage up to point form the more you shorten the bullet jacket and rearange the base edge of the jacket .
    In most cases when a point forming die starts to have ejection problems even with proper lube after many years of use it is usually the core seating die that is the cause not the point former . The core seater has lost it's critical tolerance and is producing too larger diameter jackets.
    Even newly made dies can have a poor match between the two dies.
    Hope this helps make good dies.

  16. #16
    Boolit Master

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    Country,

    Welcome to the forum and please continue to share your experiences.

  17. #17
    Boolit Buddy KTN's Avatar
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    Country,
    thank you, it sure does help to have any bits of information, instead of trying out every option with measurements. Keep sharing.
    And welcome to forum.

    Few more little bits made.



    Core swage, core seat, point form die, ejector pin for core seat (front), base punch for point forming die and unfinished punches for core swage and core seat.


    Kaj

  18. #18
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    Thankyou all. From what I see . If I have got it right , your dies are going on the ram and the punch holders into the press head. Like a dedicated swaging press.
    Have I got that right ?
    The dies are mounted on extensions . Does this allow the swaging to go on at the last 25mm or so of press travel?
    Because thats where all the power is in a standard compound leverage reloading press.
    Would like to see the setup mounted in the press to get the right picture of your design in my head.
    If the punch holder is mounted in the press head ? What stops it falling out if it gets a bit hung up on core seating?
    Maybe you have a thread on a finnished punch that I can't see.
    Sorry for the questions I am just trying to make sure I am understanding your design.
    Last edited by Country; 02-12-2010 at 04:56 PM.

  19. #19
    Boolit Buddy KTN's Avatar
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    Country,
    you got it right.
    Only thing that I don't like in Corbin dies is ejection with hammer and trying to balance little bits on top of punches. So I turned dies upside down, and now I should be able to drop in cores and jackets and eject on downstroke.


    Kaj

  20. #20
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    Reloading press type dies are mostly like that.
    So what you are doing is putting the type of dies that you normally see on a horizontal or verticle dedicated swaging press on a 7/8x14 reloading press.
    Thats very interesting .

    I think the correct historical term for this kind of die is Beellier and Astills type dies ( B&A dies )because they were the guys that invented them way back.
    Ted Smith is given the historical credit in most litrature but that is wrong.
    He copied the basic design invented by Beellier & Astills . (Spelling ??)
    However they only made a few presses and die setts before one of them died.
    They have been lost in time as far as I can see. Oh! they never wrote a book , that could be one of the reasons history has forgotten them. Ted Smith did write a book. Richard Corbin studied under Ted Smith and allegedly bought out his original designs ( B&A modified copies ) and shop gear. Ted Smith did refine and improve the whole B&A design and make it more robust , usable and practicle thats for sure and rightly deserves huge credit for doing that.
    His equipment worked so much better then the early B&A system which really never got much past prototypes. However the basic swage up principle remained the same and the screw in die changed little.

    I digress.
    Last edited by Country; 02-13-2010 at 01:19 AM.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
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LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check