Lets make a Swage press

[KTN]

Now lets see some others, mine is/are done

Just starting to build this, and as usual, from the materials I have on hand.
Guide rods are from VW-Golf shock absorbers, 0.8"x3.1" steel bar is from my shooting buddies scrap pile and brass bushings from local plumber. Total material cost so far at about 7.5$ . Allready have rod for handlebar, need to find parts for toggle and links. This will only have about 3"+ stroke but thats all I need right now.



Sorry about the dark picture


Kaj

[ANeat]

Thats they way to do it Kaj, real nice........I think a guy could scale it down more and still have a great press.

[Doug_F]

That looks great. And as usual, your work is impeccable. Now, I wish I had made my pictures even smaller and blurrier.

[Rock]

Press making looks feasible.

But the dies are a 6 month or more wait?

[ANeat]

There are several threads on making your own dies.

I think on the dies it depends on what you want. Either of the corbins have some stuff in stock. The ones that are real popular, lie 22 and 30 cal jacketed are probably back ordered.

I was able to get a 452 lead bullet dies right away, (Corbins) Richard Corbins site is pretty good about showing what he has and what would be back ordered.

Just checking...... Richard Corbin actually has 224 rebated boat tail die set listed as in stock (probably only one set) $688 and some others

[Sarg]

Talked to Richard a couple days ago. Evidently he is in the process of finishing a very large batch of .20 caliber stuff to keep his website stocked for a long (he hopes) period of time. He said he is working on .30 caliber stuff this week. We will see how long it lasts, but I am sure it is easier to tool up and make 50 of one thing and have half of it be an overrun instead of always jumping around reacting to what is asked. I think it is a good idea.

Sarg

[scrapcan]

KTN,

How difficult were the shock rods to turn?

[swageall]

ANeat;

Very, Very impressive

swageall

[KTN]

Manleyjt,

all I did for those rods, was to cut close to length with angle grinder, trued up the ends and made them same lenght on lathe, with carbide tipped lathe bit, drilled and tapped with M10x1.5 tap. Rods are case hardened and chromed so I rather lathe turned those brass bushings to fit rods .



Kaj

[scrapcan]

KTN,

That is what I suspected, but I thought I better ask. I am watching your progress with interest.

[KTN]

Manleyjt,

I'll try to keep camera on hand, and try to remember take more pictures while making progress. I will also post more pictures on my die making project. Right now I'm starting to make that .243" reamer as well as .264" and .277" reamers for future projects.
And to anyone else thinking about press or die making, I would just say GO FOR IT.
If you don't succeed first time, what have you lost? Some time and few inches of steel bar. But you have gained some experience on how to do it next time. And when you are succesfull .
Top shelf above my reloading bench is filling with memories of my not so succesful projects, and I don't think it's wasted time or effort.
Which reminds me. I need to strenghten that shelf .



Kaj

[Doug_F]

ANeat,

I've reread and reread this thread and the RCE press thread and can't seem to find some dimensions that I need.

1. Can you tell me how wide to make the slot in the ram?

2. How long is the threaded portion in the ram? I'm guessing that it is threaded from the top of the ram to the top of the slot. Is that correct?

[ANeat]

Hi Doug; Those dimensions can vary depending on the dies a person uses.

On mine the threads go about an inch into the ram. The threaded part of my dies are only about .700 so 1 inch is plenty.

My ejector pin is .250 so I made the slot a little bigger than .250

[KTN]

Not to hijack Aneat's thread, but..........

Few more pictures of my progres on swaging press.

After drilling holes to plates I stacked them up with these pins and bushings.



And tack welded them together.



Next centered whole package on 4 jaw chuck, drilled hole thru and started opening it to correct diameter, removing plates when each had correct size hole in it.



Top plate, with smallest diameter hole, was last in chuck. Here it is threaded on lathe for 1 1/4"-12 dies.







Kaj

[dragonrider]

Lookin good Kaj

[ANeat]

Not to hijack Aneat's thread, but..........

Go right ahead Kaj, I love seeing the way other guys go about a similar task. I think your setup is pretty slick.

Everybody has to use the tooling they have to get things accomplished.


On another note concerning a press like this, de-rimmed some rimfire brass today on mine, WOW what a difference compared to a reloading press

[Doug_F]

Thanks ANeat. I really appreciate your help.

Beautiful work Kaj.

I'm anxious to get this press finished.

[Three44s]

To use the term "impressed" would be an UNDERSTATEMENT!

Great work all!!!


Three 44s

[Buckshot]

..............Seeing where Kaj used some strut rods reminded me I had also, but not as guide rods.



One day I decided it was time to replace the front struts on a '87 Chevy Celebrity. The struts had these beautimus .875" OD hard chromed rods. They were so 'purty' I simply could not toss'em so I placed them behind the garage. At a later date I needed to cobble up some reloading dies for a 1874 Brazilian contract Comblain carbine chambered 11.4x42R.

I recalled I had those struts so I released the gas and proceeded to cut them apart. As I recall the rods were 16" to 18" long once out of the cylinder and piston head and valving removed. I had to use a carbide bit to cut the threads due to the chrome, but the internal machining was no problem for HSS.

Considering they had 132,000 miles of 'up and down' on'em and still looked great, I imagine they ought to hold up to the stresses imposed by a swage press. SInce the Celebrity was a mid-size I'd think struts from a larger heavier vehicle could easily go 1" in diameter, assuming they used the same type setup. I'm not a front end guy so I really don't know. A stop by the dumpster at the local tireshop might yeild some nifty material.

................Buckshot

[ANeat]

Interesting comparison pic here. My Walnut Hill arrived today, nice to get my hands on it. (and the dies especially) Seems a lot smaller than I expected after playing with the other one for a while now

BTW the Walnut Hill is on the left

Also got to crank out a jacketed bullet, 223/rimfire case