Broken Rock Chucker Supreme

[b2riesel]

Well I finally swaged one boolit too many. I broke my Rock Chucker. At first I thought it was too many stresses on the cast...where the lower ram pin goes thru the bottom linkage piece...but after picking up the pieces off the floor I noticed that the pin itself had broken internally where the groove was cut for the set screw.

I had recently made a new ram and I guess I over tightened the set screw and put too much force on it....thus cracking it down the middle. I will make a new pin and only put a flatspot for the setscrew instead of a deep channel groove around the entire diameter.

Now, the cast lip has broken off and must be replaced...I guess I'll contact RCBS for a replacement part to have on hand...but I intend to make a solid steel piece and shorten the linkage like some of you have done for the Lee Presses. Any advice here would be helpful I intend to replace the cast vertical linkages as well with steel.

Now...how the winnie the pooh do you get the pins out of the upper linkage? One side has a solid pin that appears to be pressed in..and the other has a pin that is hollow. The pins are about 1.6 inches long...and the ram opening is only 1 inch wide...so the advice I saw via google of knocking the pins thru and having them drop out won't work....but it does appear that if I knock them in until they hit the other side I can squeeze the linkage out.

So...is there a secret to removing these pins or do you just throw the Rock Chucker under an Arbor Press and press the pins out?

BTW...25,000+ 9mm to 40 S&W 188gn boolits swaged before this happened...so it has already well paid for itself not including the many hours of reloading duties it has done as well.

[b2riesel]

Nobody answered my question and I've seen it asked by many online elsewhere so I will answer my own question and add to the post later.

To get the upper linkage pins out...you take a 1/4 Twenty bolt of say 6 inches long and place it in the right side where the pin is hollow on the inside....this is AFTER you have removed the ram ofcourse....you tap the bolt with a hammer until the left side solid pin comes out...actually doesn't take much force...just a few light taps with a 16 ounce hammer. Drop the left side linkage out and you can remove the lower assembly for repair. If you need to take the right side linkage off you can then take a 1/2" bolt and do the same in reverse.

I'm in the process of machining a new lower assembly piece that will shorten the stroke by moving the linkage holes closer to the ram...and doing something with the angle of the handle to improve leverage...probably just bend the handle and leave the plate flat.

I just finished up copying the cast vertical linkage pieces out of steel and replaced them. When done...I should never...ever break anything on this press again when swaging boolits. The Rockchucker is a hell of a piece of equipment...but if you swage enough...you will break one.

[Bwana]

Reminds me of my youth. When I would ask my father how to spell a word he would ask me if we owned a dictionary. When I replied yes, he would then suggest that I use it. Same thing with knowledge and the encyclopedia set.
Now days I guess it would be the web. And yes, I knew the answer you were looking for and I did not give it. I have owned several RCs since 1971. Even wore two out. Yes, it is possible to do that.

[BT Sniper]

Glad you got it back up and running. I don't know of many that have ever had to remove the linkages, a lot can be learn via tryle and error and it seems you figured it out. We knew you could do it Thanks for posting your results. Now we will know where to look should any of us need to do the same.

Swage On!

BT

[SWANEEDB]

I too broke the lower pin of the ram of my RC supreme, come to find out the ram hole was not true machined, there fore the pin was canted, I had the ram shortend to change the breaking point (cam over), RCBS sent me a new ram but have not checked to see if the pin hole was also out of true. Hope I expressed this correctly.

[Char-Gar]

The long gone RCBSA2 was made from cast steel and not cast iron. They were born to swage!

The RC is a smaller cast iron version (more or less) of the A2. A friend had conversation with the RCBS folks a couple of years back and they said the A2 would have to sell for $600 to $700 dollars these days and there was no market for such an expensive single stage press.

[TNsailorman]

I believe C-H / CH4D still makes their champion press that used a top bushing for the 3/4x14 or 1x14 dies. It is a very heavy duty "O" type press made specially for swaging. It has a 1" ram if memory serves me right. I don't know what the strength would be but I bet it would be on a par with the RCBS A2 press at least. The last price I saw was around $294.00. Food for thought anyway. I am looking at the costs for making .41 magnum bullets as they are fast becoming short of supply nowadays. James

[b2riesel]

Hopefully I can get a pic up of what I've done to repair this RCIV. I used a piece of 1.5" steel block for the lower assembly. It weighs in at 4lbs 3 ounces. I also copied the vertical linkages in steel. I left the lower assembly mostly square without all the decorative angles and such. I still need to ream out one pin hole .003 larger than it currently is...and then I will be done. IF I ever break any of these new pieces...then I'll admit I'm the strongest man in the world at 160lbs...heh