nose punches for sizers...anybody make their own?

[snowman]

just curious...

not even sure if it's worth the trouble, since you only need one.

[454PB]

I've made a few. I needed one to fit the Lee 300 gr. .45 cal. GC boolit, which has a huge meplat. The smaller and pointier they are, the harder they are to make, but I've found they don't need to fit perfectly. Those for SWC are fairly easy.

[Bret4207]

I made up a couple flat faced ones. For "pointer" designs I have taken a clearly over sized top punch and used JB Weld or Epoxy to form a close fit. If you do this you want to have the bullet really well centered in the die. I have pushed the boolit in from the bottom and then put the die in the sizer to insure everything was right.

[shooter575]

I do like Tpr. Bret .I turned up a bunch and hoged out a oversized hole for the epoxy.If ya screw it up ,a bit of grinding,more epoxy.....I do love that stuff!

[Buckshot]

...............The beauty of making your own nose punches is that each one can be custom for one particular boolit. With the use of 5 minute epoxy you can make them up fast and not have your lube-sizer sitting there tied up waiting for the epoxy to cure. Flat nosed pistol boolits only really need a solid FN punch. It's face must be smooth though.

If you have a quick change toolpost on your lathe you can make up a bunch in not much time. A #4 centerdrill in the tailstock will work to start the cavity in most so you're not swapping it out. For the toolpost you need 3 pre-set tools. One is a parting blade with is probably already set up in it's specialty holder anyway. The other is a righthand bit ground so you can plunge and also turn OD's. Finally a spoon to cut the cavity after the center drill has done it's thing.

With some 1/2" OD stock turning, turn the OD to size. I use bore size so a nose punch for a 30 cal will be turned to .300" OD. Then use the centerdrill. Use the spoon to go in and turn the inside. Then back to your other tool and begin plunging and turning to form the stem of the punch. Be sure to make the stem long enough so when you part it off there's enough left to go in the presses ram.

Once it's done and before putting in the epoxy use a file or Dremel to cut a notch in the flange for referance. The slot should face out when put into the ram so it's the same every time. You HAVE to have clearance on the stem to get it into the ram and the setscrew (on RCBS & Lyman presses) will offset the nose punch when tightened. Not much you can do about that.

Use the new punch to push the boolit into the die then eyeball the boolit's nose in the die to make sure it's concentric. Wipe some Johnson's Paste wax on the boolit nose (or some other mould release), put the epoxy in the cavity of the punch and lower it over the boolit. You should have enough room between the nosepunch and die so you can use a toothpick, swab or something to wipe off any expressed epoxy. Once setup remove the nose punch and use an X-Acto knife or similar to trim the epoxy even with the mouth of the punch.

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

[snowman]

wow....the epoxy is a great idea!!!!

[Calamity Jake]

I put a little boolet lube on the stem, it holdes it in the press is a little more self centering.

[montana_charlie]

If you are lathe-less, and have to depend on purchased nose punches, hot glue also works to custom fit the punch to a bullet using the same method described by Buckshot.

The advantage of the hot glue is that you can jerk it out if you want to re-do that punch.
CM

[KCSO]

I ream my nose cavities with small reamers made from drill rod per Guy Letard's pattern. It doesn't take much to make them and for only a couple of uses they are good enough.