Tools for making dies.

[williamwaco]

Gentlemen.

Seems to be lots of machineists here..

In college, (1960), I had one industrial arts machine tools class. We made our own reloading presses from aluminum castings and our own reloading dies and various other shooting gear.

I made several reloading dies in addition to the normal class assignments with the lathe and vertical mill.

Question?

Is it possible to buy a lathe small enough to fit in a very small shop with the quality to make bullet swaging dies? It would need to be small enough to fit on a table about 24" deep by 36" wide. I do not need to work on long stock like rifle barrels. I would want a milling attachment and I would need to come in at something under $2,000.00

This is strictly a hobby. I want to make a few dies in different designs to play with bullets of different designs. The purpose is strictly for entertainment. I have no interest in production or sales of either dies or bullets, so speed and power is not an issue. The milling attachment would be used for some light pistolsmithing.

[deltaenterprizes]

There a few small lathes that will fit in that space and should be in your price range but the level of quality for $2000 may not be there. Grizzly has some decent quality machines for Asian imports. The footprint you gave may limit you to 18'' between centers or less.
A lot depends on the skill level of the operator also.
Be prepared to spend another $2000 on tooling such as mics, drill chuck, drill bits, center drills, boring bars, dial calipers, lathe bits, grinder to grind bits, collet setup, end mills etc.
Also a couple of dedicated electrical circuits may be needed.
I am not trying to discourage you just don't want you to think that your only expense will be the lathe and then you start making chips!

[gjb]

Why spend so much on machine tools. I bought a set of dies that look like they were made with a side grinder and a drill press. they are suppose to work they don't work right but it will expand 40 brass up to 429 but then a punch and a hammer will do the same thing.

[martin]

Williamwaco,

I agree with deltaenterprizes that the "wants list" never seems to end. I have two lathes and a bridgeport mill. My wife calls it an addiction and I tell her in return, it's better than me spenending money in a bar :) I am always looking through tool catalogs and it seems that the more I get the more I want :)

Have you thought about taking another machining course or contacting a local community college to see if you can work out a deal that you could use their shop? Also, have you thought about going the "used machine" route? Around here, there are some pretty good deals if you know what you are looking for and are somewhat flexable.

Good luck and best regards,
Martin

[waksupi]

gjb, post some good clear pictures of what you received.

[Utah Shooter]

Why spend so much on machine tools. I bought a set of dies that look like they were made with a side grinder and a drill press. they are suppose to work they don't work right but it will expand 40 brass up to 429 but then a punch and a hammer will do the same thing.

It seems to me that you answered your own question there as to why to spend money on machine tools. Or am I missing something?

[williamwaco]

Delta, Martin,

Thanks . . . I think. I think you just saved me a lot of money.

[Jim_Fleming]

William a lot of times you just might find it beneficial to sort of "cozy up" to someone that works in a machine shop... perhaps make friends even. If you're straight with the you might be surprised at how reasonable the prices could be...

Don't get me wrong, machine work AIN'T cheap. I know, I've been running machinery as a machinist since the 70's. But there's almost always a way...

It's interesting how much lubrication a well timed and well placed a case of good beer can provide. ;-)

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