Jackets of any size

[DinoS]

Has anyone here tried to spin on a lathe copper jackets. I watched a program where the horn of a trumpet was spun on a lathe from a flat disc. These parts were done with hand held pressure tools but if the crossfeed of a precission lathe was used over a mandrel extremely accurate parts could be formed with wall thickness control, would this not work. The link here is a small video of what I am thinking. There is a gap between the www as to not create a hotlink. http://w ww.youtube.com/watch?v=yLpiIC4mAx4&feature=related

thouhgts.

Dino

Edit: If the mandrel was tapered a controlled expansion boolit could be made and it would also make removal from the forming mandrel easy.

[docone31]

I used to spin metal.
Realistically, you could cut discs, then anneal, then use a drawing die. Could be done in one step.
Spinning, the discs are fairly large in comparison to a bullet jacket. The time to spin one, you could draw several.

[ccook23]

This is a little of the topic of the thread, but I thought Id post anyway.

Ive been playing around turning bullets on my lathe using 12L14 steel alloy. Below is a .50 cal I turned by hand. It was just a test and came out a little under sized. I actually dont have a .50 rifle, but I do have a .308 so Im going to see what I can turn out on the lathe in .308 diameter.

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af166/Clint_Cook/Lathe/50cal.jpg

Clint

[Red River Rick]

Now, make 100 bullets EXACTLY the same!

RRR

[DinoS]

I used to spin metal.
Realistically, you could cut discs, then anneal, then use a drawing die. Could be done in one step.
Spinning, the discs are fairly large in comparison to a bullet jacket. The time to spin one, you could draw several.

Do you think using the feed tables of a lathe which you could return to zero every time would produce the consistent case required for precision. I have no experience in this field. I am thinking a polished tool in the tool post and use the hand feeds to do the forming in place of the hand held tools. I realize it would be slower than drawing them but would they be accurate and consistent.

[ccook23]

Do you think using the feed tables of a lathe which you could return to zero every time would produce the consistent case required for precision. I have no experience in this field. I am thinking a polished tool in the tool post and use the hand feeds to do the forming in place of the hand held tools. I realize it would be slower than drawing them but would they be accurate and consistent.

A lathe will/can produce the same accuracy/consistancy as drawing or extruding can do. And dial in a lathe/tooling and I promise you it will hold tolerances as good as any other mechanical device out there.

Speed/Production will suffer if you are using a manual lathe (like me ;-) )....but for me Im not into speed or volume.

Just my 2 cents

Clint

[ccook23]

Now, make 100 bullets EXACTLY the same!

RRR

Ill make as many as I need or want to within the tolerances that are acceptable to me ;-)

No one in the world can make 100 bulletes "EXACTLY" the same - assuming the word "EXACTLY" means a clone.

Clint

[danr]

yea, i dont see why this wouldn't work on a manual lathe to produce jackets. the mandrill would determine the real size of the jacket, more so than the manual feed of the tool post.

making them all the same wouldn't be hard, you could achieve a .001 tolerance easily on diameter.. length could be modified by cutting it down or trimming.


time it takes to make 1 jacket could be more than you would want to bother with after 12 or so, you may have a bad back.. it takes some getting used to, being bent over a lathe all day.


truly, you'll be looking for other ways to make jackets after doing this for 3 days in a row, and only having a 100 or so jackets.


my 2 cents, and i do have lathe.
:)
dan

[Red River Rick]

.......................... and i do have lathe.

:) dan

And so do I! And you know what.......I know how to run them. Actually I have 2, one conventional and one CNC with a bar feeder.

BTW, the CNC lathe will hold 0.0002" (that's two ten thousands of an inch) repeatably without any problems.

Non of this 0.001" thou BS!

RRR

[danr]

And so do I! And you know what.......I know how to run them. Actually I have 2, one conventional and one CNC with a bar feeder.

BTW, the CNC lathe will hold 0.0002" (that's two ten thousands of an inch) repeatably without any problems.

Non of this 0.001" thou BS!

RRR

hello Rick,
good to chat with yea.. yep, .0002 is one heck of a tolerances! .001 would be a mile compared to .0002

boy, i wish i owned a CNC, $20k min for one of those bad boys!

my point was, that i'm sure you could do as the original post suggested, making jackets from flat material by spinning it on a lathe.

but i don't think you would make very many of them, seeing how there are much better ways of making jackets.

:)
dan

[NoZombies]

It would be much more practical to use that same lathe to make jacket forming dies and punches..

The first die punches the round from the strip.

The second die begins cupping the flat

second die reduces diameter and lengthens, etc. etc. etc.

I'd rather set up and make a few tools that will make the work easier than to use a tool that requires set up and testing for every single piece. but that's JMHO

[danr]

It would be much more practical to use that same lathe to make jacket forming dies and punches..

The first die punches the round from the strip.

The second die begins cupping the flat

second die reduces diameter and lengthens, etc. etc. etc.

I'd rather set up and make a few tools that will make the work easier than to use a tool that requires set up and testing for every single piece. but that's JMHO

yea, i totally agree on that.. making tools to make a job easier is the machinist way.

though, i have to say, making jacket forming dies is no pick-nick.
i've attempted it a couple of times, haven't been able to master the art yet.. but one day i will..


:)
dan

[DukeInFlorida]

Keep in mind that the BATF has very clearly stated that bullets which aren't mostly lead/copper/brass are considered armor piercing, and not allowed.

So, turning bullets from solid copper is OK. Turning bullets from solid steel isn't.

As for spin forming of bullet jackets.......... too time consuming, and not repeatable enough, from jacket to jacket. Do-able? Sure. Practical? NOPE.

[Bwana]

Keep in mind that the BATF has very clearly stated that bullets which aren't mostly lead/copper/brass are considered armor piercing, and not allowed.

So, turning bullets from solid copper is OK. Turning bullets from solid steel isn't.

As for spin forming of bullet jackets.......... too time consuming, and not repeatable enough, from jacket to jacket. Do-able? Sure. Practical? NOPE.

This is true for bullets fired from "handguns" not so from rifles.