shooting on a shoestring
11-26-2011, 10:26 AM
I drill my HPs using a drill press. The problem is drilling on center. The last batch of Lee 310 WFN GCs came out very well centered by:
1. Placed a 1/2 inch drill motor in a bench vise oriented chuck pointed up
2. Lightly chucked an as cast boolit finger tight
3. Turned on drill, spun boolit, center of boolit is easy to spot while spinning
4. Used a Sharpie about 1/2 way between the edge of the boolit and the center to mark a donut while spinning
5. Moved the sharpie towards the center until a tiny shiny target spot was left
6. Put boolit base on the anvil portion of vise
7. Used a very slender, sharpened center punch to accurately and lightly strike the center
8. Followed up with a large obtuse center punch to make a large divot
9. Set drill press on slowest setting, about 300 rpm, chucked 1/4" drill, set drill stop
10. Put boolit base on top of stationary jaw of drill press vise, holding boolit between thumb and forefinger
11. Gently fed drill into boolit allowing boolit to shift and center under drill
12. Increased holding pressure to keep boolit from rotating, slowly fed drill
Worked amazingly well. Took some time, but got beautiful, centered HPs. Fast enough production for my limited use of HPs.
1. Placed a 1/2 inch drill motor in a bench vise oriented chuck pointed up
2. Lightly chucked an as cast boolit finger tight
3. Turned on drill, spun boolit, center of boolit is easy to spot while spinning
4. Used a Sharpie about 1/2 way between the edge of the boolit and the center to mark a donut while spinning
5. Moved the sharpie towards the center until a tiny shiny target spot was left
6. Put boolit base on the anvil portion of vise
7. Used a very slender, sharpened center punch to accurately and lightly strike the center
8. Followed up with a large obtuse center punch to make a large divot
9. Set drill press on slowest setting, about 300 rpm, chucked 1/4" drill, set drill stop
10. Put boolit base on top of stationary jaw of drill press vise, holding boolit between thumb and forefinger
11. Gently fed drill into boolit allowing boolit to shift and center under drill
12. Increased holding pressure to keep boolit from rotating, slowly fed drill
Worked amazingly well. Took some time, but got beautiful, centered HPs. Fast enough production for my limited use of HPs.