Soda cans as gas check material?

[Bigslug]

Being the forum noob that I am, consider this the first salvo from my "stupid question" battery.

Has anyone here looked at a soda can and said "I can make a gas check out of that"? (Perhaps beer would be better for getting in the proper frame of mind. . .)

Seems to me that cans are a material that a lot of us have in abundance that is essentially free. While the stuff is a little on the thin side, I would assume that some industrious soul has figured out a way to make it work - unless there are major technical obstacles to the contrary.

Please enlighten me, oh wise ones.

[Ben]

A .30 cal. gas check shank will often times measure .284 " or possibly a bit smaller.

If you use your .004 thick soft drink can material.
That would be .284 + .008 ( .004 per side )= .292 "

You'll need a minimum of .309" and .311 " or .312 " would be even better.
So I think you can see that soft drink can material falls way short of being ideal for making gas checks.

Ben

[goofyoldfart]

Bigslug : Not to contradict Ben (he is a very knowlegdable fellow), some of the people on this forum have doubled up on soda and beer can gas checks. I have checked the thickness' s of various cans and have found that they can vary as to size and manufacture. you might try doubling the checks. just my .02 cents worth. :) God Bless to all.

goofy.

[45 2.1]

It takes three layers for the thirty caliber and two layers for the 44 calibers. I've had GC dies for these, made by the LBT guy, for the last 18 or more years. He hadn't made any until I requested him to.

It does take some know how........ one has to lube the aluminum sheets before punching or they tear and won't form right. No difference in accuracy until you get above 2100 fps, then they are slightly less accurate.

[JeffinNZ]

Our soda cans have walls of 4 thou. Doubled they make great .224 checks. Probably be OK for .243 also. I have made 3 ply checks for .30cal however my fear is the rifling will bight through the thin material and compromise the check.

[45 2.1]

I have made 3 ply checks for .30cal however my fear is the rifling will bight through the thin material and compromise the check.

My 30 GC maker does not make smooth sided checks. They kind of accordian on the sides and crimp into the shank when sized on. I've recovered many at 100 yards that have flattened out completely into a circle (just like commercial brass checks) that show rifling marks where they touched the bore on the sides. They were not cut thru at all.......... and thats after inspecting several hundred thru the years.

[jhrosier]

I tried the doubled soda can material and finally gave up on it.
The checks would frequently separate in the lyman 450 sizer.
If I use the checkmaker again, it will be with a single layer of material.

Jack

[TJF1]

The soda cans make checks for the plain base boolits
terry

[badgeredd]

The soda cans make checks for the plain base boolits
terry

+1 there Terry. I found that a 375 caliber soda can check works very well on a 35 caliber plain base boolit. I will note that in my Jesse Ocumpaugh re-bored and rifled barrel, the checks are cut through in the travel down the barrel. I don't find it to be a problem at all because the check separates from the boolit immediately upon exit from the muzzle and I have achieved extremely good accuracy with such boolits.

Edd

PS...I recently found that the 35 soda can checks fit and crimp very well onto a plain base boolit I use in my 8mm Steyr.

[175lt2]

I have used soda can metal for my 30 cal plain base gas checks and they work great, Recently I used some beer can metal and it's even better! I suspect it has something to do with the process of emptying the can:bigsmyl2:

[geargnasher]

+1 there Terry. I found that a 375 caliber soda can check works very well on a 35 caliber plain base boolit. I will note that in my Jesse Ocumpaugh re-bored and rifled barrel, the checks are cut through in the travel down the barrel. I don't find it to be a problem at all because the check separates from the boolit immediately upon exit from the muzzle and I have achieved extremely good accuracy with such boolits.

Edd

PS...I recently found that the 35 soda can checks fit and crimp very well onto a plain base boolit I use in my 8mm Steyr.

I just had the pleasure of range-testing some boolits equiped with Patmarlin's soda-can, plain-based checks in my .35 Remington, VERY accurate, like 1/4" group at 50 yards with a 4x scope kinda scary accurate. I have no idea if they actually stayed on or not, but I suspect not.

Gear

[beagle]

The soda cans work really well for PB gas checks and that's all I'm shooting in the 9mm, .38 Special and .357 Mag and they work fine.

Coors Lite cans seem to be abit thicker but I haven't taken the time to measure any./beagle

[newton]

Is there a certain length that the soda can check should come up past the base of the boolit? On regular GC boolit designs it can only come up as far as the first drive band. With a plain base boolit there is nothing to "measure". Would it just be sufficient to curl around the outer edge of the boolit?

The reason I ask is I am trying to build a crude maker for my 45(.453") boolits to see if I want to invest into pat's maker. I am thinking about a .500" hole for the check disk but that leaves only .047" of material left which is then divided between the two 'sides' means that the checks will only ride up the base of the boolit about .023". Is that enough?

[Swede44mag]

If you get the plans Ed Smith has on this website for a Free Check III it lists shank sizes for different boolits.
I have found that using my Free Check III I made for 45Colt and 45-70 boolits they fit fine for PB boolits on my .429 boolits.
I made a separate check maker for PB 45Colt using .009 material I bought at ACE.

I have not tried the pop can Gas Checks but plan to with my 45Colt Ruger Vaquero.

[dpaultx]

Is there a certain length that the soda can check should come up past the base of the boolit? On regular GC boolit designs it can only come up as far as the first drive band. With a plain base boolit there is nothing to "measure". Would it just be sufficient to curl around the outer edge of the boolit?

The reason I ask is I am trying to build a crude maker for my 45(.453") boolits to see if I want to invest into pat's maker. I am thinking about a .500" hole for the check disk but that leaves only .047" of material left which is then divided between the two 'sides' means that the checks will only ride up the base of the boolit about .023". Is that enough?

A sidewall height of .023" sounds a bit short to me.

I too have been considering rolling-my-own chex maker and so have been looking into this exact subject myself.

All that I really have to go by is a half dozen or so commercial gas checks from different manufacturers, all copper and all .30 caliber. These checks all have an "installed" sidewall height in the neighborhood of .07" to .08" and this height can vary by as much as .0025" between checks out of the same lot. The thickness of the copper check material varies also, from about 0.013" up to about 0.017"

Based on this, I'm thinking that the disk size, for a .453" check, should be somewhere between 0.5938' (19/32") and 0.6250" (5/8").

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/7669/chex453.png

Understand that I have not actually made a tool to make this check yet, these are just the numbers that I have been playing with.

HTH . . . Doug

[newton]

Well I did up a rough prototype just a bit ago. I am using 3/4" disks. Probably a little on the big side when it comes to sidewall height, but I have not been able to actually put one on yet to see. I think that can be easy to overcome with some trimming when your dealing with soda can material.

I have found that a 29/64 (.4531) is a good size for the shank rod. It's going to take some work to get the die from cutting the checks because of the thin material, but I will just spend some time smoothing.

I am thinking soda can material is the best for plain base boolits is it not? I cannot, personally, see how flashing material would be thin enough. But when I get home I'll try some of it too.

Hopefully this is not taking this thread too far off subject. My intentions are not of hijacking it at all.