Attention Shotmakers

[mtgrs737]

I have been unable to find a sieve with openings in the .098" to .100" range for use in sizing shot. If anyone out there has found a sieve in this range please let me know.

Thanks!

mtgrs737

[mac1911]

mcmaster carr or grainger ? they dont have it you'll have to make it

[Hal A Looyah]

Grainier will order .100 square Stainless steel mesh for about $6 per square foot. I made one, before I found some bargain sieves. What size shot are you making? .100" will let some pretty big goobers through.

[wtfooptimax200]

This is probably what you want, but I doubt they sell small quantities:

http://www.bopp.com/default.aspx?navigation_id=2&gruppe_id=25&produkt_id=3&produktcontent_id=163&sprachcode=en

This may be better:

http://www.amazon.com/Steel-Sheet-0-080-Diameter-Length/dp/B004Q7CLJ6/ref=sr_1_1?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1343094372&sr=1-1

0.104--would hold #6 and larger
0.093--would hold #7.5 and larger
0.078--would hold #9 and larger
0.062 --would hold shot smaller than #9 and is probably not useful.

With the first three sieve sizes used in sequence (largest opening on top) one could trap any size shot that is effectively made with a typical shotmaker.

All this talk of sieves and shotmaking has me wishing I was into this stuff during engineering school. During a geotechnical engineer class we had vibratory sieve machines with sieves ranging from very large to sieves with mesh so small that they would allow dust through!

Branden

[mtgrs737]

Maybe the .104" size would work if I coated it with a layer of two part epoxy paint. That would reduce the opening size a bit and protect against rust. Thanks for the inputs guys!

[crowbeaner]

I made mine from an old cake pan and a finish nail. LOTS of hammering to make all the holes!!!!

[Russel Nash]

What I did was use a mesh basket either from the office supply aisle or the refrigerator organizer aisle at walmart.

http://img.hisupplier.com/var/userImages/2010-08/16/nbzhiyuan_101859927_s.jpg

I have a big 20mm ammo can that acts like my big tank. It's filled with water. Then inside that I have .50 cal ammo can. Then i put the mesh on top of the .50 cal ammo can. The can is tilted a bunch. The good shot drops through the mesh and into the .50 cal ammo can. The deformed stuff and rat turds stays on top of the mesh. Every now and then while it's running I will scraped the bad stuff down the inclined mesh with a spatula. The bad stuff then falls to the bottom of the 20mm ammo can.

[mtgrs737]

Thanks for your input Russel, I would never of thought of looking in the office supply isle. Good idea on the inclined mesh too!

[shotman]

what size you looking to sort. ?? .010 is about no7. but anything smaller will pass through
I have pans that do good job to sort all the larger out . If you want to sort by size then need to pm and will give you info

[Russel Nash]

You went to decimal spaces over with the number one.

Remember the rule of 17.

Take the shot number and subtract that from 17.

So a # 7 is actually 0.100"

A #7.5 is a 0.095"

A #9 is a 0.080"

I was using wire welding tips with my homemade drippers.

Then I bought the drippers from Jim Stuart.

I bought two sizes one for the #7.5 and one for the #9 .


I was still getting shot if I recall correctly still at a #7 .... arrgghhh..

[Deacon Stone]

I went to Wally Word and bought a pizza pan that has the holes in the bottom. I think it ran $6 dollars and I have probably ran at least two tons of shot through the pan. I put a wood box on top of a five gallon buckect the wood box has shoulders, and is bigger then the pizza pan. Put a hole in the bottom of the wood box about 2" diamiter. And sift away.

Works for me.
Deacon Stone

[shotman]

I sell these they work for size 7 down. they dont sort sizes but get the junk and much of the out of round stuff out

[sargenv]

I made mine from an old cake pan and a finish nail. LOTS of hammering to make all the holes!!!!

I know this is a bit off topic.. but I did the same thing one time to sift lead shot out of the powder container on my MEC... As usual, I wasn't paying attention for just a few mins and dropped a full charge of 7.5's into a half full bottle of Red Dot.. Find pie pan, find drill bit that will let the powder drop through but not the lead shot.. sift sift sift.. whew!

[Vinne]

Shotman, Great looking pan you have there. What size is it? Sell you say...How much??? You think it would be hard to ship?

[shotman]

replied to your PM

[mtgrs737]

I ended up buying a 12" square of stainless steel wire cloth with openings of .097". It came in the mail and it looks real good. I will make a frame for it today as I have a new run of shot to size. With my shot being slightly out of round it should keep shot with an average dia. of .100" or more out of my shot bottle. Factory made shot has a size tolerance of +/- .005" so a 7.5 size shot could actually be a #7 (.100") and still be within tolerance. I want to keep shot that is too large out of my loads as I don't want to lose pellet count.

Thanks to all whom posted ideas and help.

PM me if you want the name of the company I got the wire cloth from.

[mtgrs737]

Up date on the .097" stainless steel wire cloth I got for making a seive.

It works great! My shot dripped out of a #7.5 dripper did have a small percentage of shot that would not pass thru the .097" screen sieve. I now can seperate them and this will keep my pellet count up a little bit better on my handicap trap loads. I got about 2 pounds of shot that would not pass thru the .097" seive out of 63 lbs. of shot that I made. On the small side, I got about 10 lbs. of shot that would pass thru a .0937" sieve so now I can sort out the highs and the low side size shot and keep my loads consistant. I now leave my shot in the tumbler about 30 minutes and have found that it polishes the shot real nice and shiney along with applying the graphite, and it sieves easier too. My shot can't be told from factory shot with the naked eye.

[shotman]

Master carr has stainless wire cloth in the 12"x12" it is listed as 8x8 mesh the wire size will change to size of the openings.
.028 is for 7 1/2
.035 is for size 8
.032 is for size 9

[mtgrs737]

I ordered in some 304 stainless steel wire cloth with openings of .088" and .090" for the next two sieves I am making. This will give me some flexibility in sizing the low side and the high side of the shot I make.

[LeeBoh]

I have a 75 lb can of mixed nickel plated 4 5 & 6 shot that I have tried to sort with no avail. Ive tried drilling & punching metal. The diffient sizes just plug the holes. Hunted for different size metal cloth at sears & farm stores you name it. Kinda hard to find shot sorting screen cheap. Been looking at these guys but it aint going to be cheap. Then its just an experiment to get what you need.
http://www.twpinc.com/
http://www.bwire.com/index.html

[mtgrs737]

I have found wire cloth at MSC industrial supply, McMaster Carr, and Graingers. All these places have 12 inch square offerings in mild steel and 304 stainless steel which I think makes the best sieves. Type "Wire Cloth" in their search box and then follow thru the steps to get to the "Opening Size" chart and go from there. Some are as cheap as $6 each but some are very expensive but the ones I needed are not expensive. If you have a store close to you, they can ship it to their store for pick up at no cost, MSC drop shipped mine to me on their nickle due to me being a new customer, just be sure and get all sizes you need as it is a one time only thing I think. If you have access to a table saw and a miter saw the frames are cheap and easy to make form scrap 2 x 4 lumber. The .097" sieve I made works better than the test sieves I was using as it has more area and does not plug up like the test sieve. When selecting the wire cloth remember to get the one with the opening size you need and one that has the largest wire dia. as they are tougher. Properly cared for they will size tons of shot for you.

[skeettx]

Hello Lee Boh
Why sort it? Load it and shoot it and you will be happy with the results.
Mike

[shotman]

Lee
what are are you useing for??? the mix works good just load that way

[LeeBoh]

Howdy fellas.... I dont mind the 5 and 6 but theres a big diffrence in the 4s. I have been shooting this stuff but I shoot 3 gun nothing bigger the 6s allowed. I have lots & lots more of this mix on the way. Never knowing what Im going to get. Thats why I want to sort it. Kinda funny that the Littleton dont make any sort of sorter...

[shotman]

well there is a way to get 4s out I had a mixed lot that had been in a flood and had everything from 00 to 9s
I took piece of glass and and put a piece of shot under a piece of straight wood on each end and use the squeeze type clamp, the small will roll under. Its slow but works if you put a 9 under it then keep going up it works a little faster

[LeeBoh]

Sounds good but OMG that would take forever. Still going to try it.

[mtgrs737]

I have been thinking about a sorter for large quanities of shot. It would involve a wide long steel plate and then some steel blades made of 1/4" by 1" by what ever the width that was needed to extend past the steel plate. These bars would be set at 45 degree angles on top of the steel plate. Then the blades would be raised up off the steel plate the height of the pellet I wanted to pass under it. You could set the as many blades as you wanted using the largest first and so on. Pellets too large would ride down the bade against the steel plate until they dropped off the side of the plate into a container to collect them.

[RogerDat]

I have about 100# of shot that is mixed size. It appears to run mostly around #7 to #8 and consist of mostly two or three sizes. I am almost tempted to just load it as is but if I wasn't fussy about details reloading would not be a good choice of hobby so I'm thinking I should sort it by size. Looking for confirmation or enlightenment on the mesh sizes I have listed and the process steps being correct.

Based on this list of shot sizes http://www.hallowellco.com/shot_size_chart.htm along with information in this thread this is what I came up with.

First pass
0.104--would hold #6 and larger but pass #7 and smaller.
Second pass
.097--would pass #7.5 and smaller but catch #7
Third pass
.093--would catch #7.5 but pass smaller (#8 - #9)
Fourth pass
.09-- would probably hold #8 and pass smaller
Fifth pass
.08-- would pass anything smaller than #9 catching #8.5 and probably #9

Where I say probably catch it means the mesh and shot size are the same. As opposed to mesh being slightly smaller than the shot size but bigger than the next size smaller shot. A size configuration which I think would work better. I'm limited by what McMaster-Carr offers as mesh sizes https://www.mcmaster.com/steel-mesh

Not sure I would need to go past fourth pass. Difference between #8.5 and #9 probably wouldn't matter for my uses. So anything smaller than #8 could be left as is. First four passes give me a sort of #6 and larger, #7, #7.5, and #8. Not really sure I have any larger than #7 but with a pile of small shot spotting slight difference between sizes is difficult. Even to pull out different ones to measure.

I already pulled a bunch of BB size shot out with a Walmart plastic strainer with round holes. Then used a Walmart wire strainer to catch anything larger than some fine #12 that was in the mix. leaving me with the #7 - #8 or so size shot that I still need to work with.

yes I know this is an old thread but search brought it up and I wanted to keep the information on shot size screens together rather than start new thread.

[jdfoxinc]

Your mesh sizes are correct. I have been looking for .085" size mesh.

[RogerDat]

I found this place they sell an .085 in the 9 1/2 mesh but the .084 or .083 might do a better job of catching the #8.5 shot but letting the .08 #9 fall through.

In the 7 mesh they have a .089 that should just catch the .09 #8 shot but let the smaller shot (#8.5 and #9) fall through. Or a .088 in the 9 mesh which might just work a little better.

http://www.howardwire.com/square_mesh.html

No prices but phone number I figure might be worth a call. Might also be worth calling McMaster-Carr just to see if they can supply a mesh size they don't list online. Maybe they have a source.

[RogerDat]

Walmart mesh letter/paper tray catches #6 shot very well. Lets 7 and smaller just drop right on through. Fit on a 5 gallon bucket well also. Pour through until it collected enough #6 then dump tray in another bucket. Worked to quickly get several pounds of #6 out of my mix.

Looks like this one but in store they are less than $4 the online price is wacky.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mesh-Stackable-Front-Load-Letter-Tray-Wire-Black/739462092

[shootinfox2]

Google “forestry supplies sieve”. Numerous options and sizes available.