Made myself another set of swage dies for the Walnut Hill

[Buckshot]

http://www.fototime.com/119B19CF0A73893/standard.jpg

These are made to form slugs for paper patching to use in my M1879 Argentine Rem RB in .43 Spanish. I'd also made a single cavity adjustable core mould and thought I'd taken pictures of it also, but apparently I was mistaken. So on the left is the core bleed die. You can see the bleed hole low on the die body at 7 o'clock.

The form dies is on the right with it's ejector rod and base punch to form a mild HB on the slug.

http://www.fototime.com/9875EBED72643B4/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/4EC7490506CB3EA/standard.jpg

LEFT: Core bleed die. RIGHT: The form die

http://www.fototime.com/BE69EE6DFB0415C/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/242EF6BAEC4F5CE/standard.jpg

LEFT: Close up of the form die plunger RIGHT: Finished slugs. These weigh 393grs. The standard weight for 43 Spanish slugs is 370grs. I'd made the adjusting stem for the core mould a tad short so I think about the lightest slug I can produce will be about 380+ grains. Of course some weight can de bled off in the core bleed die if I really want a lighter slug.

All I have to do now is find the time to patch'em up and try them out.

http://www.fototime.com/259673ADE90A4AA/standard.jpg

LEFT: 43 Spanish utilizing a custom Mtn Moulds 420gr slug sized to .432" and patched. RIGHT: The RCBS 43-370 which was also sized to .432" and patched. It's also a lube groove design.

http://www.fototime.com/AA2B249CC368BD9/standard.jpg

The 43 Spanish has an exceedingly long throat. A may be seen, at this seating depth the nose of the Mtn Moulds design is barely engraved. Dan concocted this rather blunt nosed slug as a means to reach across the considerable throat to at least touch the leade. So far neither patched slug has caused me much excitement, as shooting goes, but they sure look great :-) I'm hoping the swaged slug will do better.

The rifle has done very nice grouping with both the Lyman and RCBS cast grease grooved slugs. But it's been rather indifferent to the paper patched slugs, which is a real head scratcher.

...............Buckshot

[kd185]

very nice work

[Lizard333]

Man! I wish I knew how to do that. I have t resort to spending 400+ dollars on dies. Nice work!

[deltaenterprizes]

Nice work!

[Buckshot]

Man! I wish I knew how to do that. I have t resort to spending 400+ dollars on dies. Nice work!

...............Heck, nothing to it. Just spend $4,000 on a lathe and another $3-4 grand tooling it up and you too can make $400 dies :-) Don't know why anyone would pay $19.95 for something when they can spend all day and $65 to make it themselves :-) There is truth to that and not simply being silly. You kind of take it personally, ya know?

Several months ago the exterior handle/towel bar on the sliding glass shower door broke. On both ends it was a piece of clear plastic with a screw going in from the backside, through the aluminum door frame to hold it on. Danged if I was going to drive to Lowes and pay whatever they cost to replace them, by God! Probably maybe $2.99 each.

Two 4-1/2" pieces of solid 5/8"x 1.25" aluminum rectangular bar was seperated in the bandsaw, & squared up in the milling machine. Then I got to hump the rotary table up onto the mill and set it up. After plunging a 3/4" endmill in a half inch to each one (sperately) to accept the ends of the bar, they were then stacked up and contoured to shape. After that each one (again seperately) had it's edges champhered. After that each was drilled and tapped for the mounting screw.

I figured if I was paid $30/hour, and not counting the materials or machine time those 2 replacement ends only cost about $120. One nice feature is that the bar is now a good 3" away from the glass of the shower door. The benefit to that is I can now set my coffee cup on the bar and it leans against the glass while I'm sitting there doing my AM reading (ahem). It was almost worth it.

...............Buckshot

[Plinkster]

The results look good. Do you harden your swage dies? I keep toying with the idea of making some but the thought of having to do all that lapping on hardened dies keeps me from making the leap.

[deltaenterprizes]

I do the same thing Buckshot, I don't know how people do home repairs without a machine shop and a pile of scrap!

[MIBULLETS]

The benefit to that is I can now set my coffee cup on the bar and it leans against the glass while I'm sitting there doing my AM reading (ahem). It was almost worth it.

...............Buckshot

I would say WELL worth it! :coffeecom

[Buckshot]

The results look good. Do you harden your swage dies? I keep toying with the idea of making some but the thought of having to do all that lapping on hardened dies keeps me from making the leap.

..............No they're not hardened. Since I'm only swaging lead I'm not going to worry about hardening. However, swage dies I'd made for myself before had been made of 12L14. As a low carbon steel those could only be casehardened, and I have no means to do that. These here were made of W-1 which (you probably know) is a simple high carbon (1095) steel, which will through harden easily. Once again, not having a suitable furnace but only a rosebud tip for the oxy-acet torch I simply said "Screw it" and used then 'as is'.

..............Buckshot

[Plinkster]

Maybe I'll just say screw it too and make some non hardened dies and see how long they put out on size bullets. I want to make some for 40 and 35 cal bullets using a brass case for a jacket. If nothing else I suppose I'd have the tooling for making a hard set later. Thanks for sharing Buckshot!

[Reload3006]

Why not use A series tool steel like a2 or a6 they are air hardening and a torch works reasonably well.

[Plinkster]

I thought of that and it no doubt would work. The deterrent for me is the hours of standing at my drill press and lapping to final size. I don't do any high volume shooting with my .35 Whelen but the .40 might see enough rounds to wear out a die, maybe I'll get my butt in gear and find out.

[Buckshot]

Why not use A series tool steel like a2 or a6 they are air hardening and a torch works reasonably well.

...............No 'A' series steel on hand but lots of W-1. It's the least expensive through hardenable ground steel available. At ENCO 7/8" W-1 is $16/36" while A-2 is $61/36", and for my piddleing around ............ what the heck?

................Buckshot

[I'll Make Mine]

Is there a tutorial around anywhere on how to make swaging dies, how to calculate correct size to produce the right bullet diameter, etc.? I've never used a set, and can't come close to affording them, but I do have a lathe that should be adequate to turn them, even cut the 7/8-14 thread, and I could (over time) build a heavy enough press to swage the .357 and .311 bullets I shoot. The cost of commercial jackets is a deterrent, but I can find ways to make jackets (I've seen YouTube videos on forming them from K&S brass tubing and copper water pipe), not to mention there are applications for swaged bullets without jackets...

[Buckshot]

Is there a tutorial around anywhere on how to make swaging dies, how to calculate correct size to produce the right bullet diameter, etc.?

.............I'd start a new thread about that, and also specify if you're wanting to make swage dies for jacketed or paper patched slugs. The proces is very straight forward and simple to understand. Your die design will be predicated upon what type of press you're going to use. The main ingredient is accuracy in your tool production.

..............Buckshot

[I'll Make Mine]

[QUOTE=I'll Make Mine;1843369]Is there a tutorial around anywhere on how to make swaging dies, how to calculate correct size to produce the right bullet diameter, etc.? QUOTE]

.............I'd start a new thread about that, and also specify if you're wanting to make swage dies for jacketed or paper patched slugs.

Will do. :)

[ArrowJ]

That is just awesome! I wish I had that kind of skill...and equipment. Cool stuff!

[supe47]

Be still this heart of mine. Images of " if I only had...." haunt my dreams. Nice! The largest metal working tool I have is a case trimming tool.