Buckshot
11-17-2007, 07:16 AM
Grab a cuppa and read on.
............For my new Uberti Hi-Wall in 38-55 I wanted to make a swage die so I could utilize my Lyman 2C 375449 mould. It drops slugs at .277" to .278" depending upon alloy. The bore and groove of the new rifle is .373"x.3794", so you see the need. I ground a spoon (nose forming tool) to cut in the nose profile. It produced a more rounded and a bit shorter nose with a bit of (hopefully) bore ride portion.
As it turned out and it turned out well overall, the nose portion came in at .375" and the body at .382". Not a waste as the nose DOES engrave and isn't too tough a chore to chamber. However not completely satisfied I decided to make another swage die to form slugs for paper patching. Using 9lb paper which adds .007" I'd need a swaged diameter of .374" to .375". Either would work fine.
So Wednesday evening after the war dept got home about 6, and then turned me loose from duties having to do with the bathroom remodel, I commenced. I took a 11/32" (.343") drill blank and spent close to an hour grinding a cutting tool with a pleasing radius on it, similar to the nose on the Lyman 45 cal Postell. Since the Uberti has an 18" twist I had to bear in mind the limits on overall boolit length, but felt what I had would give me a 50/50 design, with the nose riding the bore a bit.
Math not being my strong suit, I wanted to step drill the majority of the metal out so I had to sit down with some 1/10" graph paper and draw myself a pit-chure. So with that done I got it done and then installed my new nose form cutting/boring utensil. I'd left myself .020" for boring and it took almost half of that to cut cleanly around the hole, which was going to be 1-3/8" long. With a fine feed and a shallow cut I crept up on .372". I used a pin gage and a telescoping gage and also an inside mic.
So far I'd spent about 3 hours from grinding the spoon. You can mess this up, I was thinking but decided to feed the spoon back in and this time take the spring cut on the way out. I ended up with a hole that would accept a .372" pin gage and with a bit of thumb pressure 'just' would take a .373" one. Measuring it was as close to .373" as makes any difference for this application. I didn't plan on swaging only pure lead so had to figure in a bit of springback to the alloy also.
To this point everything was going just ducky. To congratulate myself I nuked a cup of coffee and had a smoke. I really don't know at what point I lost it. Where my brain kind of drifted off into another dimension, or where I lost consciousness and forgot what I was doing. I got up and put a #20 drill bit in the tailstock and drilled a hole through the piece for the ejector pin, which was fine and needed to be done.
Remember, I was making a swage die for PATCHED boolits. I WANTED the WHOLE bore to be .373", right? What I did then was to replace the spoon with another I had made previously for the other die, to bore the body OD and to leave a sharply angled step between the .382" body and .373" nose. I then touched off and took a .005" cut!!!!!!!!!! I even spent the time figuring out I needed to go .900" deep!
So I wanted a .373" bore which I had accomplished, but then spent the time and effort to find and install the tool and figure the DOC and infeed to form a .382" body! Where had my brain gone, off into the twilight zone? I was about halfway through the cut when it dawned on me what I was doing. Not a flash or anything. The thought just slowly oooooozed into my head that something wasn't right.
The whole thing was like if you'd gone out to change a tire on your car but instead drained the oil and didn't realize it until you were lying on the creeper watching it run out.
At that point all I could do was finish it. I was going to go out and slam my fingers in the car door a couple times as pennance but chickened out and just mentally cursed myself soundly. While I sat there hotboxing another cigarette, I tried to consol myself thinking I had a another swage die for a much more streamlined slug, and this way I wouldn't have to make a core mould and core forming die too. I was still pissed but felt a bit better.
I decided to bump a slug in the die to make sure of what I had. I dropped a bare unlubed (my brain had disappeared again) Lyman 375449 onto the hole and used a brass drift and hammer to upset it. HA! good job. Now Einstein, how do you get it out? No sweat I thought, and parted off the shank of the #20 drill bit I drilled the ejector pin hole with and stuck it in, (wait for it) and drove it solidly into the stuck lead boolit in the die.
At that point a somewhat maniacal laugh escaped me and I decided it was time to quit for the night.
THE NEXT DAY
Was Thursday and I had to leave for work at 5. I went out to the shop at about 2. I didn't even want to think about it but there it was. Complete with that bit of drill shank sticking out. Heck, it needed to be threaded yet. The die body was 1-5/16" in diameter and it needed about .800" of 7/8-14 threads. That's key 7/8-14. So what did I do? My consiousness again departed the scene for parts unknown and I turned down a .800" length to .750". 7/8" is .875" and I KNOW THAT! Worse yet, I even setup and cut the freaking threads on it. .875" ............. .750" .............. .875" ................ .750". Some mystical connection I guess. I really have NO idea. That was enough so I spent the rest of the time sizing, flaring and priming the 50 empty 38-55 cases I had in the tumbler.
FRIDAY AM, home from work before hitting the sack
I couldn't trash the whole die. I turned off the threads and reduced it to 1/2". chucked up a piece of 7/8" stock and cut the right threads on it, then drilled and reamed a .4997" hole, and parted it off. Cleaned all the crap setting all over the hydraulic bench press, and pressed the 1/2" spigot of the die down into the threaded ring. What a cluster ............! So now it's done, except for having 270 grs of lead upset inside the die body with a piece of #20 drill bit shank sticking out the other end. I guess I'll have to melt it out.
.................Buckshot
............For my new Uberti Hi-Wall in 38-55 I wanted to make a swage die so I could utilize my Lyman 2C 375449 mould. It drops slugs at .277" to .278" depending upon alloy. The bore and groove of the new rifle is .373"x.3794", so you see the need. I ground a spoon (nose forming tool) to cut in the nose profile. It produced a more rounded and a bit shorter nose with a bit of (hopefully) bore ride portion.
As it turned out and it turned out well overall, the nose portion came in at .375" and the body at .382". Not a waste as the nose DOES engrave and isn't too tough a chore to chamber. However not completely satisfied I decided to make another swage die to form slugs for paper patching. Using 9lb paper which adds .007" I'd need a swaged diameter of .374" to .375". Either would work fine.
So Wednesday evening after the war dept got home about 6, and then turned me loose from duties having to do with the bathroom remodel, I commenced. I took a 11/32" (.343") drill blank and spent close to an hour grinding a cutting tool with a pleasing radius on it, similar to the nose on the Lyman 45 cal Postell. Since the Uberti has an 18" twist I had to bear in mind the limits on overall boolit length, but felt what I had would give me a 50/50 design, with the nose riding the bore a bit.
Math not being my strong suit, I wanted to step drill the majority of the metal out so I had to sit down with some 1/10" graph paper and draw myself a pit-chure. So with that done I got it done and then installed my new nose form cutting/boring utensil. I'd left myself .020" for boring and it took almost half of that to cut cleanly around the hole, which was going to be 1-3/8" long. With a fine feed and a shallow cut I crept up on .372". I used a pin gage and a telescoping gage and also an inside mic.
So far I'd spent about 3 hours from grinding the spoon. You can mess this up, I was thinking but decided to feed the spoon back in and this time take the spring cut on the way out. I ended up with a hole that would accept a .372" pin gage and with a bit of thumb pressure 'just' would take a .373" one. Measuring it was as close to .373" as makes any difference for this application. I didn't plan on swaging only pure lead so had to figure in a bit of springback to the alloy also.
To this point everything was going just ducky. To congratulate myself I nuked a cup of coffee and had a smoke. I really don't know at what point I lost it. Where my brain kind of drifted off into another dimension, or where I lost consciousness and forgot what I was doing. I got up and put a #20 drill bit in the tailstock and drilled a hole through the piece for the ejector pin, which was fine and needed to be done.
Remember, I was making a swage die for PATCHED boolits. I WANTED the WHOLE bore to be .373", right? What I did then was to replace the spoon with another I had made previously for the other die, to bore the body OD and to leave a sharply angled step between the .382" body and .373" nose. I then touched off and took a .005" cut!!!!!!!!!! I even spent the time figuring out I needed to go .900" deep!
So I wanted a .373" bore which I had accomplished, but then spent the time and effort to find and install the tool and figure the DOC and infeed to form a .382" body! Where had my brain gone, off into the twilight zone? I was about halfway through the cut when it dawned on me what I was doing. Not a flash or anything. The thought just slowly oooooozed into my head that something wasn't right.
The whole thing was like if you'd gone out to change a tire on your car but instead drained the oil and didn't realize it until you were lying on the creeper watching it run out.
At that point all I could do was finish it. I was going to go out and slam my fingers in the car door a couple times as pennance but chickened out and just mentally cursed myself soundly. While I sat there hotboxing another cigarette, I tried to consol myself thinking I had a another swage die for a much more streamlined slug, and this way I wouldn't have to make a core mould and core forming die too. I was still pissed but felt a bit better.
I decided to bump a slug in the die to make sure of what I had. I dropped a bare unlubed (my brain had disappeared again) Lyman 375449 onto the hole and used a brass drift and hammer to upset it. HA! good job. Now Einstein, how do you get it out? No sweat I thought, and parted off the shank of the #20 drill bit I drilled the ejector pin hole with and stuck it in, (wait for it) and drove it solidly into the stuck lead boolit in the die.
At that point a somewhat maniacal laugh escaped me and I decided it was time to quit for the night.
THE NEXT DAY
Was Thursday and I had to leave for work at 5. I went out to the shop at about 2. I didn't even want to think about it but there it was. Complete with that bit of drill shank sticking out. Heck, it needed to be threaded yet. The die body was 1-5/16" in diameter and it needed about .800" of 7/8-14 threads. That's key 7/8-14. So what did I do? My consiousness again departed the scene for parts unknown and I turned down a .800" length to .750". 7/8" is .875" and I KNOW THAT! Worse yet, I even setup and cut the freaking threads on it. .875" ............. .750" .............. .875" ................ .750". Some mystical connection I guess. I really have NO idea. That was enough so I spent the rest of the time sizing, flaring and priming the 50 empty 38-55 cases I had in the tumbler.
FRIDAY AM, home from work before hitting the sack
I couldn't trash the whole die. I turned off the threads and reduced it to 1/2". chucked up a piece of 7/8" stock and cut the right threads on it, then drilled and reamed a .4997" hole, and parted it off. Cleaned all the crap setting all over the hydraulic bench press, and pressed the 1/2" spigot of the die down into the threaded ring. What a cluster ............! So now it's done, except for having 270 grs of lead upset inside the die body with a piece of #20 drill bit shank sticking out the other end. I guess I'll have to melt it out.
.................Buckshot