Making my own Dillon powder funnels

[Kilroy08]

Since I'm a cheap, and sometimes poor, man and a machinist, I decided to make some powder funnels.

I have a nice little collection of caliber conversions for my 550. I have enough parts to reload all of my pistol calibers with the exceptions of powder funnels for .40 S&W/10mm and 7.62X25.

There's an abundance of drop offs and odds and ends in the scrap barrel at work. I'm thinking a chunk of 5/8" bar in 303 stainless will fit the bill nicely.

Is there any magic to the expander part? it all looks like your standard turning, a taper, and put a rounded edge on it. Measuring my spare 9mm funnel, my antique Starrett mic says it's .353. For normal run of the mill loading I'm guessing .002-.003 under the nominal diameter of a jacketed bullet should work fine for the OD on the brass end of the funnel.

Before anybody goes requesting custom powder funnels, please let me get through making my own first.

I'll be sure to post back with the obligatory pictures of the finished product.

And now for tonight's brain spasm:

A Hardinge DSM set up for case prep. How awesome would that be?

[MtGun44]

No magic at all, should be easy to make. Polish to final dimension.
You could make it stepped like a Lyman M die expander if you
wanted, which would be good for rifle loading.

Bill

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Kilroy,

I suggest if you are going to make powder funnels, to learn how to make them in Lyman M-die configuration. Why? 1. Because it'll work better in every single caliber when reloading slightly oversize lead boolits. 2. Because if you get good at making them in the Lyman M-die style, you can sell them on this board and make yourself a lot less poor.

Best Regards,

Dave

[ffries61]

My Dillon 40/10mm powder funnel miked out right at .397"

Fred

[M-Tecs]

They have less powder bridging issue when reamed as follows:

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/7421299/Re_Dillon_650_improvement_Modi

3) Reaming and Polishing the powder funnels
Sometimes powder will form a bridge in the powder funnel that results in a one round being low on powder, unfortunately you catch it when the powder falls all over the place as you let the handle up or the next round gets way over filled and you notice it.
How to fix it - Buy a tapered reamer (or ask me if you can borrow mine) I used a 1/2" to 1/8" reamer - use it to ream out the short powder drop cone inside the die. Once you ream it out, you put emery cloth around the reamer and polish the heck out of it so it's smooth and slippery. ** Don't over ream the drop funnel, the bottom of the funnel has a ridge on it that has to contact the case mouth, if you ream that open the brass won't lift the powder assembly correctly.

[upnorthwis]

For loading cast, I made my powder funnel .356 for loading 9MM. .353 was too small and was swaging the boolit in the brass.

[wv109323]

+1 on upnorthwis. Make the size of the funnel appropriate for your bullet so that the bullet is not swaged.

[EDG]

Some of these guys brag about their high dollar trimmers but the various Hardinge 2nd op turret lathes are the
worlds best case trimmers. Owning one of these has long been an unrealized dream.

Turn case necks
Turn rims
Machine extractor grooves
Trim to lenght
You could even hold the primer pocket uniformer with it.

You can use a 1" brass collet with an internal stop.
Tap the cases into Wilson case holders (or make your own case holders)
Put the Wilson holder with the case into the collet an push it against the stop. Lock the collet

Trim
reverse to machine the rims or cut extractor grooves in the most professional manner possible.

Heck you can even make little bushings for primer pockets.
Then machine the primer pockets of Berdan brass for the bushings. Press in the bushings
Trim the bushings flush.
Prime with Boxes primers after conversion

There are a million things we can do with those lathes.




And now for tonight's brain spasm:

A Hardinge DSM set up for case prep. How awesome would that be?

[bhn22]

Do remember that different calibers of the same bore size often have different length expanders. Don't believe me? Compare your 9mm Dillon piece to your 38/357.

[257]

I went to a auction 2 months ago the had 3 hardinge lathe's the had to moan to get 300.00 apice for themthey were nice clean machines I made my custom funnel out of 4140 heat treated it was what I had laying around

[Kilroy08]

Thank you for all the input so far.

I'm finally caught up on the hot jobs I had sitting on my bench and should be able to get one of the funnels made tonight.

Lyman M style and custom sizes are definitely something I am considering. More research is in order and I will get back to you folks on that.

On a side note, what do I do to get my NRA Life Member badge?

[Kilroy08]

A brief update.

Factory Dillon funnels have a diameter step down for the lower portion. In my infinite wisdom, I assumed it was an unnecessary detail and omitted it on the prototypes I made to save machining time. I'm sure any machinists on the board are familiar with the 30 minute lunch break hustle.

Well, it's there for a reason. Without it, the funnel won't drop down far enough in the powder die to allow installation of the powder measure.

Stay tuned for next weekend's test run of .40 S&W. Pictures will be included.

Hopefully by the end of the year I'll have a place with enough room for a small shop/den of manliness. Condominium living is so restrictive. Having to drive 25 miles to visit my reloading bench is a major pain.

[gloob]

+2 upnorthwis. I have custom tuned a couple of expanders to dial them in. And IMO there's no need to go a full 2-3 mils smaller than nominal jacketed bullet diameter. The plug only has to equal, if not smaller, than the bullet to get 100% neck tension. In 9mm, .355 would be the smallest bullet you can load. So I would aim to make the plug just a frog's hair smaller than .355. At that size, it should work fine with most cast bullets, too.

[aguyn5girls]

So have you got them figured out? Just looking for a update.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[country gent]

When I made mine I reamed the thru hole with a taper pin reamer so it got bigger as the powder droped thru and the end hole .025-.030 under inside case dia. This helps to stop bridging. A good polish when done and powder cant stick since its getting bigger and bigger as it drops

[garandsrus]

A brief update.

Factory Dillon funnels have a diameter step down for the lower portion. In my infinite wisdom, I assumed it was an unnecessary detail and omitted it on the prototypes I made to save machining time. I'm sure any machinists on the board are familiar with the 30 minute lunch break hustle.

Well, it's there for a reason. Without it, the funnel won't drop down far enough in the powder die to allow installation of the powder measure.

I have machined quite a few powder funnels. The step down you mention is only needed for short cartridge cases. It’s not there at all on rifle funnels. I don’t add it to most of the custom funnels I make, but I commonly make M die type funnels for rifle calibers. Most are pretty short since the rifle brass is relatively long.