Corbin Brothers businesses

[bigjake]

I've been reading the swaging threads for quite some time and have learned a lot from you gentlemen. so i will say; thank you.

From reading the posts and replies, I can't help but get bad vibes from the bad service these guys(companies) give. Is it just me or does anyone else feel this way? I've read countless posts of guys not being able to get in touch with them, or waiting months and months for something ordered. Scrolling through Corbins web site (Dave) I am impressed with the products available but, I am totally reluctant to order anything, even the simplest thing.

[Tatume]

Can't say I disagree. I tried to do business with one of the brothers and found him hard to talk with. The other was friendly, but his web site was confusing. I ended up not buying from either.

On the other hand, BTSniper on this forum has been very accommodating. I've purchased dies to swage three different caliber bullets, and also his auto-ejector for the RCBS Rock Chucker press. I've had nothing but success with his equipment, and nothing to say but praise for the man and his business.

Take care, Tom

[rancher1913]

all of the custom die makers have long backorder lists, its what happens when you are a one off shop. there is only one of the corbin brothers still in business and if its in stock it ships quick. you can order from corbin or btsniper with no worries about getting taken, it may take awhile for a custom die but you will get it.

[Valornor]

I’ve worked with Dave and Richard , and while I don’t agree with everything either of these guys do, I haven’t ever had a bad experience.

These guys are machinists and engineers, as with most engineers/machinists, customer service isn’t always their forte. However the products they provide are quality.

I’ll order from Dave or Richard again without hesitation. Depending on what you are ordering there may be a lead time, but that is just the nature of custom manufacturing.

I haven’t done business with BT Sniper yet, but I plan to. I’ve had a few conversations with him, and he’s just fine to talk to.

In the age of Amazon Prime 1 day or 3 day shipping, we forget that not every product can fit in that instant shipping model. Swage dies take time, it is the nature of the product and the business.


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[MUSTANG]

Have done business with Corbins (Dave) since back in 1988/89. Yes there is a wait; but I still have each and every product I have bought from him. Found him to be knowledgable, good at what he does; and he will warn a customer if what they want to do is problematic - and make alternative recommendations.

Have done business with BT Sniper several times and same as above.

[Ozark mike]

Kind of like tom @ accurate custom work isnt like buying chinesium stuff at the get it now store

[dragon813gt]

Kind of like tom @ accurate custom work isnt like buying chinesium stuff at the get it now store

Actually Tom is like that, difference is it’s high quality. Give him a brand new design and you will have it in a few days time. I’m amazed at how fast he can turn out a mold. But he’s the only mold manufacturer like this. You will wait w/ any of the others. Either for them to replenish stock or for a group buy to come to an end. W/ swaging tools the wait time is always long unless it’s in stock

[bigjake]

I've done business with BT sniper also. I am totally satisfied with his products and support. He was not part of this original post. I know it takes awhile to make custom dies and the like. I would never expect for instant gratification like amazon.
If the companies have such huge backlogs, why aren't there more of them in the business? or, why hasn't RCBS or some other reloading die manufacturer start or resume making them?

[ReloaderFred]

It's a very small niche business, and hard to make a living at. The dies are time consuming to make, and sometimes get messed up in the tempering stage. C-H discontinued their swaging dies due to this issue, and they were the last source of reasonably priced off the shelf swaging dies.

I've been told that custom die making is kind of like farming. For every successful farmer, there's a wife who has a good job in town.......

Hope this helps.

Fred

[nun2kute]

FWIW, Dave claims to be making the equipment for ALL the BIG NAME bullet Mfr's. If any other shop is making such claims, i haven't heard of them. I cant speak for that, but i'm smart enough to know when I put in an order i'm not the bread n butter of his business and it might take time until my order works its way up the list.

OK, so after thinking. I got CH4D, are they in there too ? But they are not "Overnight" either.

[KAYDADOG]

Dealt with Dave Corbin for years and invested in multiple caliber H-dies. Sent numerous emails to him over the years and he always readily responded back to me with very lengthy responses. He does offer some good discounts usually at year end if you can wait. This is a custom line of work and if something has to be made it will of course take longer to get. With any products you get what you pay for. I've never been disappointed from any of Dave's products.
I'm only disappointed Richard got out of the Jacket making business his prices were almost half of what Dave charges. Luckily several years ago I purchased about 15K jackets in multiple calibers which will last me quite a long time. If I knew he was closing up shop I would have probably purchased all he had at the time. Richard was not one for answering emails.
The main reason I went with Dave's products was because of the H-dies. I decided to build my own fully automated hydraulic press only because I have the background and machines to build one. The H-die sets were only several hundred dollars more than the standard dies and their size is quite impressive compared to a standard die.

[contendernut]

Richard is back at it in limited form. I’ve used both. Richard seems to have more ideas but Dave has the full scale machine shop.

[Valornor]

FWIW, Dave claims to be making the equipment for ALL the BIG NAME bullet Mfr's. If any other shop is making such claims, i haven't heard of them. I cant speak for that, but i'm smart enough to know when I put in an order i'm not the bread n butter of his business and it might take time until my order works its way up the list.

OK, so after thinking. I got CH4D, are they in there too ? But they are not "Overnight" either.

Dave does do some support of commercial bullet makers. Especially when it is one off custom or R&D type enterprises. However most of the large bullet makers have their own dedicated machine shops that make dies and punches for their bullet presses.

Commercial grade dies are almost always carbide, with profiles burned in with EDM.


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[jimrk]

Richard is a smart and good guy IMHO. Glad he got tired of be 'retired' and is doing limited work.
Just wish he would mentor someone because the knowledge will be gone when he is gone.

[NoZombies]

Dave does do some support of commercial bullet makers. Especially when it is one off custom or R&D type enterprises. However most of the large bullet makers have their own dedicated machine shops that make dies and punches for their bullet presses.

Agreed; I've talked with several of the manufacturers about such things, and a few of the folks I talked with said they do indeed use Dave's Hydropresses for R&D or possibly very limited runs of things that have small markets. Although everyone that I spoke with about it mentioned that they do NOT use dies made by Corbin for either R&D or production. Not to say that some don't, but no-one I spoke with does.

[Valornor]

I’ve used the hydro press, it’s pretty darn slick. I’d love to get one myself.

Most the dies we had for it were made in house.


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[M.A.D]

Dave does do some support of commercial bullet makers. Especially when it is one off custom or R&D type enterprises. However most of the large bullet makers have their own dedicated machine shops that make dies and punches for their bullet presses.

Commercial grade dies are almost always carbide, with profiles burned in with EDM.


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Don't need no stinking EDM to make custom Carbide dies now...... I've made two carbide dies so far this year, About to make three more.... And daym i wish i new this before i tried to make my first carbide die with a EDM... Mind you, the stuff is still evil **** to polish...

[midnight]

A while back, I think it was in 2008, A Square decided to get out of the bullet making business. They had an auction to dispose of all their stuff out in Chamberlain, SD. There were 4 hydraulic swage presses, 3 from Dave Corbin and 1 Hydra-Swage from Richard Corbin. I ended up with the Hydra-Swage for $260. Of course I had to drive out to SD to pick it up. So some of the smaller custom bullet makers use equipment from the Corbins.

Bob

[Zbench]

+1 on the comments about Dave Corbin. Yes, his website it outdated, but he is in it to win it. He has half a dozen tool and die makers employed and they are very good at what they do. I think the wait is more imagined than real. I have bought a lot of stuff off of him, and even custom dies are done in about 6 weeks. I ordered a set up to draw dies on my hydro which was very complicated and he had it done in about 2 months. If you call him he will talk to you as long as you have questions.

Don't have any experience with Richard. Biggest difference is he is a one man band that sometimes make stuff and sometimes doesn't. Dave is running a large business, and he is there for support and or questions whenever you need him.

Satisfied customer here of Dave Corbin. Have an S Press, H press and Hydro. Also have his motorized cannelure machine and a lot of custom dies. He is the bomb.com!

[GONRA]

GONRA's only dealt with Dave Corbin over the decades (CSP-2 hand press, H-dies) and has been very pleased.

[ofreen]

I bought my first dies from Dave Corbin in 1984, which is getting to be a long time ago now. Talked to him on the phone several times over the years, usually about something minor like a punch or whatever. He was always generous with his time. It is a little amazing to me that he is still at it.

[Alex ZP]

Congratulations to all present at this forum. My name is Alexander. I live in Ukraine. This is my first post on this forum. I'm interested in making my own ball. And I ordered equipment from Dave. Two months have passed since the payment of the order.

[Alex ZP]

But I do not receive news from Dave that the equipment is ready and will be sent soon. And he doesn't always answer my letters. My question to you gentlemen will be - is this a normal situation? Do you just have to wait a little longer?

[Alex ZP]

I apologize for any mistakes. I use Google Translate to write messages. My written English is too bad to write on my own. I also apologize for writing a lot of short messages. My smartphone does not allow me to write long texts with English translation

[wmitty]

Alex ZP

Welcome to the forum! I have not purchased bullet swaging equipment from the Corbin brothers, but extended wait times do seem to be normal. Which caliber bullet do you plan to swage?

[Alex ZP]

I decided to study at 223 Rem .then switch to other calibers. Until I get to 338 and 50bmg

[Alex ZP]

The time difference between us is about 11 hours. Therefore, my answers will not always be quick.

[rbt5050]

never had any problems with dave or richard . i am out of swaging now but at one time bought a lot of dies and press from them . best dies and presses around.

[Alex ZP]

This is good news for me. I will wait patiently. I make a conclusion. If you order the equipment - it is necessary to order at once much and in all calibers))).

[Chemoman]

dave is a good guy to talk to and order from. stay away from his wife, she will not be the same is the mild way to put it. richard is semi retired and impossible to reach on the phone for me at least. ive ordered from both in the past but do not do business with daves wife. the bill wont be the same as quoted.

[Zbench]

Alex,

Rest assured that Dave is working on your order. I would send him an email direct: dave@corbins.com I have never known him not to answer an email. I bet that they are backed up if the run on regular projectiles is any guide. At one point last year he was running about 3 weeks for custom orders. He has a large shop with 7 die makers working for him. You will get what you ordered and you will love it. I know how waiting can be very hard. :)

[Alex ZP]

Yes, on the same e-mail I write to Dave. And some answers have been coming reluctantly lately. Probably. As you say - his wife interferes with Dave's computer. Takes away from him the keyboard for example. And that's why I don't always get answers.

[Alex ZP]

The last time I received a reply to a letter from Dave was about three weeks ago. He explained that they. In the state of Oregon there was an evacuation of all citizens in connection with fires. I hope that at present the situation with this has returned to normal.

[ReloaderFred]

The area his shop is in was impacted by the fire, but it's been out for several weeks now. I believe their shop was spared, and they're back to work. Any work interruption caused by the evacuation would put them further behind than they were before.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Alex ZP]

Thank you all for your answers. It helped me understand why it took so long

[sv44]

I have worked with Dave Corbin for some time now. I have always found him to be very timely in his response, he often goes into great detail to answer questions i have and , if what i have ordered is going to take awhile to get to me he has always let me know.
I have nothing but great words and admiration for the man, his products and the service he and his company provide.
I am confident you will receive your order as soon as it is ready.

[Alex ZP]

Yes, when I discussed the order with Dave, what I needed was to talk about Ukraine and America. And I listened to the American point of view on these events. Apparently Dave then had time to communicate. It was very interesting. I once again made sure that you. Americans are very educated people. who value freedom as their own. and all other people. With people for whom freedom is above all other values - we Ukrainians will always be on the road.

[Zbench]

I spoke to Dave today when I had questions about some tooling I'm looking for. They are severely backed up. I wanted to get some common H type dies and he told me they would be next year and he couldn't say when. He hired two new tool and die makers and they are helping. He said the big problem is that because of the fires and the unrest in Portland, they are having a hard time getting supplies delivered that they need to make the stuff they sell. The shortage is truck drivers willing to brave molotov cocktails getting out of Portland. He said it has eased up some but that, coupled with COVID and high demand has them at full capacity. He said they are shipping stuff daily, and are gaining on the backlog.

As a side note, he said they are doing more international business than ever. I guess Nielsen did a youtube video on how they swage their airgun slugs using their presses and tooling. He said that their business doubled all over the world with folks buying the tooling to make their own slugs and avoid dealing with ITAR and the rest.

If you are in the custom die making business, it's a good problem to have. Dave was gracious with his time and thoughts on my project as always.

[Alex ZP]

I understand everything.
I even laugh at the situation. If you look from the side. One man from the opposite end of the earth asks about one of the hundreds of millions of citizens of another country - No one knows what happened there?
And the strangest thing - gets a detailed answer)))).
Our world has become tight. Everyone knows everything about everyone.

[Alex ZP]

As you can see, some time has passed since the date of my penultimate post on this topic. What has changed? Not too much. I managed to talk to Dave in January. A little more in February. The last letter from Dave I received earlier this month. With the assurance that most of my order is ready. And he is ready to send it within 10 days. It remains to make only a set die for the last two steps. And for almost a month now, I have no information about sending the equipment or information about how to deal with the last part of my order. Maybe someone from the residents of this forum knows what's going on?

[No_1]

Dave would be the one to ask your question as he is the one who has the answer.


As you can see, some time has passed since the date of my penultimate post on this topic. What has changed? Not too much. I managed to talk to Dave in January. A little more in February. The last letter from Dave I received earlier this month. With the assurance that most of my order is ready. And he is ready to send it within 10 days. It remains to make only a set die for the last two steps. And for almost a month now, I have no information about sending the equipment or information about how to deal with the last part of my order. Maybe someone from the residents of this forum knows what's going on?

[Alex ZP]

I agree with you that Dave could best answer my questions.
But ... The problem is that Dave doesn't get in touch with me. For quite some time.
And I'm worried. I hoped that maybe here on the forum there are those who communicate with him regularly and have some information.

[Zbench]

Alex,

Don't be worried. When I spoke to Dave last fall, he told me they are a year out on orders at the soonest. Your dies will get completed and shipped. Just huge demand right now. I wouldn't lose a minute of sleep over it. Looks like you put in your order in August of last year. So if you get them even in a month or two you will be way ahead of schedule.

[silverjay]

A few months ago Dave quoted me 4 months for common calibers/profiles.....

[Alex ZP]

Thank you for your answers. Yes. Really - I ordered and paid for my equipment to Dave at the end of August. That is, seven months have passed since then.
Apparently I chose a not very good month and year for my order. If I knew what would happen, I would have to make my order during the Trump election. And even better - during the Obama administration. But I do not have a time machine, unfortunately))).

[Alex_4x4]

... Maybe someone from the residents of this forum knows what's going on?

I know. Write in a personal (you can in Russian), I will explain.

[Alex ZP]

I know. Write in a personal (you can in Russian), I will explain. Якщо ви в курсі чому Дейв не відповідає на листи і дзвінки- дайте інформацію.Дякую за відповідь.

[Alex_4x4]

Якщо ви в курсі чому Дейв не відповідає на листи і дзвінки- дайте інформацію.Дякую за відповідь.

:-)

Ответил в личку.

[2005f22c]

FYI, when you order from Dave Corbin you get an auto reply which states:

"NOTICE: We cannot ship outside the USA except to the UK and Canada. Other shipments are
blocked and returned. We MUST ship to a USA location. Our client in other countries can
arrange their own import shipping through MyUS, Meest America, or directly with DHL or
FedEx, either for pick up at our location, or we can ship to their USA forwarding point, where export
will be between you and the forwarding company. We are sorry for this new development, which is
partly caused by Covid-19 rules and partly by increased government control over any form of
reloading equipment. We simply do not have time to deal with the paperwork, licensing and regulations
imposed since the first of 2020 on exports, other than Canada and the UK (which seem to have less
problem with these exports)."

[Alex_4x4]

The Slavs have one feature:

We first do something, and then, when difficulties arise, we start asking others questions and very rarely read instructions.

:-)

[Alex ZP]

Excuse me for not answering. I was busy for a while. Meeting of reservists in the army. Our neighbors from the east have made up a fool of themselves.
Dave found some time for me and provided answers to all my questions. He also wrote that my order is completely ready and now we are corresponding with him to resolve the issue - how best to deliver the shipment to my country.

[Alex ZP]

FYI, when you order from Dave Corbin you get an auto reply which states:

"NOTICE: We cannot ship outside the USA except to the UK and Canada. Other shipments are
blocked and returned. We MUST ship to a USA location. Our client in other countries can
arrange their own import shipping through MyUS, Meest America, or directly with DHL or
FedEx, either for pick up at our location, or we can ship to their USA forwarding point, where export
will be between you and the forwarding company. We are sorry for this new development, which is
partly caused by Covid-19 rules and partly by increased government control over any form of
reloading equipment. We simply do not have time to deal with the paperwork, licensing and regulations
imposed since the first of 2020 on exports, other than Canada and the UK (which seem to have less
problem with these exports)."

I will say briefly - at the time when I placed and paid for the order - there were no such difficulties and restrictions on shipping. This ad on the site, too. In correspondence with Dave then, this question also did not arise. I'm only solving it now.

[Alex ZP]

Congratulations to the dear visitors of this forum and this page.
I consider it necessary to write how my waiting story ended. What I wrote here earlier. I apologize for not doing this before.
Dave Corbyn is a man and an entrepreneur who fulfills his obligations. Although with a late delay than I expected, I received all the equipment I wanted to buy. And it works as well as promised. The last shipment with parts of the equipment I received in early June. Since then, I have produced more than 20+ thousand bullets in various shapes and weights. Not all of them turned out great. But this is solely my fault and lack of necessary knowledge and experience. Now with these components everything is much better))).
And so I again ordered Dave. For parts of the equipment that will produce bullets in two more calibers.

[No_1]

Closed.