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Southron Sanders
12-05-2008, 01:44 PM
One of my long term projects is to build a semi-automtic bullet swaging machine, sort of a modifcation of the Minie Ball swaging machine built and used at Frakfort Arsenal in the mid-1850's.

The Frankfort Arsenal machine used a three piece bullet swaging die (the ram being the part of the die that compressed the lead core and formed the hollow base of the Minie Ball.)

Instead of using cams and gears like the original Frankfort Arsenal machine, I would rather use two hydraulic cylinders. One cylinder would power the ram that swaged the ball and the other cylinder would hold the other two pieces of the swaging die together during the compression stroke.

So, here are my questions:

1. What size or power hydraulic cylinder (to push the ram) would be needed to have adequate power to compress a 500 grain lead core into a bullet?

2. What size or power hydraulic cylinder would be needed to hold the two pieces of the die (that formed the sides of the Minie Ball) together during the compression stroke of the ram?

3. What would be the best way to set up the hydraulic system so, when the compression stroke was done and the ram withrawn from the die, the hydraulic cylinder holding the die togehter would start to open so the finished Minie Ball could be ejected?

Obviously, I know very little about hyrdaulics, so your answers would be greatly appreciated. THANKS!

rbt50
12-05-2008, 11:05 PM
their is a book that corbin puts out called power swaging,and it has alot of that information in it.