Home made press

[elk hunter]

It appears that there is some interest by a few people in making swaging equipment for their own use. Here are a couple of pictures of my home made press. I've included some dimentions for those that are interested.

The press body is 3 1/2" in diameter and 6" long the top is 1" thick and the window is 2 1/2" tall. The punch holder looks like a reloading die and is threaded 7/8" x 14 and goes in the top of the press. The punch is round bottomed and floats in the holder for alignment. The ram is 1 1/2" diameter and is bored to take dies that are 1 1/8" diameter in the main body and 1" diameter at the top. The ram travel is 2". The dies are held in by a 1 1/4" x 7 threaded collar, the ID of the collar is 1" to slip over the top of the die. The ejection pin hits the top link pin when the rams goes down and ejects the bullet.

If I were to make this press again I would make the body, ram travel and the window 1/2" to 3/4" longer as it is almost too small for my 416 bullets that are 1.635 long.

Hope this helpful.

[big boar]

Beautiful job. I've never thought of swaging but just looking at your project is getting me interested.

[acemedic13]

Nice.

[turbo1889]

I've always wondered if using a "bolt inside threaded body" design you couldn't build yourself a series of pocket bullet swaggers about the same size and for the same purpose as the Lee Loaders. Two wrenches and you would have more then enough force to swage lead -- probably less effort required then a standard lever type set-up considering the massive mechanical advantage in a screw set up.

[deakin]

Elk Hunter if by some strange twist of fate you did build yourself another press to accommodate that old .416 bullet would you be interested in selling me this one?

I have an old set of RCBS 22 cal. swaging dies that I am trying to get info on and they use much the same set up that you are showing.

Very nice work

[Hardcast416taylor]

Just out of plain curosity, what weight and design .416 are you making?Robert

[BT Sniper]

Not a home made press but home made improvments. This was my weekend project. A little scrap iron, some all thread rod and nuts, a couple bolts and I will not have to swing that #*$% sledge hammer again. Can't belive how much more enjoyable and easier it is to have the bullet fall out on the up stroke rather than swing that hammer a # of times. Don' t have to worry about waking the wife and kids any more either. Improved the press with stronger linkage and a shoter stroke with more leverage. That was a longer and more challenging project, but everything is working pretty sweat now.

Many thanks to those of you that have posted pics to give me the ideas for my projects.

Good shooting,

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Forgot, it's a 30-06 case for compare.

[elk hunter]

Deakin,

If I sold that press a close friend would put a whole bunch on knots on my old, bald head, and I'm hard enough to look at as it is.

If you post some pictures of your RCBS die set I'm sure someone can help explain them. Some where I have the instructions that came with my set that I believe came from Ted Smith back in the 50's. I'm sure that you could figure out how to use yours from them if you can't find the right instructions for yours.

416 Taylor,

I've attached a picture of the 400 grain .416 bullet that I make using a 30-30 case for the jacket. They very quite a bit in weight, 405 to 420 grains, but we haven't tried to get them more consistant as all we use them for is practice and they are good enough for that.

[deakin]

From your pictures and measurements perhaps I can fabricate one similar as I don't want to have to change the ram each time I swage. Do you punches have to be hardened? I will start a thread Monday evening as I need to take some better pictures with the dies apart.

I understand about the friendship deal I would feel the same way.

[elk hunter]

deakin,

Yes, I do heat treat the punches. BUT I draw them back further than the dies as I want the punch softer, if there is some misallignment I want the punch to deform not the die.

[pjh421]

Brian,

Your bench is WAY too clean. That's a pretty nice set up though.

Paul

[trevj]

Nice ideas!

I just picked up a new, old-stock Pacific swaging set for a 308 RNHP bullet.

Paid $50 for it, and figured it would be worth it even if the rust that was visible on the outside extended to the working surfaces. They were good, though. The innards are in decent shape, so now I gotta build up something to mount it in, as i don't have a Pacific press. :)

Figure I can bore out a bar of 7075 for a start. Set it up similarly to the one posted by elk hunter.

I like the ejector set-up!

Cheers
Trev