copper

[onlylead]

i know this is lead forum but anybody ever try to swage solid copper work at copper refinery 1product is solid rod pure and soft

[kawalekm]

My understanding of all-copper bullets is that the swaging forces required are far beyond that of tabletop hand-operated equipment.

[GARD72977]

That is what they make the 20 ton shop press for!!!!

[slvrwraith]

I suppose, if you milled the rod down to a "general boolit shape", and had a cnc machined carbide die you could effectively press soft copper with the cheapo Harbor Freight A-frame bench top 6 ton press ($79)... should have enough force to do the job, assuming I did the math correctly, and you turn the nose of your blank to a minimum of a 45 degree angle.

[303Guy]

Just to give some idea of the forces required to swage soft copper - I made a brass punch for my 22LR case bullet swage die and the brass deformed! So I made one out of medium steel and that deformed too!!

It will be a piece of cake to swage soft copper! (But not in a reloading press).

[Jim_Fleming]

Barnes bullets are done by swaging, (as far as I know!) but I gotta tell you first, I personally did only once put a cast wheel weight bullet in my lead swaging dies, the force difference was enormous!

Pure copper is quite a bit harder and tougher than lead...

Here's a link to a promo video of Barnes Bullets:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6uo0E6nuJ0

Sorry if this is an intrusion on an otherwise quite interesting thread...

[303Guy]

Pure copper is quite a bit harder and tougher than lead...Oh yes! WW is quite a bit tougher than pure lead too. I was swaging WW type alloy when I deformed the medium steel punch. That was in a bench vise! Still, copper can be swaged with the right press quite easily.

[Cannoneer]

Corbin makes a hydraulic press that will swage pure copper and brass inro bullets.