Wire extruding with log splitter!!

[CWME]

I copied a design I found on here of a wire extruder made by ETG. 1 1/2 DOM tubing, 1" O-1 piston, 1 1/2 thick plate welded to the tubing, and 1/2X20 bolts drilled out for the bushings for now.

At first the pump on the splitter maxed out and nothing happened. I remembered guys heating things up so I got out the Oxy/Acetylene rose bud and started heating. Went to far and it spit out a 1/2 pound stream of molten lead...

Tried it again with a little less heat and viola...WIRE!!!

[CWME]

Oh I forgot lengths and lead used...The 3/16 wire was about 6 feet long with a half pound ingot and the 3/8 wire was about 20 inches with the half pound ingot.

I am using 1/2 pound roofing lead ingots made with the lee ingot mold. Oh, 30wt motor oil for lube.

Still working on ideas to get the piston out instead of clamping it in a vice and pounding the die off it.

One last thing, Thank you ETG for sharing your ideas and for posting your pics. Your design works great!

[ANeat]

So you got a lead squirt gun, how sweet is that LOL

[CWME]

Scared the snot out of me to say the least=) LOL This thing will make 6 feet of 3/16 wire in about 2 secs... SWEET!

[jixxerbill]

ive been pondering the same idea, but using a 20 ton press ! i was wondering if a taper on the end would help? use a tube and on the end of it use a solid round bar which is same diameter as ur cylinder machine a cone inside of it down to say 1/2 in then thread it and weld it to end of tube... with diffrent size holes in bolts u could screw them into the end (for diffrent size wire).... just thinkin out loud...

[CWME]

Jixxerbill, Sounds similar to what is here, should work fine. The taper would probably make the wire extrude without quite as much heat as I have to use. Give her a try and postup your pics!!
Using bolts bored out to different sizes is the way to go IMHO. I made one for the .22 setup I will either buy or build myself and one for the .40sw case to make 44 bullets.

I ordered a shop press but they ended up being back ordered for 2-3 months. So I went out and fired up the log splitter and she works. Saving the $250 I would have spent on the shop press to buy a swaging press and dies.

[CWME]

as a side note, I have a pin hole in my weld that holds the tube and plate together. The oil is vaporized as it comes out the hole and makes about a 18 inch flame thrower. So if you try this and use a torch and oil beware that you might get some flames spitting out...

[jixxerbill]

that wire u made really looks good imho, i havent tried it yet as i was afraid it would not turn out as good as yours did,, i imagined it would not be consistent in weight by length and/or would fray up when comming out the sizer ... but u seem to have a good handle on it .. good job !!!

[CWME]

Thanks Jixxerbill. Honestly, I didn't do ANY polishing to the bolt or the die body. The only thing I polished was the piston to remove some burs left from turning it down to fit the tubing. The wire is perfectly smooth and apears to not have any voids. When I figure out a cutter for this stuff I will try weighing the pieces to see if there is any variance. Still a while out for the cutter. Won't have much shop time for another two weeks.

[sagacious]

as a side note, I have a pin hole in my weld that holds the tube and plate together. The oil is vaporized as it comes out the hole and makes about a 18 inch flame thrower. So if you try this and use a torch and oil beware that you might get some flames spitting out...
Ay caramba. As an aside to your other thread about shop safety, I'm forced to point out that the sealed chamber/flammable oil/acetylene torch idea may not be the wisest/safest combination. Accident just waiting to happen.

You may wish to consider using a non-flammable or non-dieseling lubricant for your extruder.

Otherwise, congrats on your success. :drinks:

[ANeat]

Jixxer a few guys here have made wire extruders with a shop press. Search lead wire, there are some pretty good setups

[ANeat]

Ill second the non/flamable lube, a lot of heat is generated in the extruder. Dont add any fuel!!

[CWME]

Any suggestions on a non flamable lubricant??? As you have pointed out, confined area, heat, and flamable substance...

Yesterday was a day for stupidity on my part all the way around... It's a wonder I made it to 30 with all my digits...

[imashooter2]

Soap should be good in this application.

[CWME]

Let me guess, one that smells like flowers.

[imashooter2]

If that's what you have on the shelf.[smilie=1:

[ANeat]

Soap like IMA mentioned, The Lee case lube is a soap based lube. Ive heard Lanolin wont "diesel" but I cant say that for sure just yet

[Dframe]

My congratulations on your ingenious way of making your own extruder. Very clever unconventional use of an unreleated piece of machinery.

[RP]

nice post at one time i was thinking of getting into swaging cost keeping me way for now. One of the way I was thinking to save money was making my own wire. Good job

[bohica2xo]

You can use most anything for drawing lube. Commercially we still use lard for that job...

Don't sweat the flammability of heavy oils, just fix that leak. Your hydraulic fluid is under high pressure too - so be careful where you swing that torch.

It can't "diesel" without a lot of air. There is just not enough air in the cylinder - it di not burn until you atomized it in the atmosphere. Which brings us to point two - you need to atomize even light oils like diesel to compression ignite them.

And, keep the gloves in the garden shed while running the lathe...

B.

[CWME]

I grabbed some liquid dish soap to try for next time. This afternoon I got a few mins to play and tried it without any lubricant. I can now tell everyone NOT to try this, ever. I ended up putting a lot of stress on the whole machine and stopped before something catastrophic happened. After melting the lead out I used some heavy gear oil and that worked really well. I did some WW aloy but didn't like the results. Voids or cracks in the wire, not continuous. Had to try it at least.
Update on the design, I welded a piece of angle iron to the end of the piston tha goes up into the tubing. I can now hook that behind the splitting wedge and the plate on the back of the ram and pull the piston out. No more clamping and pounding with a hammer. Worked slick!
While the welder was out I fixed the leak Bohica, and the gloves are definately out of the picture.

[sagacious]

...
It can't "diesel" without a lot of air. There is just not enough air in the cylinder - it di not burn until you atomized it in the atmosphere. Which brings us to point two - you need to atomize even light oils like diesel to compression ignite them.
...
I mentioned 'non-dieseling' as a suggestion for selection criteria of a non-flammable lubricant. It was not meant to suggest that dieseling would occur in the above mentioned context. It is correct to say that dieseling would of course not occur, but the safety aspect remains.

Directing an acetylene torch at flammable oils/greases is exceedingly unsafe and unwise. There remains a risk of fire or severe burns. There's just no sane reason to risk that kind of injury.

Forewarned is forearmed. :drinks:

[sagacious]

Dish soap would be my first choice of lubricant for this application. It will remain slippery even when heated. A mix of dish soap and 30-40% lanolin would be super-slippery and also non-flammable.

Many types of wire-pulling lubricant are non-flammable. You may also wish to check those out. Dish soap and lanolin seem the cheapest, and likely best, solutions.

Keep up the good work. You're wearing eye protection when you run that rig, right? :drinks:

[CWME]

Sagacious, Your warning was taken seriously. I will try some dish soap next time. Apreciate the mentioning the potential disaster I was making...

Which brings up a good point. When pressure is being applied to the extruder the wire is extruded away from me and I am standing behind the motor not beside the ram. If this thing lets go the amount of force released would be imense.

I have special "shop" glasses. Prescription safety glasses.:drinks:

[ETG]

CWME,
I use the lanolin/mineral oil mix for lube. I also used a 3/4" threaded rod to make the extruder nipple. When finished I take the nipple out, turn the extruder upside down and press the piston out with a 3/8" long socket wrench extension. You want the top of the nipple level with the inside of your bottom plate - if it extends higher it will require a lot more force. Also, if you taper the opening of the nipple it will flow easier. You don't want any sharp angles where the lead is flowing. Using my 20 ton air over hydralic jack at 125 psi the jack will completely load up and it will take 3-8 seconds before the lead starts flowing. Once it stars the force required drops way down (I do not heat the die at all). For my ingot molds I used two pieces of 3/4" aluminum bar, fit them together like a mold and bored 7/8" holes down the middle. A 1/8" dowel on each end keeps it aligned. I use a welding clamp (the ones that are like vice grips) to hold the halfs together and to serve as a handle.

[Smokin7mm]

I started extruding lead wire to use in bullet swaging about 9 years ago when I started swaging. I used two pieces of heavy c-channel (about 3/8" thick x 5" wide x 12" long). I inverted them so the flats were together and used 1/2' rod which I threaded on each end. These attach the the two together with enough spacing to fit the desired hydraulic jack. At first I used a 20ton hand jack and later upgraded to an air/hydraulic. My die accepts around a 3/4" billet about 1.5" long. I have interchangeabe inserts to get different size wire (.185, .205, .250) which fit into the top of the die. I used socket head cap screws drilled reamed and polished inside with leading taper to eliminate pressure. For lube I use sizing lube or swaging lube on a lube pad. Just roll the billets prior to inserting in the die. My piston/ram is a grade 8 bolt. To extract the bolt after the stroke I slip a open end wrench between the bolt head and die and just pop it out. If it gets sticky you can use the wrench to turn the bolt back and forth a few times then pop it out. Wire comes out continuous as there is enough pressure there is no seperation between billets. Works great.
Bret

[scrapcan]

smokin7mm,

could you post some pictures of yoru setup?

[scrapcan]

CWME,

can you take a picture of the extruder die set on the splitter. Just curious as to what it look s like when installed and ready to work. I was thinking the sam ething for retraction if you had a double acting cylinder.

[Smokin7mm]

smokin7mm,

could you post some pictures of yoru setup?

Never posted pictures here before. How do you post pictures to this site. Anybody got the quick lowdown on this?

Bret

[scrapcan]

easiest way I have found is to use advanced reply and attach the picture using attacment feature. The pictures will need to be smaller in size. Those I have attached are in the neighborhood of 300 to 500kb when compressed (1024x768 compressed).

[CWME]

I will grab the camera and take some pictures after work tomorrow. We had to move out of our trailer while our new house is being built. So the shop is all alone and 30 mins away from where we are staying now... Be glad to have the shop 30 yards out the back door agian!!

Anyway I will get some in action pics for you.

I have some clean up work to do on the dies so they have a better taper. I have a 7/8" drill bit somewhere that I could chamfer where the dies screw in. That might help reduce the effort and eliminate my need to use the torch. Kicking myself that I didn't chamfer that opening before I welded everything together... Just have to make another one I guess...
Been thinking about a 4" dia tube wit a 2" piston and 4 nozzles.

[ETG]

I have my doubts if you could get 4" of lead moving even with 4 nozzels.

[sagacious]

I agree. I'm not sure if CWME means a 4" diameter or 2" diameter lead cylinder. But either way, it might be too much of a good thing.

What's the largest diam lead cylinder that anyone has used for extrusion with a 20 or 40-ton press? About the largest I've seen done in a home-shop is 1" diam.

[Smokin7mm]

OK here goes, sorry if the quality is poor. Did it in a rush with the cell phone camera and just e-mailed to myself to file it.
First picture is of the press itself. Second picture is of a top view with one die inserted and the other two dies to the left for the sizes I make. Third picture is a side view of the dies. There is a counter bore in the top of the die body and the insert has the screw end turned down to match so it bottoms out each time.
Bret

[ANeat]

That looks pretty nice to me,

[CWME]

4" OD {A} x 2.000" ID {B} x 1" Wall {C} Steel Tube, 4 nozzles might be a tight fit so 2 would be more practical. A guy can dream can't he?

Smoking7mm, Sweet looking rig!

[CWME]

Here are the pictures... Forgot the camera yesterday...

[hardcase54]

WHOA. That should SHOOT lead.

[ANeat]

Looks scary to me, do you wear a cup when you use that thing? LOL

[scrapcan]

Thank you both for the pictures.

[No_1]

A couple of questions.
1)How tight is the fit of the "ram" to the "die"?
2)I can see making it very heavy walled seamless tubing. What do y'all use?
3)Has anyone else had experience with WW material?

Robert

[CWME]

Aneat, One would need more than a cup if that let go and you were standing beside it=) I am standing beside it to take the pictures, no pressure was on the ram. I stand behind the machine well away from the "blast zone" so to speak.

As you can see I have it on the machine crooked in the photo. When running wire I get it lined up with the splitter ram as best I can.

I dropped my caliper so I can't measure the fit. I can tell you that it is really close. With the oil on the parts it creates a pretty good vacume when you try to retract the piston. Sorry I am not more precise here, not a machinist... Mine works at least so if I can do it you can too.

Got the DOM "drawn over mandrel" tubing from Speedy Metals. www.speedymetals.com.

I didn't like the WW wire. Had voids and cracks in it.

[Smokin7mm]

A couple of questions.
1)How tight is the fit of the "ram" to the "die"?
2)I can see making it very heavy walled seamless tubing. What do y'all use?
3)Has anyone else had experience with WW material?

Robert

Robert,

1) The hole bored in my die is 3/4". I used a 3/4" grade 8 bolt with a long shank and cut off the threads.
2) My die was actually bored and reamed by a machinest friend of mine out of 4340 heat treat if I remember correctly. Die body is 2" I think (forgot to measure)
3)WW are pretty hard to be drawing wire from. It also is pretty hard to be swaging bullets from for the hobbiest using a hand press. All my swaging stuff is RCE. RCE used bigger die bodies with larger threads (7/8-14 vs 5/8-24 on the corbin dies) and Richard doe not recommend the use of WW in either die as you can risk cracking the die if you apply too much pressure while trying to get the bullet to fill out correctly.

Hope this answers your questions.
Bret

[bdbullets]

Now this is an idea I would have never thought of, but now I am going to have to try it.

[Country]

I had a book once on lead extrusion but I leant it to someone and never got it back .
From what I remember the driving piston has to be a very neat and pollished fit otherwise lead may start to extrude back along the piston and not out the extrusion die.
The power required to start extrusion with a certain alloy is mainly governed by the diameter not the length of the lead billit,
So it is better to have a long skinney tube rather than a short fat one as it takes less HP. That sounds a bit rude . Anyway it is something to think about keep the diameter down as much as possible and increase the length to get the total weight of lead you want to extrude.
Heat on the outside of the billit tube reduces HP required to start extrusion. If you heat the extrusion die end and not the piston end then it helps reduce any tendancy to extrude past the piston.
Also casting the lead billit in a seperate slightly smaller mould alloys you to lubricate the outside of the billit with some swaging lube before sliding it into the swage cylinder. This further reduces HP required. Dont lubricate the etrusion end of the lead billit.
Make sure you are well out of the way as it can fly out suddenly like a Roman spear.

[ETG]

The length of the billet does effect the force required to start the extrusion. It is far easier to start a 7/8"x3" billet than it is to start a 7/8"x6" billet. As you apply force the billet expands to fill the die (my die is 1" dia.) and you also have to overcome the surface area of the side of the billet. I cast my billets in 7/8"x1 1/2" molds and I can load my die anywhere from 1 1/2" to 7 1/2" lengths. It takes everything my 20 ton press has to start 7 1/2". I normally load it to 4 1/2" I also use mineral oil/lanolin lube on the outside of the billets.

[Country]

I did say " mainly". The amount of force required is mainly a function of diameter .
It takes a lot more force to start only a small diameter increase.
However it takes a smaller increas in force to start a length increase of the same total lead volume .
Side friction would increase as length increases but not as much as diameter will increase force. Thats why your dimention is 7/8 x 3 . 3.43 times longer than it is wide.
Every press has a point where it runs out of power .
The information is about making a useable ratio of length to diameter . Not about the amount of tonage it takes to move a certain size lead slug through a certain size bleed hole.

[jcunclejoe]

A couple of other factors to keep in mind.
The difference in billet to wire diameter has a huge effect on the pressures. Take a 3/4 billet down to .185 wire and that will take much more pressure than making .250 wire.
The direction of extrusion also has a large effect. Most if not all of the set-ups described here are what is called either direct or reverse extrusion. I can't remember which is which.
Where the lead billet is being forced down the cylinder and out the other end. (Direct I think)
The pressure is much less if the wire is extruded out through the moving ram. That way the billet does not have to overcome the friction between the sides of the billet and the cylinder wall. (reverse I think)
I have the Corbin Lead wire extrusion calculating disk. It is pretty cool, especially at about $10. I would definitely buy one before designing or building lead a lead extrusion die. It calculates everything and can really maximize your production while minimizing strain on your system.
Lead works the same way as copper or any other metal. John Nosler used to say (about copper) it is much easier to keep it moving than it is to get it moving.
Have fun.
Joe

[jcunclejoe]

CWME you might consider putting notches in your channel on the wedge end to keep it centered. A hook or loop or pair of forks welded to your channel to go under the wedge might also be a good idea. And perhaps making a box around the ram (round) end, inside your channel with short pieces of angle. Just little things that might keep it in place, IF things go bad.
Good luck and have fun.
Joe

[Country]

A couple of other factors to keep in mind.
The difference in billet to wire diameter has a huge effect on the pressures. Take a 3/4 billet down to .185 wire and that will take much more pressure than making .250 wire.
The direction of extrusion also has a large effect. Most if not all of the set-ups described here are what is called either direct or reverse extrusion. I can't remember which is which.
Where the lead billet is being forced down the cylinder and out the other end. (Direct I think)
The pressure is much less if the wire is extruded out through the moving ram. That way the billet does not have to overcome the friction between the sides of the billet and the cylinder wall. (reverse I think)
I have the Corbin Lead wire extrusion calculating disk. It is pretty cool, especially at about $10. I would definitely buy one before designing or building lead a lead extrusion die. It calculates everything and can really maximize your production while minimizing strain on your system.
Lead works the same way as copper or any other metal. John Nosler used to say (about copper) it is much easier to keep it moving than it is to get it moving.
Have fun.
Joe

I agree . A reduction in the size of the bleed hole is just like increasing the lead billet diameter . Good point about reverse swaging , since I lost my book I had forgotten about that principle.
I think making a reverse swager would be more difficult for most amatures.
I am not convinced that core wire makes any better bullets than moulded cores that have been double swaged.
Certainly for the hunter , moulded cores are more practical and easier to make .
For BR , core wire may be better but I have made some very accurate bullets with moulded cores also. Not sure .

[Bullet Head]

Does the billet have to fit the dimensions of the inside of the extruder? Can I put square billets or odds and ends in a round extruder if it fits or will it end up with air bubbles?

[Smokin7mm]

I think if you used odds and ends you could end up with voids in the wire. A billet mold is really easy to make. I made mine using two plates of aluminum about 3/4" thick. I drilled through them in at at opposite ends and inserted alignment pins. then I just drilled the billet cavities using my drill press to a size that would just slip fit in my die. My die is drilled 3/4" so my billets cavities are drilled 11/16". It doesn't have to be pretty.
Bret

[Bullet Head]

You think I could cast billets for a press like that if I cap off one end of a piece of steel pipe then cut it in half lengthwise? Does lead stick to steel pipe?

[Smokin7mm]

Might work as long as the pipe is slightly smaller than the bore of your die. Some bullet molds are cast iron. It might be slightly oblong from the cut but that shouldn"t matter. Might be a little slow going one at a time but give it a shot. If you are worried about the billet sticking in the pipe half you could try smoking the inside a little before you pour in the lead like you would a bullet mold.
Bret

[blaser.306]

I made my "slug" moulds from the apropriate size seamless extruded aluminum tube . with matching plugs mounted to a piece of channel iron and the "slugs" just slide right out . I have over 300 lbs cast already , Now if I can just get My die completed !!!

[Red River Rick]

I made a mould for casting round ingots out of aluminum tubing, something much the same as Blaser.306 mentioned.

Seamless, 1.00" OD x 0.75" ID x 4.00 long, aluminum tubing works fine. Once the lead has been poured and allow to solidify, the ingots just simply slide out. No need to push or pound them out.

Steel pipe of the appropriatte size would work as well. Just make sure the interior of the pipe is clean and free from any burrs.

Applying a light coat of lubricant to the exterior of the slug before extruding will help greatly by reducing friction.

Some caution should be taken when handling the extruding the wire as it comes out of the die. It's VERY HOT, so gloves should be worn.

FWIW.

RRR

[ANeat]

Thats a good looking lead masher you got there Rick ;D

[Jim_Fleming]

Red River Rick, would you mind putting up a few more pictures showing more detail of your extrusion setup? I'm curious about the press you're using, VERY curious, and VERY interested in knowing more about everything you're doing/using....

The whole kit and kaboodle, if you don't mind...?

[Red River Rick]

Jim:

I have a Corbin Hydro Press, an older model, but it still work great.

Give me a day or so and I'll push some wire, takes pics of the dies, and then I'll post them for you.

RRR

[Jim_Fleming]

Thanks Rick, I appreciate the effort...

Waiting, very interested... lol!

[38-55]

HEy YA'll,
This is what passes for swaging lube in these parts... Cheap and plentiful it is..
http://www.lowes.com/pd_146594-12704-31-388-6_4294858489+4294963108_4294937087?productId=10179 15
It's 'wiring pulling' lube from lowes in case the link doesn't work...
Hope this helps..
Stay safe
Calvin
PS it's a passable case lube to...

[Red River Rick]

A couple of questions.
1)How tight is the fit of the "ram" to the "die"?
2)I can see making it very heavy walled seamless tubing. What do y'all use?
3)Has anyone else had experience with WW material?

Robert

Robert:

If you want your extruding dies to work really well, the clearance between the punch and the die shouldn't be any more than 0.001". Anything more than that will allow a lot of lead to bleed past the punch and die wall.

I made a new punch for my Corbin wire extruding, since the interior of the die needed to be re-honed larger. I made my punch from D2 tool steel, heat-treated and drawn back to 60 RC, and then turned the final OD on the lathe using ceramic inserts. I made my punch 0.001" smaller than the ID of the extrusion die, even with 1/2 a thou clearance per side, I still get lead bleeding beween the die and punch.

It's not a big deal since the lead is only 0.0005" thick, much like gold leaf. So it's easy to wiped off every time I lower the punch.

If you can get your hands on some seamless DOM tubing, with say a 1.00" bore and 0.500" wall thickness, you'll be laughing. However; the interior of the tube should be honed or machined to provide a nice smooth surface. The better the interior finish, the better your extrusion die will work.

My press is pushing just under 10 ton of pressure, which is ample for the wire sizes I extrude. So, if you have a press that's pushing more than 10 tons, you'll have plenty of HP for a slug of approximately 3/4" dia x 4 - 5 inches in length.

If you wanted to push a 1.00" diameter slug, 15+ tons would be ample.

I've added a few pics at the bottom. Basically just showing the actual "Extruding Die" itself. A 3/4" x 4" billet of lead will give me a 0.312 diameter wire approx. 24 inches long. I just keep adding billets, thru the top of the die, and keep pushing. The lead wire will fuse it's self togeather, without leaving any seams.

Just chop your extruded wire into lengths that are perhaps 30 grains heavier than what you want, and swage them to the correct weight in the core swage die as shown. Any excess material will bleed off thru the three bleed hole in the die.

Simply seat the now correct weight cores into the jacket, using the core seating die. Then place your cannalure groove in, run your slug into the Ogive form die and there you have it. Done!

The bullets pictured are 0.406 diameter, RN SP, 300 grainers for the 40-72 Winchester. The jackets weigh 35 grains and the swaged cores are 265 grains.

The second bullet from the right, the FN, is not the finished bullet. The RN forms better if I run seated slugs in the FN ogive die first, then into the RN Ogive die.

:drinks:

RRR

[ANeat]

Good looking stuff Rick; I guess you cannelure in the middle of the process because of the cannelure distorting the bullet to some degree?

All that will get ironed out when pointing up correct?

[Red River Rick]

Good looking stuff Rick; I guess you cannelure in the middle of the process because of the cannelure distorting the bullet to some degree?

All that will get ironed out when pointing up correct?

ANeat:

Absolutely!

Trying to put the cannelure groove on your bullet after you've run your slug into the ogive forming die always extrudes the tip of the nose slightly. Leaving a slight "gap" where the jacket and lead meet.

Putting your cannelure groove on first, makes for a much neater bullet.

RRR

[Bullet Head]

Has anyone else had a problem with voids in the their wire? I was extruding some 5/16 wire from a 1 inch bar. Several three inch long billets made wire that was continuous then all of the sudden a bubble or something caused the wire to break off.

Its kind of a pain if you want to wind it up on a roll all nice an neat.

[Jim_Fleming]

BulletHead, I'd have to totally agree with your first guess, a bubble of air that got trapped in the billet.

It's a lot of lead to pour, if you're going to pour billets roughly 1" in diameter, and say 4-5 inches long... I don't have my conversion charts, but an educated guess tells me you're pouring 4-5 lbs of hot lead at a time. It's pretty hard to *not* get air bubbles is my opinion...

[Bullet Head]

I also found that Corbin's lead extrusion computer program gives tonnage figures that work in theory but not in practice. So I think there might be a design flaw in there somewhere. I'm glad I overbuilt my press because the lead would not have even moved under his figures.

For my application his software said the lead should have flowed at 12 tonnes cold but in real life it didn't even move under 44 tonnes cold. But after heating the die to 300 degrees it flowed at 16 tonnes. I kept a close eye on my pressure gauge when wire started to flow so I could work up how many tonnes it was taking.

[Bullet Head]

My exciting overpressure and die failure.


http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/9418/dsc03083p.jpg

40 tonnes at 300 degrees works great for 5/16 but when I tried to make much smaller .125-inch the die started to have problems after about 10 feet of wire. Smaller hole = higher pressure but I wouldn't have guessed it would break anything that thick. I was just keeping my eye on the pressure gauge and there was a sudden drop and I noticed a ribbon of lead curing out the back. Guess I should make more holes next time. DOM tubing center diamerter is 1.1 inch, wall thickness is 1 inch. I wonder if they make cold rolled DOM tube this thick?