Microsoft Word is the friend of PP boolit makers

[Elkins45]

Rather than trying to hand draw paper patches, I decided to use the drawing feature in MS Word. I discovered a great benefit of Word: you can precisely specify the size of drawing objects. To find the patch width that best fits my new 30 caliber PP mould I drew a series of parallelograms and formatted their widths in 0.05" increments, then printed them on the paper I intend to use.

Once I decide which size is the best fit I'll delete all the others and duplicate the correct one until it fills the page. Then I can run my paper through the laser printer and have pages of patches ready to cut.

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm35/elkins_pix/Screenshot2010-05-10at75219PM.jpg

[docone31]

Wow, that is really something.
For the .30, I just size it to .308, then cut the 1" strips 1 3/8" with 45* opposing angles. I wrap them soaking wet. I use a broken piece of venetian blind for a template. I do about 200 a night when I do them.
One good movie, 100 wraps.
When dry, I size to .309.
I like it simple.

[Fly]

docone31 does the angle of the cut matter.I been cutting 15 degree angle from vertical.
I also made a template.Doe's 45 degree work better?

[docone31]

I have done them straight up and down, at 45s, it doesn't seem to make a difference. At least not in my .30s, or .303s.
I have wondered on the whys, and the best I can come up with is, a soaking patch in the roller, makes a well compressed paper patch. Going down the bore, it doesn't matter much.
Again, this is not black powder, this is smokeless. Once the rifleing has cut the patch, just the prime casting is going down range.
15* should work well. There will be a little over lap, but it will be compressed.

[StarMetal]

Isn't the angle of the cut and the length of the patch figured so the two angle cut ends meet butt to butt so that the paper is an even thickness all the way around?

[303Guy]

It is said that a small gap in the ends is preferable to a small overlap. If one sizes post patching, I don't see the difference.

The angle of the patch matters in so much is it prevents unwrapping when the base fold or tail twist is secure. If a paper that bonds to itself when wet, is used, I see no reason to have any angle at all. Why not choose an angle that matches the angle of the rifling? That way, any ridges formed by the patch edge will match the rifling ridges. However, if your choice of paper does not bond to itself well, then an angle is necessary. I dry wrap so for me an angle is most definately necessary. Too much angle makes it harder to align a curved patch such as I use and also makes it harder to get the patch to start tight on the first overlap point.

Elkins45, can MS Word draw circles or arcs? I would like to share my CAD patch developments with s few folks who do not have CAD. MS Word might be the way.

[pdawg_shooter]

I have settled on 30* for my patches. NEVER allow your last wrap to overlap. I got careless cutting patches for my 30 cals once and ended up with around 1000 patches about .010 long. Rather than waste all that work and paper I tried to use them. They tripled the size of groups in all my 30cal rifles. I finely gave up and started over with patches the correct length.

[303Guy]

NEVER allow your last wrap to overlap. ....
.... They tripled the size of groups in all my 30cal rifles.pdawg_shooter, did you size after patching? My recovered boolits all show a ridge where the ends met or in some cases, didn't quite meet. Perhaps the 'overlap' produces a line of patch far stronger than the rest and of course, a groove under that ridge, so the patch doesn't disintegrat uniformly around the circumference?

OK, now I think I see the difference! (Between a small gap and a small overlap).

[Elkins45]

It is said that a small gap in the ends is preferable to a small overlap. If one sizes post patching, I don't see the difference.

The angle of the patch matters in so much is it prevents unwrapping when the base fold or tail twist is secure. If a paper that bonds to itself when wet, is used, I see no reason to have any angle at all. Why not choose an angle that matches the angle of the rifling? That way, any ridges formed by the patch edge will match the rifling ridges. However, if your choice of paper does not bond to itself well, then an angle is necessary. I dry wrap so for me an angle is most definately necessary. Too much angle makes it harder to align a curved patch such as I use and also makes it harder to get the patch to start tight on the first overlap point.

Elkins45, can MS Word draw circles or arcs? I would like to share my CAD patch developments with s few folks who do not have CAD. MS Word might be the way.

I'm pretty sure you can draw arcs in Word, though I've never done it.

[303Guy]

Thanks, Elkins45. I guess I'll have stop being lazy and try it out.:mrgreen:

pdawg_shooter, a short while ago someone asked whether there was a paper patching 101. Your findings would make a good point to add to such a 101. May I quote you on this in the future?

[pdawg_shooter]

pdawg_shooter, did you size after patching? My recovered boolits all show a ridge where the ends met or in some cases, didn't quite meet. Perhaps the 'overlap' produces a line of patch far stronger than the rest and of course, a groove under that ridge, so the patch doesn't disintegrat uniformly around the circumference?

OK, now I think I see the difference! (Between a small gap and a small overlap).

Yes I do size after patching and lubing, in most cases. The extra lap you are getting is causing the groove in your bullet. You are way better off with a gap of .010 than any lap at all. I have on load for my 45-70/.458 that I dont size after patching, in fact I dont size at all. The mould throws right at .4515 so I just wrap and lube with 50/50 LLA and JPW, load and shoot.

[303Guy]

I don't get a groove from the joint, but a ridge from the small gap. I have only fired one or two overlap joints into my 'test tube' and there was nothing left to examine. That was just to get the powder charge right.

I have had the patch break through on the join with a small gap as was evident by the shiny rub marks on the ridge. That was with my dodgy bore Pig Gun.

Getting back to drawing the patches in 'Word', what I do is if my patch is too short or long I measure the error on the boolit and simply correct the drawing by that amount. My calculation method of developing a patch pattern using CAD, gets me right on the money every time.