What swage press do you have?

[jrsaw27]

I want to know what press you use for swaging. I ask because it is important for those getting into swaging, like myself to know what others have tried and worked as well as those presses that broke quickly or are not suited for swaging. I see several recent treads of homebrew presses, awesome! so, what did you find that works, and what broke on you?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I use the LEE classic Cast reloading press, slightly modified.
read the many posts here before you take my word on this.
it is a little light duty for swagging,
but works great for swaging pistol bullets with soft lead core.
Jon

[shaggist]

I use the CH4D Champion press, because it is very heavy duty and uses the CH4D dies, which are 7/8x14tpi. It was designed by a swaging manufacturer and is less expensive than the Corbin presses.

[rbt50]

i use a walnut hill for for most of the bullets i make ,but fof .510 to .700 i use corbin chp-1 hydro press.

[stephen perry]

NT

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR

[legend]

i use the herters "9" ton,very crude,but,for half jackets its ok.

[Ammosmith]

Corbin CSP-2 press and an RCBS Rock Chucker for pistol (C&H dies)

[ANeat]

Home made press, Walnut Hill and Lee cast

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h165/aneat/Swage/DSC01186.jpg

[Toobroke]

CH Heavyweight CHampion press with CH4D dies and a BSS press with BSS dies (Blackmon)

[melloairman]

Corbin S press . No problems so far .Marvin

[blaser.306]

Csp-2 and loving it .Now to get more dies and jackets is another story!

[ETG]

I use a Blackmon for small and a Hornady 50 BMG for the larger. Did use my rockchucker for a while but almost ruined the ram on it.

[Daywalker]

RCBS Rock Chucker

[BT Sniper]

Boy.......... I have tried a few and broke a couple too. Mostly just the average reloading press.

Curently using Redding Big Boss, RCBS Rock Chucker, Lee Classic Cast, and Laymen Orange Crusher.

IMO they all have their callenges when used for swaging. Unless you go with a dedicated swaging press, the Ch one looks pretty good and you will not find any negitive about the Corbin brother's presses, most reloading presses will have some week points that are prone to stress. Mostly in the shell holder area of the ram or the material used to conect the linkages between the ram and handel. Any of these relaoding press frames are plenty strong to handel A LOT of force and with some stonger parts where needed they work very well. I have severial thousand bullets made on my Redding but this is with an altered arm, ram , and linkages. I think same would hold true for any of the others.

Time will tell as I use the Lee, Laymen, and RCBS a bit more but if I had to chose just one I would probably go for the LEE Clasic Cast as it will be easy to allter if you wish and is plenty strong as is. Also costs around $20-40 less then the others. The Laymen is having a good sale on their reconditioned Orange crusher. Brand new really. I do think the linkage of this press will need a bit of work as it seems to cam over a bit to much for my preferance but it like the rest has a very strong looking frame.

My order of prefrence for basic reloading presses 1 Lee Classic, 2 RCBS rock chucker, 3 and 4 is a bit of a toss up between teh Laymen and Redding. Redding does not support the linkage arms on both sides, Laymen does and the Laymen has a bit of a pronoced cam over wher Redding does not.

So just my 2 cents.

Swage On!

BT

[Radio Flyer]

Corbin S-Press and the Corbin "gold" Mighty Mite.

[buck1]

Rock Chucker

[JohnM]

I use heavily modified RCBS Rockchucker’s presses for swaging and J3 for pointing…

They all done quite a lot of work and are still in very good condition

John

[DukeInFlorida]

Standard RCBS Rock Chucker.

[uncleskippy]

Standard RCBS Rock Chucker also.

[Smokin7mm]

Walnut hill here. No problems and Richard is a great guy to work with. May take a while for dies and such as he is a one man show, but his stuff is first rate.
Bret

[Dframe]

I have a Sea Girt from Richard Corbin.

[pogo123]

Rockchucker conversion and a Mity Mite. Both are good in their own ways.

[TylerR]

Home made press, Walnut Hill and Lee cast

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h165/aneat/Swage/DSC01186.jpg

ANeat, I have to compliment you on that homemade press you have there. You really did a top notch job on it. I can tell just by looking at it. I am currently using the Walnut Hill press which is great.

[7of7]

I have a Corbin CSP1 press for swaging. Works great, want to get the hydraulic press, but can't justify the price.. yet.. (note to self, make wife win lottery)

[ANeat]

ANeat, I have to compliment you on that homemade press you have there. You really did a top notch job on it. I can tell just by looking at it. I am currently using the Walnut Hill press which is great.

Thanks TR, I really like my Walnut hill also, I think this winter I may work on making another more the size of the Walnut Hill.

It would be nice to have a squirt, core seat and point all setup on their own press :grin:

[Seth Hawkins]

Corbin CSP-2 Mega-Mite.

[acoop101]

I had an idea I wanted to run by those of you who swage, I was thinking of converting a 2 ton arbor press to take 7/8 x14 dies. Do you think that is enough press?

[Houndog]

3 RCBS Rockchuckers converted by Bill Neimi

[stephen perry]

2 Rockchuckers and a A2. Also have a CH old style for pistol cast.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR

[Naphtali]

Those of you who do not use presses intended specifically for swaging, please describe briefly what you are swaging - that is, swaging lead core only, lead core and jacket, alloyed core (of any mix) with or without jacket.

Do Corbin swaging dies fit threads of these presses?
***
I intend to swage Round Balls, between .69- and .70-caliber (barrel has not arrived for me to mic). Corbin makes such dies http://www.corbins.com/bsk-1.htm but I do not know whether dies are available for standard presses. These swaging dies are a big hit on my shooting budget, and I want to reduce my cost of shooting where it can be done.

Regarding why I "need" to swage RBs when molds are available, these specific RBs cannot have any noticeable irregularity, such as sprue (as teat or as tangential cutaway). I have satisfied myself that I am unable to render cast RBs essentially perfect spheres. So swaging is my default.

[bohica2xo]

Swaging .700 balls is best done from a cast blank with enough metal to provide a little bleed. There will always be a bleed sprue, but it can be held to a very small size compared to a cast ball.

The tooling for "perfect" balls will be expensive. You will need two perfect hemispheres cut into mating parts. They must close in perfect alignment, with enough force to exclude 100% of any lead between the mating faces. They must be hard enough to withstand this kind of contact between parts, and supported well enough that they do not crack.

For commercial applications I would make two punches about 1.500 od, and run them in a common bore for alignment. Make everything from tool steel, and heat treat to suit. Once the OD was ground on the hardened punches, I would hone the bore to fit with a clearance of .0005 The cavities would be burned after all the parts fit together properly.

Perfect balls are not cheap.

B.

[Artful]

Corbin older horizontal press - Mite for me - I only use it to do .22 cal bullets