Swage die building

[Handloader]

Hello guys and gals I am back to visiting the site on daily basics now and cannot express the fun I have been having. Anyway in my absence I have started going back to college again and am enrolled in the local machine tool course. I already have attended the intro to the course which was 3 months and learned the basics of the machinery and their uses. So I got to thinking about new ways to expand my recreation time and I thought about bullet swaging and I began to look up the equipment and was I surprised to see how expensive it was compared to buy a 20 dollar Lee bullet mold. Any way I was on I think the Corbin web site and I found the 22 caliber set. The one that took rim fire casings and made them into jackets. I thought to myself that would be a pretty neat project for class. I also found on the form that there is a lot of discussion regarding the building of swage presses. So I would like to know if anyone has any blue prints for a set of 22 caliber rim fire swage dies and a basic swage press they would be willing to share?

[Buckshot]

..........ANeat was contemplating the idea of having it done. He made a copy of Richard Corbin's "Walnut Hill" press, here: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=76514

So far as blueprints for swage dies go I'd think they wouldn't really be necessary. You'd simply make them to work in your press. You know the thread, or other retention method for both the die and punch, the presse's stroke, and the "Work Envelope" dimensions within the frame and just go from there.

..............Buckshot

[GeneT]

..........ANeat was contemplating the idea of having it done. He made a copy of Richard Corbin's "Walnut Hill" press, here: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=76514

So far as blueprints for swage dies go I'd think they wouldn't really be necessary. You'd simply make them to work in your press. You know the thread, or other retention method for both the die and punch, the presse's stroke, and the "Work Envelope" dimensions within the frame and just go from there.

..............Buckshot

That assumes that you know enough about swaging to know what the various pieces of a die are, and how they work. Any pointers to where that info might be gleaned? I'm keen on the idea of building my own dies as well.

GsT

[scrapcan]

Buckshot covered mos tof the rewponse that I would have given. You can contact jcunclejoe aobut dies drawings as he was workign on a set to sell, he built bullet swage tooling for a large bullet maker at one time.

Also there is a thread on SAS die making booklet that was passed to me by a fellow member. You can pull it down and read through to get a good idea of what one can do to make dies. Ted Smithof SAS is who the Corbins learned from way back when.

[Buckshot]

That assumes that you know enough about swaging to know what the various pieces of a die are, and how they work. Any pointers to where that info might be gleaned? I'm keen on the idea of building my own dies as well.

GsT

.............Not to be smart, but there is no 'set' swage die designs. There are only a couple variations in operation (moving die/stationary punch) and vice versa. However there are many more variations in the dies, punches, their means of attachment or retention, and what they actually look like.

Swage dies are really pretty simple. You put a piece of lead into the die and move the die up or the punch down and squeeze the holy bejabbers out of the trapped lead. Once that's done the die moves, or the ejector punch moves and out comes the swaged article. Not counting the bullet or boolit you have essentially 3 pieces. Die, punch, and ejector.

http://www.fototime.com/4E6A51927B56C9E/standard.jpg

LEFT Ejector pin MIDDLE Die body RIGHT Base Punch

In some designs (as above) the nose is formed in the die so the punch forms the base, either a flat base or some type of a cavity or even a boat tail. Other's have the punch form the nose.

http://www.fototime.com/961DA22E10F6480/standard.jpg

The nomenclature of this die set is exactly the same as above. From the left it's ejector pin, die body, and base punch. THIS die is a CORE BLEED die, but it's still a die. All it does is to take the cast or cut off pieces of lead and squeeze them to collapse any voids and bleed off excess lead through the hole (there on the side of the die body) bringing the cores all very close, if not exactly to the same weight.

http://www.fototime.com/C3EE3AD183E490A/standard.jpg

This very blurry photo is again the same as the top example and all the parts carry the same names. The base punch in this set forms a base cavity.

You'll always have some means of ejecting, a die body (core form, core seating, base forming, nose forming, draw, or bump) and a punch (base, nose, or draw). What they look like and how they operate will depend upon the press they're used in, assuming they ARE used in a press, as there are old timey percussion dies too.

................Buckshot

[GeneT]

Thanks Buckshot - that's what I was looking for!

GsT