JKH
07-28-2010, 12:17 PM
Hey Guys, I ADDED ONE OF ED'S PIC'S IN A RESPONSE AFTER THIS
I want to tell you about a handy little item I aquired from edsmith to use with my FCIII.
Perusing the boards I came across Ed's post with drawings for a Freechex III type tool along with and adaptor base for use in a loading press. I promptly fired off a PM to Ed to see if he would make and adptor for my tool[smilie=1:
Ed & I made an arrangement which was very reasonable (I will not say what the deal was so as not to have him inundated with requests, I'll leave it to him to let the board know if he WANTS to make these to market), Ed asked for the OD of my tool base and I received the adaptor/base very shortly after.
What Ed made me was a beautiful unit that slips perfectly into the ram of my loading press just like a stadard shell holder, it is approximately 1 1/4" tall and made from stock that is approximately 3/4" in diameter, the material is aluminum but I do not know what grade.
Ed drilled through the center to just a bit above the flange for the shell holder slot (I have to look coser but he may have bored it somehwhat for final ID), he then used some form of cutter (fly cutter?) to open up one side which opened the bottom of the bore hole and created a small "ramp" that allows the finished checks to drop free and slide out (I need to rig a simple chute to divert the checks to a contaner, or may find a way to adapt a large diameter clear vinyl tube to a container instead).
The base of my check maker slipped in with a few thousandths clearance so that it is easy to install/remove but is firmly heald with no side play, just right!
I found that this setup worked best in my antique CH "C" frame press from the 50's, it sets back at a bit of an angle and makes it a little easier to feed aluminum stock through the tool. I placed the adaptor base in the ram, then to hold the tool in place I installed my LEE .30 cal boolit sizer die in the press, then screwed it down till it started loading the tool, and the cutting edge was right at the bottom edge of the slot in the body where you feed the material through. NOTE* if you buy or build an FCIII tool I highly recomend you get the shank (part of the forming mandrel) that extends out of the tool body to allow it to be chucked in a drill press, it works fantastically well in a drill press and in this case it slipped nicely into the sizing die, and holds it so there is no chance of movement or slipping, and if for some reason down the road you find it is a hinderance you can always cut it off.
I really like using my FCIII on my drill press and can lazily crank out at least 1,000 checks an hour that way, but it requires me to be in my dank basement/garage and to stand to work, now with this excellant adaptor from Ed I can sit comfortably in my loading den where I most like to be anyway :D
So, kuddos to Ed! [smilie=w: He helped to make what was already an awesome tool even better with a simple but elegant little chunk of aluminum, thanks Ed! :drinks:
Jeff (JKH)
I want to tell you about a handy little item I aquired from edsmith to use with my FCIII.
Perusing the boards I came across Ed's post with drawings for a Freechex III type tool along with and adaptor base for use in a loading press. I promptly fired off a PM to Ed to see if he would make and adptor for my tool[smilie=1:
Ed & I made an arrangement which was very reasonable (I will not say what the deal was so as not to have him inundated with requests, I'll leave it to him to let the board know if he WANTS to make these to market), Ed asked for the OD of my tool base and I received the adaptor/base very shortly after.
What Ed made me was a beautiful unit that slips perfectly into the ram of my loading press just like a stadard shell holder, it is approximately 1 1/4" tall and made from stock that is approximately 3/4" in diameter, the material is aluminum but I do not know what grade.
Ed drilled through the center to just a bit above the flange for the shell holder slot (I have to look coser but he may have bored it somehwhat for final ID), he then used some form of cutter (fly cutter?) to open up one side which opened the bottom of the bore hole and created a small "ramp" that allows the finished checks to drop free and slide out (I need to rig a simple chute to divert the checks to a contaner, or may find a way to adapt a large diameter clear vinyl tube to a container instead).
The base of my check maker slipped in with a few thousandths clearance so that it is easy to install/remove but is firmly heald with no side play, just right!
I found that this setup worked best in my antique CH "C" frame press from the 50's, it sets back at a bit of an angle and makes it a little easier to feed aluminum stock through the tool. I placed the adaptor base in the ram, then to hold the tool in place I installed my LEE .30 cal boolit sizer die in the press, then screwed it down till it started loading the tool, and the cutting edge was right at the bottom edge of the slot in the body where you feed the material through. NOTE* if you buy or build an FCIII tool I highly recomend you get the shank (part of the forming mandrel) that extends out of the tool body to allow it to be chucked in a drill press, it works fantastically well in a drill press and in this case it slipped nicely into the sizing die, and holds it so there is no chance of movement or slipping, and if for some reason down the road you find it is a hinderance you can always cut it off.
I really like using my FCIII on my drill press and can lazily crank out at least 1,000 checks an hour that way, but it requires me to be in my dank basement/garage and to stand to work, now with this excellant adaptor from Ed I can sit comfortably in my loading den where I most like to be anyway :D
So, kuddos to Ed! [smilie=w: He helped to make what was already an awesome tool even better with a simple but elegant little chunk of aluminum, thanks Ed! :drinks:
Jeff (JKH)