beer or ckoe can gas checks

[joseywales76]

anybody using beer or coke cans for gas checks, i think it would be cool if someone could build a gas check maker, kinda like a leather punch,

[JeffinNZ]

I can bearly find time for the casting let alone making my own GC's.

Wouldn't the alloy be a shade thin?

[Scrounger]

anybody using beer or coke cans for gas checks, i think it would be cool if someone could build a gas check maker, kinda like a leather punch,

You rang? http://www.corbins.com/gascheck.htm

[felix]

Yes, Jeff, they are too thin, but more to the point they are not tough enough. However, for a close fit that shouldn't really matter anyway. A close fit being one wrapped around a fully shanked boolit, like a flat base boolit not made for a check. ... felix

[joseywales76]

i was thinking maybe the beer cans are to thin, can you guys think of anything else that could be used,

[BruceB]

For another gascheck raw material, it has crossed my (alleged) mind occasionally that the copper sheets sold in craft stores for "tooling" pictures in 3D might lend themselves to gaschecking. I have no idea how thick or tough this stuff may be, but I'd bet that it's thin and soft.

I'd be curious to hear if anyone has ever tried this material...??

[versifier]

Aluminum or copper flashing. If you find the Holy Grail, inform the faithful.

[Greg5278]

I don't know why yoiu couldn't use copper sheet. More than likely it is C110 alloy. which is pure copper. It will probably be work hardened from rolling, but that should give some spring to hold it on better. Brass might be easier to get.
Greg

[45 2.1]

Soda or beer can gas checks are fine, you just have to use three layers of them. I got the first two sets of freechecks for a normal gas check boolit from the original maker a long time ago.

[Nueces]

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/taylor/freechec.htm

for an article describing the freechec tools, once produced by The Hanned Line. Or, Google freechec. The above article has enough photos to show how simple the tools are, straightforward lathe work. The freechecs were designed not to make regular gas checks, but to produce thin checks for use with plain-base bullets. No reason the design could not be adapted to make normal checks from thicker material, but the blanks may better be cut with a press die rather than hammer and wadcutter punch.

I always wanted these tools, particularly for use with the Lyman 358429HP, but they were kinda expensive for me. Now that I'm about to become a Gentleman of Leisure (woods bum, in English), I'll try my lathe skills on making a set.

Mark

[RayinNH]

McMaster-Carr carries copper sheet. This stuff is not cheap. A 12"x12" piece .020 thick (I measured a Gator check, .30 cal. for thickness) was $23.57 and 12"x36" was $60.63. I don't know how many you would get out of 12"x12" but it won't be 1000. Buying them seems like a bargain considering all the time it would take to produce 1000 by hand...Ray

[leftiye]

Tooling sounds like a. Easy to design, and make. b. you'd have to experiment some with clearances. Simple punch die to make the discs, and forming die to form them into cups. As has been being said, appropriate material is somewhat of a problem. Any copper or brass, and maybe aluminum you bought would probably cost more than buying the gas checks outright. You Could take copper slugs, and swage them into cups even. Scrap copper might be the answer.

[jim4065]

How about pennies? Any chance of forcing them into a very thick jacket - or even a solid copper bullet?

[waksupi]

Jim, you would need to find OLD pennies. They haven't been made from copper for at least 25 years, I believe. Take a file to one, and you will see they are some sort of pot metal, with a copper coating.

[nvbirdman]

HAW HAW HAW. Everybody's been complaning about the price of gas checks and now it turns out that it may be cheaper to buy them than buy the copper sheet and punch them out.

[Junior1942]

Yes, Jeff, they are too thin, but more to the point they are not tough enough.

Why? Please explain.

[jim4065]

Waksupi, you're destroying what little faith in the world I had left. However, I do have some old pennies, having dumped them in a box for the last 26 years or so. Will copper not flow well? Too much pressure required? I was thinking of swaging my own solid copper bullets in .22 or .20 - seems like it may be cheaper than the j-words.

[Rottweiler]

Waksupi that "potmetal" you speak of in the center of new pennies is the same vile evil stuff that screws up all of our wheelweight smelting. I don't even like saying it...you know ....that "Z" metal. It's been there in the center of pennies since 1984. With the price of copper on a steady climb, I doubt it will ever go away

[S.R.Custom]

You don't want to use aluminum.

A few years ago I shot shot a box or so of Winchester Silvertip ammo through a Walther PPK. Dunno if it's still true, but at the time Silvertip .380 ammo had an aluminum jacket. After about 50 or 60 rounds the bore was terribly fouled with the stuff, and you wouldn't believe what it took to get it out.

Granted, aluminum gas checks wouldn't foul like a full jacket, but I think you'll be sorely disappointed if you think an aluminum gas check is going to make your life easier. Think of it this way, if aluminum gas checks were the answer, don't you think Hornady, Lyman, et al would be using aluminum instead of that frightfully expensive copper stuff?

[Trailblazer]

How about that material we all probably have bunches of and can pick up at the range. Discarded cartridge cases. Might they work?