Swaging 45cal from 40S&W brass using common shop tools

[tiger762]

Well, maybe a few of the things I used are not so common. Here's what I used:

1. 20-ton hydraulic press
2. Doming block set from Harbor Freight (p/n 93539, about $40)
3. Scrap piece of 1018 steel, about 2"x4", 5/8" thick.
4. Punch from a Lee 0.452 sizing die. If I had used a thinner piece of scrap this wouldn't have been needed.
5. 29/64" chucking reamer from http://www.jtsmach.com
6. 7/16" HSS drill bit. Can buy this anywhere.
7. Rubber mallet. The swaged bullet will not want to pop out easily.

Procedure:

1. Drill a 7/16" hole in the 1018 scrap.
2. Ream it to 29/64".
3. Trim a 40 S&W brass casing, as-is, to anywhere from 0.5" (what I used) to perhaps 0.7"
4. Get a cast lead 38cal bullet. I used a 180gr and put it in the brass
5. Put the doming block on the press shelf and locate the 11.5mm hole under the ram
6. Place the reamed hole over the doming block hole.
7. Put the cast lead bullet and trimmed brass in the reamed hole, with the lead facing down. It's actually easier to do this holding the scrap.
8. Line up the Lee sizer punch over what will be the 40S&W case head.
9. Bring the ram down, slowly. Make sure nothing starts to bind!!!
10. Once you see the ram no longer moving, the pressure/forces will be going up exponentially. Take it slow. You can always go back and hit it harder if need be.
11. Withdraw the ram about a quarter inch. Just enough to clear the parts away.
12. Use a rubber mallet and the Lee punch to drive the newly formed projectile out.

The reamed hole of 29/64 is 0.453" in decimal. The bullet I just made came out at 0.452", because the metal has some amount of spring back. When I had used my CH4D 44cal #101 die set to make 44cal from 40S&W, they always came out kind of egg shaped. There's only so much a reloading press can do, even the RCBS Ammomaster. With a 20-ton press, the amount of force is overkill AND it can be delivered full-stroke. The reloading press gets its full mechanical advantage as it's about to cam over.

In the future, I plan on making a die that will allow the press to compress 4 or 6 or 8 at a time. Instead of the use of the doming block, I will use a 1/2" ball end mill that descends into the metal so that a partial hemispherical hole of 0.451" is made. There's lots of different directions this can go in...

The particular doming hole I used is the one in the back, right.

[tiger762]

OK, so today I took it one step further. At grave risk to self and property, I heated up the lead pot and filled up some 40's to the rim with lead. The temperature was 840 degrees. Sat them on a fire brick. Stayed liquid for several seconds. BOOM! Had some leftover unburnt primer go off. Molten lead splatters. Going to use wet-tumbled 40 from now on..

This anneals the brass like nobody's business. Had the typical straw/blue color afterwards. Clamped one in the 3/8 station of a metal tubing flaring tool. 1/2" 4-flute bottom cutting endmill in the drill press. I have a vertical press, but I am trying to come up with a solution for the average guy who might own a drill press and basic equipment. I trimmed the brass/lead down until it looked about right. Nice smooth surface. Whoever says that the lead will pull away when it cools, is full of it...

Put the brass/lead in the part I made from scrap 1018. Inverted the brass. Placed over doming block hole. Rammed it. Beautiful. 219 grains soft-point...

Interesting that this time, with annealed brass, there was no springback from the reamed hole diameter of 29/64 (0.453). When I used non-annealed brass, it would springback to 0.451-0.452. No big deal. I can size these down...

I have a 0.4515" reamer on the way from JTS. Will post more as I work through this. Do not add molten lead to ANY fired brass!

[why.kyle]

Glad you are ok from that. What are the chances. Interesting project. Keep posting. Would love to see more pictures.

[tiger762]

Glad you are ok from that. What are the chances. Interesting project. Keep posting. Would love to see more pictures.

Here are some pictures.

The first one is the result of pouring 840F molten wheel weight into some 40S&W brass. See how the color of the brass has been changed by the high temperature. It is definitely annealed. I had to be careful while grabbing one with the needle nosed vise grip pliers because the brass is really soft and can crush easily. I sat them on a fire brick, to slowly cool. There are ten 9mm brass there as well, for a friend that I will develop a 9->40 solution for. Heck, going from 0.394 to 0.400 is trivial...

The next picture is just the weight of the filled brass. 293 grains

The next picture is setting up at the drill press. I'm using a metal tubing flare tool to grip the brass. Not too tight. Will come up with a better method later. There's one of those vise grip table clamp pliers that will be used to lock the flare tool to the table. See the 1/2" carbide 4-flute end mill ready to go.

The next picture is the end result. See how smooth the lead surface is. There are brass and lead chips in the flutes of the endmill. I trimmed it to 0.64" in length

Next, I weigh the resulting brass/lead. 216 grains. Was hoping for 230. I'll have to calculate how much more the length should be, to pick up 14 more grains of lead

Moving to the hydraulic press. It's a HF 20-ton. Nothing fancy. I think it cost like $200 or so.

I set the doming block under the ram and sit the brass/lead in the appropriate sized hemisphere

I put the scrap 1018 with the reamed hole over the brass. Center it all up.

I am using a Lee .452 sizer punch to press the brass down into the doming block. The end result is that whereas the case head is about level with the 1018 to start with (it's 0.625" thick, brass was trimmed to 0.64"), it ends up being about 0.2" below the 1018 when it's all said and done

The last picture is the 1018, flipped over. My camera skills are not the best, but the lead is shiny (high pressure) and the brass is sufficiently drawn in from the 0.452" diameter to not touch lead to rifling.

I just wanted a way to swage 45 bullets, right now. Hope you all find this useful. If you want different pictures, let me know!

[tiger762]

Drilled and reamed a 41cal hole in another piece of 1018 last night. Swaged three that came out around 170 grains. The surface finish is rough because I didn't polish the hole with sandpaper. Required the press to knock them out. They'll clean up nice in a sizer die.

Going to get a taper car reamer (about 0.6" per foot taper) and make a block that an annealed 9mm casing can be pushed through, to arrive at 0.352" to then use as a 9mm/38cal jacket. Just need 0.042" reduction in diameter, which would be a block about 0.84" thick. Going to experiment with carbide burrs of different shape, so I can get into more interesting profiles than just 1R spherical.

[phil3333]

thats neat,have you shot any?

[tiger762]

thats neat,have you shot any?

Not yet. Had the idea this past Sunday. I do want to load some up and put 'em into phone book and then see how they expand. Going out of town this weekend so it may be in a few weeks.

[anotherred]

And yet another reason i need to get a hf press. Keep the. Good work coming!

[tiger762]

And yet another reason i need to get a hf press. Keep the. Good work coming!

Haven't forgotten you guys. Just been really busy. I've got some steel on order through http://www.speedymetals.com as well as some reamers and carbide burs through http://www.jtsmach.com

[Fla9-40]

Nice work....Let us know when you shoot them and how they do!

[Socorro27]

Not yet. Had the idea this past Sunday. I do want to load some up and put 'em into phone book and then see how they expand. Going out of town this weekend so it may be in a few weeks.

Did this thread get moved elsewhere? I'm curious to see how these turned out at the range.

[Red River Rick]

Socorro27, this thread is 9 years old. I think what you see is all that there is.