Gas check makers

[redneck1]

I've been saving to buy a small CNC lathe to go with my mill for awhile now .
I hadn't planned on buying anything till around the end of the year .
But I keep seeing all these threads about check makers .

So ... If there is enough interest I could speed my plans up a bit .
But it wouldn't be over night , more like two months to have the funds and another month after that to get up to speed with it .

With that said I don't want to get anyone's hopes up or make any promises or have any promises made to me .

But if you guys can agree on a design and a single caliber to start with
I could make a decision on if its something the machine I am looking to buy is capable of doing or not .

So if you guys realy want a check maker , get together and come up with a design .
Simpler is always better of course . and have some very realistic expectations on dimensional accuracy , I know we always hear the braggarts bragging on working within .00000005
But I am not that good .
This is the real world and I won't be working in a climate controlled shop on a $500,000 machine .
Parts within .002 is a realistic expectation

So yea , come to consensus on a design and single caliber and we can go from there .

[Rick459]

you can use this as a guide....

http://sebagosales.com/gaschex/Check-Maker1&2.pdf

[Rcmaveric]

Dont open a can of worms. We will use and abuse you.

Its hard to make a profit off of it. A few have ventured into. We will over whelm you and your going to have to charge about 120+ bucks each to just break even.

There is another design a round that works well also. Its the two part design.

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[redneck1]

Well that's a good point , but there's a few key things that work in my favor
First is I'm well aware they won't be cheap , I know a whole lot of guys out there think everything should cost $29.99.
But I'm pretty tone deaf

Second and this a big one , I'm not looking to do this full scale to be overwhelmed or abused .
I actually won't even need to be profitable in the sense that what I'd be looking to do is simply generate some minor revenue from the machine
To make up for buying it well ahead of schedule .

And lastly ... Quite simply I want a CNC lathe , if it didn't work out it wouldn't be a catastrophe or a big deal , just a minor annoyance.

But I can't just start making pat Marlin's tools ....
And the simplest way to give people what they want is for them to tell me what they want and adjust from there .

[Idz]

I assume you've read through:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...gas-checkmaker

several people were looking for somebody to build them a checkmaker.

[Rcmaveric]

Pat sold his business if I remember correctly.

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[rick benjamin]

He's up and running https://patmarlins.com/
I ordered a gas check maker from him yesterday.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Back in November, there is a fella on the "Book of Faces" that started selling GC makers for $60 each. They are designed with threads for reloading presses and can make a GC in a single stroke like the FreeChex. Now he did have a price increase on Jan 1st...I don't know his new price? I think you gotta call for that. I'm not sure how he makes any money???? at $60 ...but what's worse is when the check maker die doesn't make the appropriate size GC, or maybe makes one that's too tall...Then making it right, or making a different check maker die...that really eats into the profit.

There is at least one member here who has bought one, and had a issue, but the fella did make it right, by making another die.

[AndyC]

From what I've seen, most of the wait-times right now for a check-maker are at 90 days or so.

The price isn't as big a deal (to me personally) but I'm not waiting 3 months - I'm not an impatient, "gotta-have-in-3-days" guy but that's the only thing that has stopped me from ordering one from those guys.

[MrWolf]

He's up and running https://patmarlins.com/
I ordered a gas check maker from him yesterday.

Pat is only accepting checks or money orders? Am I reading that right?

[dimaprok]

Hey guys, not trying to put anyone down or promote but one step design like above by Idz is just so much faster! I just don't see a reason to make the gc making process even longer than necessary.

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[Retumbo]

hey guys, not trying to put anyone down or promote but one step design like above by idz is just so much faster! I just don't see a reason to make the gc making process even longer than necessary.

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Ding! Ding! Ding!

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I recently ordered a one stroke check maker. Supposed to use aluminum gutter flashing. But when I started looking at that material I found that it is only .009" thick. The shank on a typical .44 cal gc boolit is .400". So .009" x 2 = .018" + .400" = .418". I size to .431" so these would leave me at least .013" short on fit. Does this make sense? And it's not like the check die can handle a wide range of material thickness. Is it possible that the forming process flows material from the top edge of the check onto the sides? I think I will call them and see what they say.

[longbow]

Not sure where you are getting the thin gutter material but my old gutters I replaced are close to 0.019" thick. The cups actually extrude when I make checks so they are deeper than normal. My check maker was sized to suit 0.014" IIRC which seems to be a common thickness for checks.

In fact I figured the thick material was probably a bit much for a loading press mounted check maker so chose to make the Ed Smith version and use a mallet to punch checks. An arbor press would be better but this works for me.

Longbow

[dimaprok]

I recently ordered a one stroke check maker. Supposed to use aluminum gutter flashing. But when I started looking at that material I found that it is only .009" thick. The shank on a typical .44 cal gc boolit is .400". So .009" x 2 = .018" + .400" = .418". I size to .431" so these would leave me at least .013" short on fit. Does this make sense? And it's not like the check die can handle a wide range of material thickness. Is it possible that the forming process flows material from the top edge of the check onto the sides? I think I will call them and see what they say.

Yes, that is possible as Longbow described it, it will stretch the material and make it longer but first thing first is did you actually measure you gutter aluminum? I am curious what it looks like because I have no idea. It's quite easy to modify gas check tool to accept the thicker material without stretching, but then you'll run into other problems where your new "fat" gas checks will deform during sizing and in fact I can't even imagine .019" going on 30 cal, I had real difficulty with Sages .017" although they worked real well for old Ideal or Lyman bullet. A lubrisizer here will work better than push through die but you will leave a nice mark in the nose of the bullet unless its really good fitting nose punch.

[Retumbo]

I have no issue with the .014 and my home made check maker. This is what I use.

US version is called Amerimax

I had to get Lowes contractor desk to order it in the STANDARD size for me

[longbow]

dimaprok:

Just to be clearer (maybe)... my old gutter material is thick but the gas check maker sizing/clearances was I think for "standard" 0.014" aluminum so when I form the checks the sides become thinner and deeper due to the extra thick material. It isn't a gas check that is 0.019" thick on the sides, just the bottom. The sides get thinned in forming to whatever the 0.014" would be which I am guessing remains 0.014" or close.

Make sense?

I haven't actually tried thinner material because I have a whack of old gutters and that works fine for me. Finished checks snap onto my NOE 316299 shanks and go through a 0.315" sizer just fine.

The deeper cup fits fine on the 316299 but just barely on my NOE 0.314" x 129 gr. which has a somewhat shorter shank. Any shorter shank length and they'd be too deep.

Oh! Forgot I just made a .44 check maker too and the same material just fits the Lee/RanchDog 265 gr. shank.

My point being that if you have the OOMPH you can use thicker material and it gets thinned and extrudes during forming. I use a mallet to punch the disks and form. It takes a pretty good wallop! But works. Not sure a loading press would do that.

Longbow

[tomme boy]

0.014" amermax flashing is what I am using for my bullets in my 350 Legend. The role I have is measuring 0.013" but 5hat is fine.

The guy on Facebook is who made mine. It had to go back as it was making checks 2X the height they should be. I gave him some changes and they are good now.

[dimaprok]

dimaprok:

Just to be clearer (maybe)... my old gutter material is thick but the gas check maker sizing/clearances was I think for "standard" 0.014" aluminum so when I form the checks the sides become thinner and deeper due to the extra thick material. It isn't a gas check that is 0.019" thick on the sides, just the bottom. The sides get thinned in forming to whatever the 0.014" would be which I am guessing remains 0.014" or close.

Make sense?

I haven't actually tried thinner material because I have a whack of old gutters and that works fine for me. Finished checks snap onto my NOE 316299 shanks and go through a 0.315" sizer just fine.

The deeper cup fits fine on the 316299 but just barely on my NOE 0.314" x 129 gr. which has a somewhat shorter shank. Any shorter shank length and they'd be too deep.

Oh! Forgot I just made a .44 check maker too and the same material just fits the Lee/RanchDog 265 gr. shank.

My point being that if you have the OOMPH you can use thicker material and it gets thinned and extrudes during forming. I use a mallet to punch the disks and form. It takes a pretty good wallop! But works. Not sure a loading press would do that.

Longbow

Are you using 2 step process? Because I am familiar with what you're saying, but aside from walls getting stretched the gas checks end up getting stuck on forming pin on IDZ design I use for GC makers. Than you have to disassemble the forming pin and remove the GC with pliers being careful not to damage the pin. This process is time consuming and annoying when that happens so you must be using a different design as I cannot picture anyone not losing their sanity trying to do this each and every time to make gas checks.

Yes NOE is notoriously for having too short of the shanks but my gas checks sit real well on them, also on MP 311410, I bring this up because someone was saying they had most trouble with MP bullets but found this bullet to seat muy gas checks perfectly.

I can see this .019" working well for 44 mag as it requires .016" minimum thickness to be seated well.

[longbow]

I'm using a single stroke check maker of Ed Smith design and dimensions.

I had trouble with the first two gas check makers I built with checks sticking on the forming pin. First check maker was a two stage based on the old Freechex design, second was the Ed Smith design.

Putting a very slight taper on the forming pin and polishing it solved that. Also, wiping a thin coat of oil on both sides of the aluminum strip helps too.

Third check maker I just made sure to put a slight taper on the forming pin and polished it. Oil the strip and no problems.

If a gas check does stick it is easy to pull the forming pin out to remove it but usually another whack pops it off. I don't get many stickers now with polished pins.

Longbow