finally some success with roll crimping

[Soundguy]

Has taken me a while to get this far.

Ps.. these are re-used once fired hulls that were factory roll crimped.. that smooth area at the mouth is left over from the original factory roll crimp.

[centershot]

Those look good Soundguy, I'd say you've got the hang of it!

[Soundguy]

Well it certainly took me long enough to figure it out! I don't know why it was beating me... Took almost a year of playing with them on and off.

[Polymath]

I found you have to warm up the crimp enough before pushing down. That was the biggest source of my problems. Skivving helps to thin the mouth to get it started.

[Soundguy]

I'll add that to my notebook. Hadn't thought about skivving.

[super6]

I was thinking of doing some slugs with a roll crimp. Do tell how you did it, Tools and dies would be nice! Does it require a drill press? I am wanting to learn with out the miss steps! Please share your troubles till you succeeded!

[Soundguy]

I was thinking of doing some slugs with a roll crimp. Do tell how you did it, Tools and dies would be nice! Does it require a drill press? I am wanting to learn with out the miss steps! Please share your troubles till you succeeded!

Well, pretty much everything up till the crimp was normal shotshell reloading. deprime, size and reprime the hull. charge with powder, select a wad and slug. In my case I used a lee drive key slug.. they are made to fit in the shot cup of many wads that don't use reinforcement ribs. I used a waa21R wad because they are short and I was using short shells.. etc. On the lee slug in a wad with shot cup, you trim the shot cup petals off a little below the top of the slug.. say.. at where it's ogive is.. if it were a bullet... so it is setting in a 'short' shot cup. Trimming the petals keeps them from interfering with the crimp.. too tall and the crimp won't roll down.. the petals hold it up.. etc. I used a battery powered hand drill .. but a drill press is likely better. you can make or buy a hull vice.. mine is just a block of wood.. whatever works.. works.
I use a small bit of lube on the mouth of the hull inside and out.. and I do mean small. Someone had sugested I use mink oil.. or similar but had others say that a little cooking oil on a paper towel is just as fine.. so I used that.. soybean oil.. just a few drips on a paper towel.. and then i run that around the mouth of the hull... again.. very little. Then spin the crimper up.. make sure direction is correct.. apply it till it contacts the hull and starts softening it due to friction.. then just add a little push and it rolls it right down.

Took me a year of off and on playing with it to get it to work.

PS.. don't start with too long a hull.. if it is a fold crimp hull you are re-using.. you will need to trim it down to just over the top of your slug or overshot card, cap.. etc.. maybe 3/8". The lube helps. Someone also mentioned that skivving would help on thicker hulls.. and heat could help on thick or stiff hulls.. like a heat gun.. or one of the old paper shell conditioners that had a heat element..

Good luck.

PS.. I am re-using some hulls that had been previously roll crimped.. they had a thick edge.. but I couldn't trim .. so i used a dowl rod that was sanded to cone shaped.. waxed it.. then spin that in the hull mouth by hand and it kind of acts like skivving.. but by stretching the mouth instead of removing plastic... helps seat the wad.. etc..

I use a lee load-all II.. so it does fold crimp only.. thus I do the roll stage off the press.

[super6]

Good on you! now I have a place to start! I also have a binder and this information will go in it.

[centershot]

I was thinking of doing some slugs with a roll crimp. Do tell how you did it, Tools and dies would be nice! Does it require a drill press? I am wanting to learn with out the miss steps! Please share your troubles till you succeeded!

Did you guys read the Sticky at the top of the page in this section? It's everything you'd ever want to know about roll crimping:

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...l-in-one-place

[madman]

Roll crimping is as easy as falling off a rock if you have the right crimping tool. I have not been around for a long while so I am not up to speed on what I can post about tool manufactures and posting links or information on names and where to get the tools. That being said you can roll crimp with just a simple drill motor. The old ways of doing it was to use a hand crank tool that clamped to the bench or desk and insert the shell sideways close the arm and hand crank the tool. The hard part is finding them in stock. There are machinists that are members here on here that make things for members all the time. unfortunately you will have to have a different crimp tool for every gauge shell you are loading.

[HWooldridge]

I bought a roll crimp die from BPI and it works well on paper or plastic hulls. The hull mouths need to be clean and square so I generally do a light trim when necessary. I use a bit of Vaseline as lube and also preheat the die with a propane torch to “too hot to touch” degrees, which makes the crimp nice and smooth. I also mount the die in a drill press and set the quill stop so the crimps are consistent. If all the loaded shells are close at hand, I only need to preheat the die once because the work pace will usually keep it hot enough from friction, but the lube needs to be reapplied every so often. More so with paper than plastic.