I'm interested in bullet swaging, both for jacketed (.357" for revolver and .312" for rifle) and for plain lead to be paper patched (for a .300/.313 rifle bore) or fired as is -- but I've got no budget for equipment. I do have a small lathe, capable of swinging 3"+ diameter over the saddle, up to 8 inches or so long (it's 12" between centers, but the chuck takes up some of that length), and a small, cheap drill press. I also don't currently have a reloading press that I think will handle swaging (my only press is a slide-bar type that I bought used in 1981 -- like a turret, but the dies mount in a bar that slides in a slot in the cast frame), though making a press is simpler than making dies, IMO -- there are several ways to apply the required amount of pressure (hydraulics, screw, or plain old leverage).
What I'm interested in is how to proceed toward making my own swaging dies. I've never used a swaging setup, and haven't seen much in the way of clear information on how swaging dies work -- not the internal mechanics of mashing lead, that's plain enough, but how the actual dies are set up to get the required precision in weight, seat cores in jackets, form noses and bases, and so forth. I know the basics -- preform cast or cut cores to weight with a bleed-off die, seat cores in jackets (optionally bond by melting the core), form nose and base; what I don't know is how the dies interact with the press to avoid things like a bullet stuck in a die and no way to get it out, or how much spring back to account for in the internal size of the dies.
A good, detailed examination of a set of swaging dies would probably be a good place to start, but I don't even know anyone who swages...