Dies and press combinations?

[DsGrouse]

Do we have a list of what dies work on what press combinations?

If not this seems like a great thread to start.

Herters dies:
Any standard single stage reloading press

C&H tool and die:
Dies- any standard single stage reloading press
Swag-o-matic - specific to the swag-o-matic press

RCE dies:
Works on sea grit, Walnut Hill, Walnut Hill 2 and Walnut Hill 50

BSS (Bullet Swaging Supply):
Works on BSS press or modified cast single stage press

I am at a loss of what and how corbins dies work.

[rolltide999]

Except dies made for reloading presses, dies mostly work in presses made by the company/person who made the dies or with adapters made by the company/person who made the dies. Some confusion comes from companies who made multiple presses that took different dies. Here is a quick run down of what I am aware of, I am sure there is more that I don't know.

1. CH made the Swag-O-Matic, a vertical C press, and dies for it, and swage dies for reloading presses. They later stopped making the Swag-O-Matic and the dies for it and only made dies for reloading presses under the name CH4D for a while. They have since become just CH, not CH4D, and are currently selling off the remaining inventory of the reloading press swaging dies, and are no longer making new bullet swaging dies or presses.

Link to info.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...7-Swag-O-Matic

2. Herters made 2 bullet swaging presses and reloading presses and swaging dies for all 3. His 2 Swaging presses were called the 9 Ton Press (hex shaped horizontal press) and The Super Bullet Making Press (a vertical C press very similar to his Super Reloading Press except the swage press would accept swage dies mounted in the ram, which was also very similar to the CH Swag-O-Matic in appearance). Although dies were in some respects similar, they were not fully interchangable between the 2 presses or the Swag-O-Matic. Herters is long since out of business.

Link to info about Herters and CH presses and dies.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...s-swaging-dies

3. Hollywood Gun Shop made their bullet swaging dies that only worked with their reloading/swaging presses, The Senior and Senior Turret and Super Turret presses all using swaging bars supplied by maker. Their Hollywood swaging dies would only work in Hollywood presses, but these Hollywood presses will also work with dies made for standard reloading presses. Out of business.

Link to info.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...and-Swage-Dies

4. RCBS made reloading press bullet swaging dies. They no longer make them.

Link to info.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...S-swaging-dies

5. Ted Smith made a horizontal bullet swaging press and dies for it under the SAS name. This was a far more sophisticated iteration of the earlier CH and Herters presses in that the dies threaded directly in the ram. Dave Corbin bought out Ted Smith in the 1970's.

Link to info.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...-Swage-Die-PDF

6. Dave Corbin continued to make the SAS press, and then shortly started improving on it. The resulting press was the Dave Corbin Mity Mite. Several different press iterations came improving on the SAS, all documented on Dave Corbin's now obsolete web site www.bulletswage.com. Dave Corin would eventually come to make 4 types of dies for 4 types of presses. 1. Corbin M dies and presses (similar to Ted Smith dies and presses) 2, Corbins S dies and presses. S presses were more robust, but somewhat backwards compatible with previous M dies, using the same thread size and swage concept. 3. Corbins R dies, standard reloading press swaging dies. 4. Corbins H dies and presses. These were heavy dies for hydraulic presses, but Dave Corbin also made a monster of a hand press (the Mega Mite) to use these same dies. Their presses have gone under various naming conventions down the decades of time.

Richard Corbin worked with Dave Corbin (brothers) starting this new company. Dave ran the business side, and Richard ran the technical shop side of the business. They had a parting of the ways and Richard formed his own company, RCE, in 1990's. Dave Corbin has since retired a year or 2 ago. and sold the company which is now www.corbins.com. The new Corbins currently still makes an S hand press (S press), a hand H press (Mega-Mite) and a hydraulic H press (Hydro-Press) and dies for same. They no longer make M dies or R dies.

The link below has picture comparisons of various reloading press dies and various Dave Corbin and Richard Corbin dies.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...ble-Swage-Dies

7. Richard Corbin (RCE) currently makes hand presses and dies called Walnut Hill (WH) dies. He makes and has made several different presses that use these dies (Sea Girt or SG, Walnut Hill or WH, WH 2, WH 50, WH JM (Jacket Maker)). Richard has made hydraulic swaging presses (HS, MS) and dies in the past. RCE hand press dies dwarf Dave Corbin hand press dies, and his HS dies dwarf Dave Corbin H dies. Richard Corbin makes the most robust, versatile, highly refined and evolved, and precise dies and presses in existence today for swaging jacketed bullets at home. Many commercial bullets makers got their start on Dave Corbin and/or Richard Corbin presses and dies designed and/or made by Richard Corbin. DOD also uses them to create prototype munitions for military purposes. As of right now, Richard is still making presses and dies, but he has got to be in his 80's.

8. Larry Blackmon (BSS) is currently making his own presses and dies, and makes a conversion kit for using his dies on a reloading press. Although a much smaller horizontal press than the RCE or Corbins vertical presses, it still uses some of the advanced leverage principals similar to the RCE hand presses. The BSS press is a small horizontal press very similar in appearance to Ted Smith's SAS press and Dave Corbin's first horizontal M press (Mity Mite), but I consider the BSS press superior to both. Last I heard (about a year ago), Larry Blackmon is still making presses and dies, but is getting long in the tooth like some of the rest of us. His dies only work in his press, although they are very similar in appearance to Corbin M dies. I have heard with some minor machining, you can make BSS dies work in a Corbin M press, and maybe with Corbins S die adapter kit, on a RCE press.

9. BT Sniper and several others (Bahler, CH, Dave Corbin, Herters, etc) past and present make/made dies of widely varying quality that work in some form of heavy reloading O presses (RCBS Rockchucker, LEE Classic Cast, CH Rock Crusher, etc.). There are a few heavy cast O presses made specifically for swaging (Lenzi, and Armaments, etc,). These heavy cast metal O presses lack the leverage of the Dave or Richard Corbin large vertical presses, but are still good presses and dies especially for the smaller diameter bullets. Many benchrest shooters use these type presses and dies to make very high quality bullets for competition. So these type dies and presses can make highly accurate and consistent bullets, although there is a wide range of quality depending on manufacturer. BT Sniper dies and press adapters are sold in the business section of this very web site.

Here is a link to a comparison guide to swaging presses and dies.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...to-swage/page7

As far as using dies from one maker in another maker's press, here are some things that can be useful to know.

A. CH Swag-O-Matic, and Herters Super Bullet Swagers are very similar in concept and operation, and to a lesser extent the Herters 9 Ton. With some finagling, pieces and parts of one can be made to work with others. The links provided above provide more information.

B. The RCE presses, and the current Corbins hand presses all come with reloading adapters, so these presses will work with most dies made for reloading presses (CH, Herters, BT Sniper, Bahler). The advantage is that the RCE and Corbins presses provide more leverage than the best O presses made for reloading dies.

C. Corbins M dies can be made to work in current Corbins S presses because they both have 5/8" threads and indentical concepts of operation, with slightly different geometry. BSS dies and old Ted Smith SAS dies also used 5/8" die threads so it MIGHT be possible with minor machining to use the dies in Corbins S press.

D. Corbins makes an adapter kit for using Corbins S die sets in RCE hand presses (SG, WH, etc.) This means you can probably make all the die sets from B. and C. above work in RCE presses. This makes the RCE presses with Corbins adapter kit THE PRESS that will handle a wider variety of dies from different makers than any other press currently made.

E. I have a RCE die set that has an adapter on it to use in Corbins H presses. The adapters are more or less permanent additions to the WH die set, i.e. not easily added or removed. I do not know who made the adapter set. Richard Corbins used to make custom adapter sets, but is no longer open to doing so. The take home message here is that a proper machinist can make an adapter for any swage die set that uses one concept to any press with larger threads and the same concept.

E1. BSS, SAS, Corbins, and RCE all use Identical swage die concepts with different thread sizes and geometries. The

E2. Swag-O-Matic, the Herters 9 Ton, and the Herters Super Bullet Swager all use identical concepts with different thread sizes and geometry.

E3. All dies made for standard reloading presses use identical concepts with slightly different arrangements for mounting punches to the press ram. (Hollywood presses will use all standard reloading press bullet swaging dies. but ONLY Hollywood presses will use Hollywood bullet swaging dies.)

PRESS AND DIE THREAD SIZES BY MAKER

Most dedicated swaging presses (CH, Herters, SAS, Corbins, RCE, and BSS) mount the die in the ram, and the punch holder in the head of the press, mostly held in a variety of punch holders different for every maker. The die or the punch holder may thread directly or be held by mechanical holder, depending on press concepts varying by makers.

Swaging dies made for standard reloading presses mount the die in the head of the press, and punches are mounted in the ram by a variety on means, most using the standard RCBS shell holder slot, others threaded.

CH and Herters swage presses don't use threaded dies. The dies are held inside the press ram by a threaded bushing. Threaded bushings are different threads from CH to Herters.

SAS press, Corbins M and S presses, BSS all use 5/8" die threads in the press ram. punch holders mounted in press head.

RCE (SG, WH) swaging presses all use 7/8" threads as do all die sets made for standard reloading presses. Important to note RCE swaging dies mount in the ram, and standard reloading press swaging dies mount in the head of the press. Identical die thread sizes, totally different concepts.

Corbins H (Mega Mite and Hydraulic presses) dies use 1" threads in the press ram.

RCE HS, kind of rare, (HS hydraulic presses) dies use 1.5" threads in the press ram.

[DsGrouse]

Thank you.

I spoke with Larry Blackmon. He's all but retired. He's finishing up the orders on his plate.

[rolltide999]

Thank you.

I spoke with Larry Blackmon. He's all but retired. He's finishing up the orders on his plate.

That is sad. That leaves Corbins, RCE the last 2 places to buy new dedicated swaging presses and dies for them, and Richard Corbin has already retired once and is advanced in years. Richard has been putting welded toggles on his new presses. They are certainly sturdy enough, or Richard would not make them that way. What this signals, is that he is not anticipating making presses long enough to place a quantity order for cast toggles. Corbins has new owners trying new business models that may or may not work. Richard and Larry were the last 2 offering reasonable prices.

... and then there was 2 !!!!

If you don't want to be using a RCBS Rockchucker press with a cheater bar and pay BT Sniper $3000 for a die set, you better get them now or wait for people like me to die and hope the children don't want to keep the dies and presses.