the ole bullet making thread

[Bandmiller2]

Can this level of precision be obtained with automated machinery??Are commercial bullet making machines proprietary [each manuf. makes his own] or are their industry standards??Seems even a small bullet maker would trip out on overload if he had to make many thousands one at a time.Frank C. sorry if this is out of place

[george ulrich]

i'll try to answer the best i can on this one. the commercial should be able to make as good or even better IF they followed the steps taken by the smaller and i'm talking about b.r. quality bulletmakers the thing is they do not clean cores or rewash jackets and they miss the feel of a bad bullet either during core seat or pointup operation.this being said they should be able to make better bullets in theory because its all about inertia on the presses.on the other side the smaller custom bullet makers keep everything CLEAN but they lose on the inertia side of running things.i'm not sure how many thousand you feel would cause a meltdown, but i personally can easily run 3-4 thousand bullets a day. hope this answers things. george

[Bandmiller2]

Thanks for your answer George,I never would have imagined someone could press that many bullets in a day.I can see that the automated machinery would lack feel especially in core seating. Frank C.

[GoWyo!]

Great thread all, Steve, thank you.

I recently purchased some old bullet making supplies and dies. B&A dies, 6mm, 7 ogive. @17K of old (late sixties) sierra and Gardiner jackets and 175 pounds of .22 cal lead wire and a little blade cutter that reminds me of a glorified cigar cutter. My deal also came with an old A2 RCBS press.

I need to find a "capture nut" for the press ram adapter that holds the punches. That is the only part I think I'm missing, oh, and the ejector punch caps to prevent a hole wearing in my hand. I've received some good advice on BRC and a few other forums. I plan on gearing up right after hunting season. Buying lube, core cleaning and etching materials, I imagine after 40+ years, the lead will have oxidized a bit, (looks great though!)

I'm not a Benchrester, but I thought this would be a worthwhile investment for bullets in a time when ammo and component costs are running through the roof. I have 4 .243's. I want a 6 PPC sako and a 6x45 AR, so this will help feed that sixy stable.

Thanks again.

Gary

[george ulrich]

Gary ,the press should have an ejection assembly that knocks bullets out automatically.you shouldn't have to use your hand. george

[GoWyo!]

Hi George,

I've seen pix of the automatic ejector, but there wasn't one with this set up. It may have been removed and placed somewhere else (lost). This set up came from my brother in law's father in law. He passed several years ago and was debilitated from Parkinsons for several years prior to that. Equipment gets shuffled around.

Best,


Gary

[Al Nyhus]

Gary, if you could post a picture of the setup, maybe we could be of assistance about an ejector setup. George is a guru on this stuff. -Al

[GoWyo!]

Howdy All,

I'll do that and post them. I do recall seeing some springs in one of the boxes. Do the B&A dies have an internal spring ejector? They didn't look that beefy.

I'll take some detail pix of the punch holder too. I'm pretty sure I'll need to have a cap nut made.

Gary

[Al Nyhus]

Here's a pic of some B&A dies. Do yours look anything like this? -Al

[GoWyo!]

I don't know if these are newer or older than your pic. There is a central die body that the different swages screw into. Here are the shots. I think I found out that the bullet pointer die takes the internal pin punch and you can put the spring inside which you compress on the up stroke. I can't see how this would work as the pin would be caught in the jacket as it swages down. Anyway here are the pix. Punches, die body with various dies (two lead core swages. H and X? there is also a longer lead core swage that looks like one in your pic Al.

Punches- I'll have to figure these out. the pin punch goes into the die body on top of the jacket pointer insert. 6mm -7


Die body with swage inserts- pointer- 6mm 7; x and H are core swages although I don't know the difference. the last (no markings) is the core seater swage I think


ram punch holder adapters. One on left is missing the cap, plus the extra lead core extruder-


Top view (crappy pic) of the Die body, dies and ram adapter plus extra core die.-


So that's the gamut of what I got. Plus lots of wilson check dies and some lee lube dies? That will have to wait until I get into casting....thanks,

Gary