Saubier.com  



Go Back   Saubier.com > Saubier.com Forums > Bullet Making

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #41  
Old 11-15-2006, 08:14 PM
Gary in Illinois Gary in Illinois is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Taylorville, Illinois
Posts: 1,815
Default Still waiting...

Pappy,
I haven't given up on this project. I am still waiting on the lead wire cutter, jacket drawing die for the .204 jackets and the .172 die set. I can't really do anything except read until I get these materials.

Every time I talk to Richard about the remaining items he is "just about ready to ship" but it hasn't happened yet. It seems that he is still working on part of the .172 die set. Hard to understand for something that was "in stock". I can already see the need for additional point forming dies and punches but who knows how long another order will take?

I sent Richard an email Monday asking him to ship everything except the .172 dies if they are holding up everything else. I haven't had a reply yet.

As far as lube goes, I started to order both the jacket drawing lube and the swaging lube but Richard advised that I could just use the swaging lube for both processes.

Maybe I will get to try my hand at making a few bullets before the end of the year if I am lucky.

Gary
Reply With Quote
  #42  
Old 12-14-2006, 06:05 PM
Gary in Illinois Gary in Illinois is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Taylorville, Illinois
Posts: 1,815
Default Polishing bullets & miscellaneous ramblings

Now that I have my lead cutter I have been busy turning lead wire and jackets into piles of scrap!! I have finally reached the point where the quantity of good bullets exceeds the scrap now and I have a question about polishing the finished bullets. (My last run was 32 good bullets, 7 marginal bullets and 4 destined for the melt pot.)

I have crushed walnut shell media but mine is so fine that it can get stuck in the open bullet tip so that doesn't look like a good option. I tried a small plastic container lined with a 3M polishing pad in a vibratory cleaner but that makes the bullets very dull. I have some fairly coarse ground corn cob media in a small container in the vibratory cleaner as I write this. I may just need to get some more coarse walnut hulls but I thought I would ask what you all use.

So far, I enjoy making bullets. I am slowly learning that all of the steps are far more inter-related than I thought. For example, I learned not to expand the bullets to their full .204 diameter when seating the cores. If I do, I have wrinkles near the base of the bullet when forming the point. For my die set, expanding the bullet to .2035 when seating the cores allows the point forming die to bring the finished bullet up to full diameter. I spent quite a bit of time (and made a nice pile of scrap!) adjusting the point forming die before figuring this out.

I am working with a VLD .204 bullet as my first attempt. I shot a few of these at different weights in my .20 PPC yesterday. I also shot 40 grain Hornday Vmax, 40 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip, 45 grain Hornady soft point, 40 grain Berger Varmint BT and 50 grain Berger Varmint BT as my "control". Strange as it seems, my worst group with my bullets was nearly the same as the worst group with my "control" rounds and my best group with my bullets was identical in size to my best group with the "control" rounds. In my 9 twist Lilja barrel both the 50 grain Berger Varmint BT and my 44.8 grain VLD shot .435" groups at 100 yards with a variable breeze. I do hope to improve on this but it may take someone else behind the trigger as I seldom shoot much better than .30" to .40" with good loads in my varmint guns in good shooting conditions.

About time to order some more jackets! Back to my original question, what are you using to polish your finished bullets?

Thanks for any pointers,
Gary
Reply With Quote
  #43  
Old 12-14-2006, 06:35 PM
DittoHead DittoHead is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Central Virginia, U.S.A.
Posts: 832
Default Sorry, I can’t help you with your problem

I’m just writing to thank you for the update. This is an interesting subject and I appreciate the opportunity to learn from your experience.
Reply With Quote
  #44  
Old 12-14-2006, 07:37 PM
Bayou City Boy Bayou City Boy is offline
Supporting Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Tomball/Klein, Texas
Posts: 3,989
Default For shiny bullets.....

Gary:

If I want my swaged bullets to look really shiny, I use a liquid cleaner called Selig Commercial Use CITRUS Multi-Purpose Cleaner. I can buy it at Ace Hardware off the shelf.

I use a small plastic bowl with a tight sealing lid on it for 100-200 bullets at a time. I add enough water to the bowl to cover the bullets totally and then squirt about three or four squirts of the Citrus cleaner into the water.

I put the lid on the bowl and set it on my case vibrator so the bowl sits against the center bolt and the edge of the vibrator and turn on the vibrator for about 1 hour.

After that, I rinse the bullets in warm water and dry them with a towel by rolling them around in it.

When I first started swaging, I did this religiously to make the bullets nice and shiny and professional looking. Now I seldom do it any more and just shoot them with a little tarnish on them. But generally they come out of the swaging process looking very good after just rinsing the bullet lube off with warm water and drying them.

HTH - BCB
__________________


I miss mean Tweets, competence, and $1.79 per gallon gasoline.

Yo no creo en santos que orinan.

Women and cats will do as they please. Men and dogs should relax and just get used to the idea.

Going keyboard postal over something that you read on the internet is like seeing a pile of dog crap on the sidewalk and choosing to step in it rather than stepping around it.

If You're Afraid To Offend, You Can't Be Honest - Thomas Paine
Reply With Quote
  #45  
Old 12-19-2006, 01:14 PM
Pappy Pappy is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 13
Default Polishing, lube, etc.

Gary,

What kind of jackets are you using? I find that Berger J4s are bright enough that they don't need polishing. I have some Sierra jackets that I got during a J4 shortage, and they are actually brown. I tried brightening them up in vinegar, but they tarnished so quickly that it wasn't worth it. The citrus cleaner seems worth a try, but I suspect that the alloy used is more important than the initial condition.

I use RCBS Case Lube 2 for lubing my core pieces. I tried some other lubes, but the CL2 is readily available and it is water soluble, so I feel that my finished cores are more thoroughly degreased than they might be if I were using, non-water-soluble lube. It doesn't take much - I use about 8 grains of lube for 1100 core pieces (79-grain pieces).

For core seating and pointing I use 1:1 (by volume) of anhydrous lanolin and lube-grade castor oil, about 6-8 grains of lube per 1000 jackets (.30).

My rule of thumb for seating is that the jacket with the seated core should be the same diameter as the inside of the die, no more, no less. The tricky part is that you can't measure it right away because the diameter changes overnight, and the amount by which it changes depends on your lead alloy and the wall thickness of your jackets.
__________________
Pappy
Reply With Quote
  #46  
Old 12-21-2006, 06:34 PM
Gary in Illinois Gary in Illinois is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Taylorville, Illinois
Posts: 1,815
Default Bullet polishing

BCB,

I looked for the Selig Citrus cleaner at my local Ace and found that they don't carry it. I'll look at the larger Ace store in Springfield next time I'm there.

Pappy,

I am using J4 jackets that I purchased with my dies from Richard Corbin. They may have been in stock for a while and became discolored with time. I realize that the degree of polish on the bullets likely doesn't affect the performance but my finished bullets lack the shine of a newly opened box of Berger bullets.

I have been using a bottle of bullet swaging lube I bought from Richard Corbin with my initial purchase. It seems to do the job well and washes off the cores easily with dish soap and water. I have a quart of this lube so it will likely last a long time. How do you apply lube to the jackets prior to seating the core or forming the point? I have been applying with my fingers to each jacket prior to running them into the die in order to keep the lube from inside the jacket. My method is slow and rather messy - is there a better way?

With respect to the diameter of the jacket with seated core - are you saying that the core should be slightly undersized upon removal from the seating die (in my case slightly under .204) and will expand or "grow" somewhat after removal from the die? How much growth would you expect from .204 bullet in J4 jackets with pure lead cores? I guess I could just measure some immediately after removal from the die and then measure the same units a couple of days later!

Thanks for all your help.

Gary
Reply With Quote
  #47  
Old 12-21-2006, 06:40 PM
Gary in Illinois Gary in Illinois is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Taylorville, Illinois
Posts: 1,815
Default Bullet making business

Do those of you in the bullet making business carry product liability insurance? If so, how much do you carry, who is your carrier and approximately what is the annual premium cost?

Only a few friends are aware that I am learning to make bullets and I have already been asked to sell them some. I am hesitant to do this due to our wacky legal system and the potential liability.

Gary
Reply With Quote
  #48  
Old 12-22-2006, 03:01 PM
Bayou City Boy Bayou City Boy is offline
Supporting Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Tomball/Klein, Texas
Posts: 3,989
Default

Gary:

Probably any similar cleaner will do the same thing. I'm sure there are other citrus based product available. As I stated earlier, I no longer spend the time cleanng up bullets for my own use like I did when I first started.

They shoot just fine and look pretty good with just a good washing in warm water to get rid of the bullet lube on them.

Good luck... -BCB
__________________


I miss mean Tweets, competence, and $1.79 per gallon gasoline.

Yo no creo en santos que orinan.

Women and cats will do as they please. Men and dogs should relax and just get used to the idea.

Going keyboard postal over something that you read on the internet is like seeing a pile of dog crap on the sidewalk and choosing to step in it rather than stepping around it.

If You're Afraid To Offend, You Can't Be Honest - Thomas Paine

Last edited by Bayou City Boy; 01-02-2007 at 03:24 AM. Reason: spelling.....
Reply With Quote
  #49  
Old 08-28-2007, 06:19 PM
iiranger iiranger is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 152
Thumbs up he has added

Quote:
Originally Posted by jim saubier View Post
i've heard a lot of good things about the blackmon dies and have shot some very good 6mm bullets made from these dies. To the best of my knowledge, he only makes steel dies, not a problem unless you plan on making a few hundred thousand bullets.

Congrats and good shooting.

i hope to see lots of experienced bullet makers sharing knowledge here, so invite your buddy to join the site.
Last literature I received from Mr. B had available carbide dies. Not on the shelf, but available...
Reply With Quote
  #50  
Old 09-01-2007, 05:46 PM
iiranger iiranger is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 152
Default

FYI: Dr. Dave Corbin has a directory of bullet swagers (dozens and dozens, some international... one was in Poland???) --who use his equipment and probably pay a fee to be listed... it is a bit easier to find at swage.com. In all likelyhood, there is someone in your general area who could "show you around" their operation... you just need to look. See how far you want to travel and how willing they might be. enjoy.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 11:54 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.