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  #1  
Old 10-27-2007, 12:09 AM
John Parrish John Parrish is offline
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Default Work Bench for Bullet Swaging

Hello all:

I'm new to bullet making. Actually, I've not yet made any. My father and I are putting together the tools to give bullet making a try. We're both going to be using modified RCBS Rock Chucker presses, with die sets made by Larry Blackmon to make our bullets. I'm sure we're going to have a ton of questions as we get started. I was very pleased when I found this forum.

While our dies are being made, we are going to build the work benches to support the presses. My question is this...How much force does the bench need to be able to withstand to make bullets in this style of press (or - how strong do we need to build the benches)? To start, we are only going to be using the presses to seat the cores and point-up the bullets (6MM and possibly 30 caliber later on). We're not going to be making our cores or our jackets. But I suppose it would be wise to make sure the bench can support these processes, in case we need to (or decide to) use the presses for these steps too.

Thanks

John
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  #2  
Old 10-27-2007, 11:18 PM
george ulrich george ulrich is offline
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john, i used 2x6,s for top and stiffeners around outside with 4x4 legs doesn't take much more force than resizing a large caliber cartridge.just make sure it's big enough i make quite a number of bullets and have used all the space on a 12 ft. long bench . george
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  #3  
Old 10-28-2007, 03:38 AM
Mntngoat Mntngoat is offline
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My bench is about 6' long and about 30" deep, and has 6 presses attached to it

I attached a ledger to the wall that I used joist hangers on to just built as a patio would be built off a house. (joist, rim joists and posts) The 4x4 post support the outboard end. I added shelf underneath and have 3 layers of 3/4" MDF for a top all glued together with contact adhesive. needless to say when me move the bench is staying.

Hope This helps
Michael
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  #4  
Old 10-28-2007, 06:41 PM
John Parrish John Parrish is offline
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Thanks for the inputs. Time to get busy building....
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  #5  
Old 10-30-2007, 12:08 PM
jim saubier jim saubier is offline
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Default bullet making

The force required to make .30 cal bullets is significantly more than making 6mm or smaller bullets. Our bench is a steel frame bench that I got from a work auction, it has a pretty heavy top on it and is pretty sturdy and the price was right. The important thing to consider is that it needs to be heavy and substantial. I also believe that the surface should be finished with some type of coating so that it can be kept clean. If you are considering making .30 caliber bullets, you may want to consider getting longer handles made for your presses. I had longer handles made for both core seating and point-up operations. I believe that the handle used for point-up is 6" longer than a typical Rockchucker press handle.
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  #6  
Old 11-01-2007, 03:54 AM
John Parrish John Parrish is offline
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Is it a reasonable idea to make the mounts for the presses temporarily installed (mount the press for core seating, then install the press for pointing up), or should the press have a permanent mount to the benchtop for strength and rigidity? Being able to rotate the presses would allow me to make better use of the available work space and be able to keep the size of the table down.
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  #7  
Old 11-02-2007, 11:12 PM
george ulrich george ulrich is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jim saubier View Post
The force required to make .30 cal bullets is significantly more than making 6mm or smaller bullets. Our bench is a steel frame bench that I got from a work auction, it has a pretty heavy top on it and is pretty sturdy and the price was right. The important thing to consider is that it needs to be heavy and substantial. I also believe that the surface should be finished with some type of coating so that it can be kept clean. If you are considering making .30 caliber bullets, you may want to consider getting longer handles made for your presses. I had longer handles made for both core seating and point-up operations. I believe that the handle used for point-up is 6" longer than a typical Rockchucker press handle.
jim, not to start an arguement but why would you use presses that were made for reloading instead of presses that were made for bullet making i sometimes make 30 cal. also and really theres not a whole lot of difference between 6 m.m. and a 30 of course the linkage can be changed to give more pressure for a 30 george
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  #8  
Old 11-02-2007, 11:15 PM
george ulrich george ulrich is offline
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if you want i can email pictures of presses george
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  #9  
Old 11-03-2007, 04:30 AM
John Parrish John Parrish is offline
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Default Press Pictures

Quote:
Originally Posted by george ulrich View Post
if you want i can email pictures of presses george
I'd appreciate pictures of your press setup. My email address should be shown on my profile. If not, let me know. Thank You
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  #10  
Old 11-05-2007, 08:04 PM
jim saubier jim saubier is offline
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Default presses.

I use RCBS presses that were modified by Niemi engineering for bullet making. There may be better presses out there, these are just the ones that we've been using. I'm not sure who makes a press that would be better and that would work with our bullet making dies (Niemi Engineering) and would love to hear about better options. I've seen the core seating press that Robinett uses, it is a horizontal press, but it was a custom made affair.
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