Making primers

[Ol Thumper]

I think it would be difficult to get an operator to charge primer cups in a new, unproven manufacturing company.

I don’t think it would be that hard, if I studied the machinery and their process plan I’d do it without much hesitation. Maybe I’m an idiot but I’d definitely get it done or blow myself up trying lol. FYI this type of thinking is why I walk with a limp lol so yes their are people willing to take risks out here. When do I start?

 

[skeeljc]

I suppose the real problem is getting someone to invest in the facility and machinery required to make primers when legislative action could put them out of business. Then there are the regulations.

 

[divingin]

He would take a sample of some thing he called composition B, carry it to the lab and weigh it then explode it in some device that contained the explosion and record the strength of the explosion.

Comp B was a standard explosive used in WWII. Sort of like C4 was in Vietnam. It was used as the explosive in artillery shells, and other ordnance into the 50's. Comp B is a mixture of RDX and TNT.

As I recall, the sticky bombs used in Saving Private Ryan were blocks of fuse-and-cap-detonated Comp B stuffed into a sock which was coated with grease so it would stick to a tank.

 

[Old Navy]

When I went to work in the repair maintenance department at Thiokol in 1973 I was required to attend a safety class called propellant material handling even though I would never work with propellants. The main reason was to know what was going on in the buildings we had to enter and how to follow all the safety rules. At the end of the class we were transported up to one of the remote test sites for a live fire demonstration of how powerful some of the propellants were. They had a pedestal set up about 50 yards from where we were gathered. They put a small amount of various propellants on the pedestal and lit them with a common butane torch. They flashed up a little like burning our reloading powder. For the grand finale they put a small piece of TNT on the pedestal and detonated it. Next came the same amount of the Trident C4 rocket propellant. The difference was like comparing the sound from .38 special to a 300 Win Mag with a brake. This demonstration was meant to impress us of how dangerous the propellants were and it did all of us. Everyone that worked in these live areas had the right to immediately shut a job down. On the scene whistle blowers for lack of a better term.

 

[twarr1]

I've spent my entire career in automation. Practically any manufacturing processes can be automated. I've implemented automation on processes that were declared "impossible". The question is how much $ are you willing to spend? There are a lot of things still done by hand simply because the cost of automating it isn't cost effective. Not because it's impossible.

 

[Catfur]

It may take $50mil for somebody like federal to make primers, but i know how much stamping and roll presses cost- bliss or waterbury farrell would build you a factory with 2 lines turn key for that plus that would get you the building

I bet the roll presses and stamping machines are rounding errors in the process stand-up cost compared to the standards-compliant (and certified by a PE, etc…) storage bunkers, security compliance, safety certifications and studies, environmental compliance, yadda yadda. Someone already in the ammo business likely already has, or has access to these things, but for a startup to go through all that just to make an item with a wholesale price/per of a couple of cents?