Seating pressure gauge idea?

[nakneker]

I once placed an Arbor press on a bathroom scale to test seating pressure, it worked fine, I was at a somewhat consistent 12 pounds iirc.
It didn’t make any difference on the target and now I just seat by feel and my targets show improvements, maybe because I’m paying more attention to prep-idk
If anyone has side by side 1000 yard targets of before and after using a hydro press I’d love to see a example of improvements or declines.
Jim

I have the 21st arbor with the force gauge and enjoy it. I’d rather just pay then go through the trouble but this is an idea that seems like it would work pretty good and it wouldn’t be hard.

 

[OMW57]

what torque range did you try? I can't see it in the pic

The wrench is an inch lb, IF I remember correctly, I was doing 6BR cases & on that press, the dial only got up to maybe 10 in/lbs? It just wouldnt give a big enough number to be able to see a difference while seating bullets with a Redding comp seater die

 

[mikecr]

This would remove a good bit of offending leverage, w/dedicated press for this:

The fish scale idea wouldn't work.
You'd be adding RATE sensitivity to measure from 3 sources. The press & handle, the fish scale, and the seating friction. Most of this rate error would have to be removed somehow to arrive at a valid reading.

 

[6BRA]

Save your money and get a good set of pin guages and annealer.

 

[JimSC]

Just my opinion here but why reinvent the wheel, get a AMP press and be done with it. Even better watch some of the videos F Class John, Erik Cortina and others have made using the AMP press and see if you can make heads or tails of what they have found out in their experiments and how it correlates actual group size on the targets.

Plenty of info and videos out there by the guys who are winning the regionals and nationals, just do what they do unless your goal is just to kill time which is as good a goal as any

 

[rwj]

Plenty of info and videos out there by the guys who are winning the regionals and nationals, just do what they do unless your goal is just to kill time which is as good a goal as any

When you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes…

 

[JimSC]

When you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes…

And the lead dogs are few and far between. A lead dog can go to any match and swap equipment with the guy who is in tenth place in the middle of the match and in all probability he/she would still win

A few years back after deep diving multiple rabbit holes that the best use of my time and money was keeping it simple and doing what has been proven to work and then using that time and money at the range practicing technique and learning wind skills

just my opinion
.

 

[rwj]

And the lead dogs are few and far between. A lead dog can go to any match and swap equipment with the guy who is in tenth place in the middle of the match and in all probability he/she would still win

A few years back after deep diving multiple rabbit holes that the best use of my time and money was keeping it simple and doing what has been proven to work and then using that time and money at the range practicing technique and learning wind skills

just my opinion
.

Great that it works for you!

 

[JimSC]

Great that it works for you!

works well enough , I accepted long ago that I would die with a lowly master rating and that HM was beyond my talent level no matter how much money I dumped into new toys so for me the view will always be the same

 

[lotech]

You all are probably putting far more thought into this than necessary. I've used a 21st Century tool for several years but before that (since 1965) I've used other hand priming and press priming methods. I shoot and handload a lot. I don't recall a problem seating primers properly without a gauge.

 

[mikecr]

I don't recall a problem seating primers properly without a gauge.

Not what this thread is about

 

[lotech]

Not what this thread is about

I was trying to offer a very simple solution to the orignal poster, so I thought my comment was in line with his post. I apologize if I was wrong in doing so.

 

[Chris Edmondson]

So, I'm cheap... Trying to figure out a cheaper way to monitor seating force than buying the 21st Century hydro press or similar.

I was thinking of taking a 3/8 socket and welding it on a bracket that I could screw on to the handle of my rock chucker. Then stick one of those beam type torque wrenches in the socket in line with the pull direction of the handle. So when a bullet is seated I can read the pointer on the beam scale. Have to experiment on what torque wrench range, maybe 0-80 in lbs. Of course the reading value would be irrelevant. Would just be looking for consistent readings.

Think it would work?

Beam torque wrench

Below is a sample result of a seating force gage I built, it bolts on to a K&M arbor press. As far as cheap goes, the parts which include a load cell and a linear encoder, add up to about $400. It captures force and distance in order to compute the work required to seat bullets, the AMP I believe goes further by controlling the seating stroke time. If you want to explore something like this, I'm happy to share my development story.

If all you are interested in is peak force, that's much easier to accomplish using a peak hold indicator adapter mounted to the K&M press.

 

[jccinohio]

I got a cheap beam torque wrench off ebay inbound.. See if it gives me an idea of peak pressure. I know the numbers won't mean much, just looking for consistency. Probably just table the idea of a seating pressure gauge after that as I'm about tapped out on fun money after buying a new barrel and an Evo II action (& action wrench).

 

[Chris Edmondson]

I got a cheap beam torque wrench off ebay inbound.. See if it gives me an idea of peak pressure. I know the numbers won't mean much, just looking for consistency. Probably just table the idea of a seating pressure gauge after that as I'm about tapped out on fun money after buying a new barrel and an Evo II action (& action wrench).

Just need to be careful with units; peak pressure, peak torque and peak force are all different. Torque wrenches for example, don't measure pressure, nor force. When used as a comparator it should be fine though.