Time to make the donuts....

[JoeDuke]

Very old school setup. The press just says Oroville calif on it and is marked with an “A”. It has made an unknown number of bullets. Still does an excellent job.

 

[RGRobinett]

A concept concept that caught on - this conversion has seen continuous duty for 17+ years . . . worked well enough that a very good die-maker, who made subsequent parts for me, began offering converted LEE Casts along with his great dies. There's more to Al's adventure than, "meets the eye". These pics were posted on the WareWolf forum, hosted by [the late] Stan Ware, in Feb., 2010. RG

 

[Mulligan]

A concept concept that caught on - this conversion has seen continuous duty for 17+ years . . . worked well enough that a very good die-maker, who made subsequent parts for me, began offering converted LEE Casts along with his great dies. There's more to Al's adventure than, "meets the eye". These pics were posted on the WareWolf forum, hosted by [the late] Stan Ware, in Feb., 2010. RG
View attachment 1618585View attachment 1618584View attachment 1618583

I like the bronze bearing in the guide.
CW

 

[Fire Dog]

If you have a sample of Guy’s best bullet, you can experiment with different lubes to duplicate the size.

I went back to just pure lanolin after trying several concoctions. It’s less messy and once you arrive at the correct amounts for core seat and point up, it works fine.

I keep seeing Anhydrous Lanolin being used and it Takes me back my days of youth, a CH “H” press, their dies & dedicated shell holders.
Anhydrous Lanolin was my first case lube, inexpensive and just great for your hands

 

[Mulligan]

Very old school setup. The press just says Oroville calif on it and is marked with an “A”. It has made an unknown number of bullets. Still does an excellent job.

View attachment 1618541

Are the new Lenzi's or the presess from down under any better than that A2? Do they make better bullets?


That old RCBS press is heavy duty for sure.
CW

 

[Mulligan]

I keep seeing Anhydrous Lanolin being used and it Takes me back my days of youth, a CH “H” press, their dies & dedicated shell holders.
Anhydrous Lanolin was my first case lube, inexpensive and just great for your hands

I buy that stuff by the pound from a dirt foot hippy chick store back east. (on line of course)

More gets used by the grand girls for skin care than I could ever use making bullets.

CW

 

[Fire Dog]

Absolutely fascinating thread and kudos to all the photos posted as when something as complex as making your own bullets “A picture is worth a thousand words”..
I just have to ask all those that are making bullets, are you wearing some gloves ?
Handling a lot of lead pieces and perhaps even breathing dust cannot be good long term….
Back in the day of casting thousands of lead bullets I began to be a bit worried and since I was melting down wheel weights with the resulting dross and fumes, I decided to get my Quack to do a blood test for lead and test results showed that, yes, elevated lead levels….
Not dangerous, but certainly a concern…
Long ago stopped casting as I don‘t shoot a lot of pistol but do wear Nitrile mechanic gloves while reloading and carefully pour powder into my hopper to avoid airborne dust.
I hope Pete, “Mr Forum” reads the suggestion on making this a “Top Level” forum.

 

[Tim Singleton]

I keep this book marked when I first read it 10 years or more ago. Several knowledgeable BR competitors and bullet makers in the thread that are no longer with us. A good discussion for sure

Bullet core stripping

Bullet Core Stripping Have you ever had a batch of bullets that were super accurate but the next batch from the same maker would not shoot worth a darn? The bullet maker assures you they were made in the same die, with the same lot of jackets and cores. "Nah,, it must be something else." he...

benchrest.com

 

[SHarvey]

Are the new Lenzi's or the presess from down under any better than that A2? Do they make better bullets?


That old RCBS press is heavy duty for sure.
CW

I have an armaments by design press and I like the micrometer adjustment stop. No break over and east quick o adjust and exactly same stop every single time. And price is on point and can be used for reloading as well if you want. I’m very happy plus long handle makes easy pointing up. Last run was 7k in a weekend and barley felt it.

 

[Schippergreg]

I keep this book marked when I first read it 10 years or more ago. Several knowledgeable BR competitors and bullet makers in the thread that are no longer with us. A good discussion for sure

Bullet core stripping

Bullet Core Stripping Have you ever had a batch of bullets that were super accurate but the next batch from the same maker would not shoot worth a darn? The bullet maker assures you they were made in the same die, with the same lot of jackets and cores. "Nah,, it must be something else." he...

benchrest.com

Tim, thanks for the link! Looks like I’m getting into bullet making against my own better judgement so this will provide a lot of insight.

 

[AlNyhus]

I have an armaments by design press and I like the micrometer adjustment stop. No break over and east quick o adjust and exactly same stop every single time. And price is on point and can be used for reloading as well if you want. I’m very happy plus long handle makes easy pointing up. Last run was 7k in a weekend and barley felt it.

The Armaments By Design press looks pretty impressive!

 

[Mulligan]

I keep this book marked when I first read it 10 years or more ago. Several knowledgeable BR competitors and bullet makers in the thread that are no longer with us. A good discussion for sure

Bullet core stripping

Bullet Core Stripping Have you ever had a batch of bullets that were super accurate but the next batch from the same maker would not shoot worth a darn? The bullet maker assures you they were made in the same die, with the same lot of jackets and cores. "Nah,, it must be something else." he...

benchrest.com

Tim,
Thank you for posting this link, I read it a couple of times and thought it was valuable enough that I copied it to a PDF to save in my personal files.

CW

 

[Mulligan]

The Armaments By Design press looks pretty impressive!

I agree, it does look inpressive.
But the question I asked is, does it or the Italian press make better bullets?

So maybe a better question is what presses are the big boys using, and why?

This tread is awesome, thanks Al.

CW

 

[20PPC]

I can see the late night TV ad now……..”Introducing Ronco’s Popeil Powered Automatic Lead Core Cutter, it slices and dices cores for quick and easy bullet making”.

Seriously, I would sure like to see Charley Hood’s setup. It has to be a thing of mechanical beauty.

Rumor has it there is only one person Charlie has let in his shop to see his set up, and he just smiles when you ask about it and says " I never saw anything,"

 

[RGRobinett]

I agree, it does look inpressive.
But the question I asked is, does it or the Italian press make better bullets?

So maybe a better question is what presses are the big boys using, and why?

This tread is awesome, thanks Al.

CW

NO.
People - hopefully human(s) - make bullets. Precision tooling, jackets, mechanical aptitude, and uncommon sense don't hurt. A little radial "float" . . . and maybe, a tiny bit of axial alignment compensation are positive attributes - rigidly fixed punches/tooling rely heavily on perfect axial and radial alignment, as in: ZERO tolerance/variation in any of the parts/attributes . . . a little wiggle room can be (IS) a "GOOD thing". RG

P.S. Try this: install a [point-up] punch in your ram/punch holder and run the ram to the top of the stroke.
Then, screw the point-up die down over the punch, which is likely about 0.0015" smaller than the die-cavity diameter, and look for the punch to move, accommodating alignment.

This provides a good idea of the collective alignment of all parts: it is why most punch-holder nuts feature a larger bore than the major punch diameter. One must hope that all/MOST of the movement is radial, with, at most, minuscule axial alignment!!
Visualize the ram moving up/down in a straight line with a misaligned punch - when pointing, OOOooouch!

For core seating, axial alignment is less of an issue, as there is plenty of room for correcting misalignment. The original B&A presses and and some of the OLD RCBS conversions feature a spring-loaded 1/2 ball as the interface between the punch-head and the ram/punch-holder. This was to accommodate a little axial "alignment", assuring that all of the tolerance stacking was//is mostly mitigated. In practice, when setting up with one of these, the punch-nut is left loose and the bullet run into the die, thus, the punch self-centers and [appropriately] tips into perfect alignment, whereupon, the nut is tightened, "locking" the punch into place. This is a good place for the judicious us of an O-ring.

 

[AlNyhus]

Finished up a few details on the press conversion this morning. After the position of the ejector foot is finalized, a flat will be milled in the guide rod for two set screws to bear against to keep the foot in place. You can see the two 1/4-20 threaded holes in the back of the foot where the set screws will go.

I shamelessly robbed Randy's original idea for the flanged bushing and the Delrin foot.

 

[WSnyder]

^^^ Look at those WeldTables.com fab tables and fixtures! Have lots of the same in my shop

 

[Mulligan]

NO.
People - hopefully human(s) - make bullets. Precision tooling, jackets, mechanical aptitude, and uncommon sense don't hurt. A little radial "float" . . . and maybe, a tiny bit of axial alignment compensation are positive attributes - rigidly fixed punches/tooling rely heavily on perfect axial and radial alignment, as in: ZERO tolerance/variation in any of the parts/attributes . . . a little wiggle room can be (IS) a "GOOD thing". RG

P.S. Try this: install a [point-up] punch in your ram/punch holder and run the ram to the top of the stroke.
Then, screw the point-up die down over the punch, which is likely about 0.0015" smaller than the die-cavity diameter, and look for the punch to move, accommodating alignment.

This provides a good idea of the collective alignment of all parts: it is why most punch-holder nuts feature a larger bore than the major punch diameter. One must hope that all/MOST of the movement is radial, with, at most, minuscule axial alignment!!
Visualize the ram moving up/down in a straight line with a misaligned punch - when pointing, OOOooouch!

For core seating, axial alignment is less of an issue, as there is plenty of room for correcting misalignment. The original B&A presses and and some of the OLD RCBS conversions feature a spring-loaded 1/2 ball as the interface between the punch-head and the ram/punch-holder. This was to accommodate a little axial "alignment", assuring that all of the tolerance stacking was//is mostly mitigated. In practice, when setting up with one of these, the punch-nut is left loose and the bullet run into the die, thus, the punch self-centers and [appropriately] tips into perfect alignment, whereupon, the nut is tightened, "locking" the punch into place. This is a good place for the judicious us of an O-ring.

Randy,
Thanks a bunch for this.
CW

 

[RGRobinett]

To help clarify - I hope- here are a couple of pics of the 1/2Ball type punch/ram interface concept. As stated in the caption, unless there are serious alignment issues in the press/ram/die-threads, this is a pretty needless attribute. That said, never overlook the "magic" of o-rings, as opposed to rigid lock-down!! RG

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

I will just add this...more a question than an answer, but here goes.

Most presses offer tremendous leverage which HAS to reduce what is felt in the handle, right? So, with today's technology in measuring pressures, by one means or another...wouldn't it make more sense to utilize better pressure measuring of today, deleting ALL leverage and just mounting a hydro or pneumatic cylinder to the ram, giving 1:1 pressure difference measurements...vs "feel" through all that leverage? Hand made has been the standard for a really long time, based on " feel" with a ton of leverage involved.