For a while now, he's been quietly honing his skills crafting bullet dies. I tested the initial bullets from this die a year ago and they shoot crazy good.
-Al
Al,Well....lets start from the start. This is something that Randy and I have been kicking around for a while. It's had it's ups and down, was stillborn and revived, survived the disappearance of a new Lee Classic Cast press (still floating around somewhere in the cosmic vortex two years later), and finally came full circle to this.
Credit for the concept goes back to the late Dale Fritts and his bullet making setup that Randy saw and filed away for the future. Dale was a real thinker and very, very smart machinist. The heart of this conversion is the use of a collet holder and precision collet that holds a gauge pin and utilizes that as the punch. This setup takes the place of the tradition point up punch setup used in press conversions. The punch assembly fits/floats in a holder that threads into the Lee ram.
I did some of the initial work and then made the trip to Randy's where we worked through the final steps. Randy's sharp mind, problem solving skills and sharp machining tuned horse poop into ice cream.
I'll hang some pics and follow up with some more narrative. Randy will join in to add some other insight to the project.
By the way, the carbide point die is a die that Randy made.
Good shootin'
Awesome!Well....lets start from the start. This is something that Randy and I have been kicking around for a while. It's had it's ups and down, was stillborn and revived, survived the disappearance of a new Lee Classic Cast press (still floating around somewhere in the cosmic vortex two years later), and finally came full circle to this.
Credit for the concept goes back to the late Dale Fritts and his bullet making setup that Randy saw and filed away for the future. Dale was a real thinker and very, very smart machinist. The heart of this conversion is the use of a collet holder and precision collet that holds a gauge pin and utilizes that as the punch. This setup takes the place of the tradition point up punch setup used in press conversions. The punch assembly fits/floats in a holder that threads into the Lee ram.
I did some of the initial work and then made the trip to Randy's where we worked through the final steps. Randy's sharp mind, problem solving skills and sharp machining tuned horse poop into ice cream.
I'll hang some pics and follow up with some more narrative. Randy will join in to add some other insight to the project.
By the way, the carbide point die is a die that Randy made.
Good shootin'
I believe he is pointing up here
The collet holder is allowed some float. Once aligned, the side set screws are used. The result is the punch comes up perfectly into the die.
Jackie, I'm still seating cores on my Blackmon set up. -Al
It has been close to two decades since Dale Fritts made and showed me his collet holder, which accommodated swapping through a decent range of punch diameters (nice feature for core-seating) using gauge pins instead to 'headed' punches, for bullet making. I cannot recall, but believe that [radial] 'floating'
We wound up boring for 0.010" total, or, 0.005" of radial movement: we were stymied at every installation - the punch simply was, "not even close" to entering the die-cavity!
Perhaps Al shot some pics which, considering this adventure, would prove worth the proverbial 1,000 words. RG
I got a little confused
Love it!It has been close to two decades since Dale Fritts made and showed me his collet holder, which accommodated swapping through a decent range of punch diameters (nice feature for core-seating) using gauge pins instead to 'headed' punches, for bullet making. I cannot recall, but believe that [radial] 'floating'
was part of Dale's concept: from my perspective, radial 'float' was/is certainly important - aiding/maintaining concentricity., therefore, that was part and parcel to our effort.
Thus, we began with a simple total float of 0.005" ( radially, a mere 0.0025"), which I considered too 'tight', but a hole can always be made larger . . . in my shop, "putting material back" has proven difficult.
Al will verify that we had assured both the external ram adaptor, and internal bore indicated to within 0.0002" concentricity AND were parallel, with a nicely perpendicular shoulder/stop: the collet holder would simply, 'drop into' the adaptor bore, and the punch SHOULD have been almost perfectly aligned - maybe, just wanting a slight radial shift . . . We checked and re-checked the numbers - practically wore out a Mitutoyo dial-indicator!
Mind-bogglingly, every installation resulted in "failure" - then, Al and BIG MIKE held council: what if the alignment iss use was, as it appeared, AXIAL?!!? So much so, that the 'float' notonly fell short, but trying get insert an off axis/angled pin into a fixed bore just won''t work!
So, back to the lathe: to assure concentricity, the supplied collet-holder body and the tapered collet-bore, were indicated as being very close (<0.002" - likely, as close as my machine, devices and ability will measure) . . . then, the gauge pin was inserted and the closer-nut secured. The axial misalignment was HUGE - how could/can THAT be?!!? The alignment checked and re-checked - it was always lacking.
Finally, we all agreed to install the parts, with the collet nut loose, and the pin inserted into the die cavity and held by hand, raise the ram into position, then snug the collet nut - NIRVANA and repeatable at that! Perfect actuation every test stroke. So, Al decided to head back to uncivilized SD, while BIG MIKE and I cellebrated.
Much remains to explore, including a FULL re-doo, using new/replacement parts, in hopes that this particular collet holder had a misalignment issue which we were unable to identify. Of note, I was pleased that often, AL and I would, simultaneously, "jump to the same [useful] conclusion" - good for my ego, possibly discouraging for AL.
For what appeared a simple project, many doors were left unopened for further exploration. AL can fill in more interesting details and correct my errors . . . we did develop some new concepts, and maybe learned/re-learned some issues involving core-seating and it's relationship to the point-up die, & the finished bullet(s).
Most who have known me for more than 25 years know that I tried bullet making back in the late ‘90’s. I put a huge effort into it. I was making a 66/68 grain FB, a typical bullet of that era.
