Bullet making pics.

[Al Nyhus]

Pointed up 1,000 this morning and decided to add a few more pics. Filled the coffee cup with Island Blend, tossed in Springsteen's 2010 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' double disc set and got to it.....

I like to warm up the point die using a small hair dryer. Every 1,000 jackets, the pivot pins get lubed with a mixture of Permatex clear Ultra Lube and moly paste. A gawd-awful mess, but it works.

The jar holds 1,000 core seated jackets that have been lubed and ready for pointing. A couple hundred are dumped into a new plastic tray and I work out of that. You can see a small rubber cap over the end of the point up punch to protect the end of the punch from getting dinged. Unless I'm actually pointing bullets, it's always on. Don't ask how I learned that lesson.

Probably the most important thing I have is this little notebook. It contains jacket lot numbers, weights, actual jacket length, how much the jackets shorten with different cores/lubes and basically any other pertinent info or observations. For a beginning bullet maker, I can't stress enough how important it is to keep careful notes.

Another 'K' done. The lube is left on until they're ready to be used, then rinsed off with acetone. The acetone flashes off quickly and does a nice job of removing any lube that may get behind the hollow point. The black streaks on the styrene drop tray are from the bullet as it rolls down...one from the back end and one from the front.

 

[Dan H]

First picture I'm showing an O Ring between the squirt die and the ram. Mr. Robinette gave me a heads up on this as without the o-ring my die kept getting loose and my core weights were all over the place.

Second pic shows the shoulder bolt that I got from Al Nyhus (to replace the orginal pivot pin), it works great and is kept well lubed. The old pin was always working out and sometimes caused a problem with consistancy in all three stages.

Third pic show some squirted cores in the jacket pail and some rough cores that have been lubed and waiting to be squirted.

My operation isn't nearly as neat as Al's

I need some help getting the pictures and comments like yours Al

Dan Honert

 

[Al Nyhus]

Dan, I sent your pics to Photobucket and uploaded 'em here in a larger format.

Glad to hear the replacement shoulder bolt worked well. I know it improved the consistency of my press. Good tip on the 'o' ring. I found a small little strap wrench and that lets me tighten the dies enough so they don't back off....though the 'o' ring may offer the added benefit of making the die 'float' and self center.

Photobucket is a great site to use for hosting pics. I'd be happy to walk you through the steps, if you'd like.

Good shootin'. -Al

 

[Dan H]

That would be great Al, I would appreciate the help.

Dan

 

[Al Nyhus]

Randy Robinett and George Ulrich gave some advice about dropping the lube time down on my cores. Today, I finally had a chance to do that and it helped quite a bit. I've been experimenting with different lubes for the core squirting operation....Marvel Mystery Oil, Kroil, a 50/50 mix of STP and Mobil 1 5w30, plus a few more.

What I used today was R.G.'s brew of anhydrous lanolin and pure neats foot oil and a 5 minute tumble time. The cores were cleaner, I didn't have to 'squirt' off as much and the finished cores showed less weight variance than before. Plus, my fingers are really smooth and soft from all that lanolin......

Thanks, Randy and George!

 

[pbike]

and that box in the background sais a lot too.... Rock, .30 cal, 1in17 twist, LV taper Looks like a new vfs barrel in the makes.

Thanks Al and Dan and Steve and George and Randy.

 

[stonecold]

After see that i will never cuss at the cost of my bullets again

 

[Fla mac]

Al,
When I make cores I lube before cutting.
john Mims, Fl.

 

[Mark Lincoln]

Time to squirt (swage) cores. The core die is screwed into the ram of the press. The press I use is the horizontal one from Larry Blackmon. I know most people use an upright press, but like Led Zeppelin sang: "The Song Remains the Same".

Then the punch holder with the core punch is threaded into the press.

A cut core is held against the core punch and the die advanced over the core and punch. The small extrusions of material coming out of the squirt holes in the die are the excess material (weight)....thus why a core swage die is often refered to as a 'squirt' die. Plus, 'squirt' is way more fun to say than 'swage'.....

As the handle is raised, the die retracts into the press and the 'squirts' are sheared off. What's sticking out of the die (on the rt. side) is the finished core. You can see how nice and square the ends are. The core is also perfectly round, since the swaging process brought it up to the i.d. of the die. You can see the squirts of core material lying on the white drop chute.

You adjust the lock ring on the punch holder to move the core punch in/out until you get to the desired weight of the core...just like adjusting a f.l. die in a press. With the weight of the jackets I'm using, a 77.3 gr. core is what I'm after.

The 'squirted' cores roll down a styrene chute and into a plastic tray. The lubed 'cut' cores are in the tray at the top, waiting their turn in the squirt die.

Things can get a bit messy at this point as you're handling the lubed cores.

 

[Mark Lincoln]

Wow, Great interesting thread Al, thanks for taking the time to post it... Awaiting next installment....

Rod

Al,
Thanks for taking the time to explain the way you make bullets. I have just started making my own recently, and to this point, everything seems to be working well for me. I can core seat and do the point up 1000 times with little problem. To this day I haven't figured out how to repeat the .074" group 1000 times, but I'm not giving up on it.

Michael

Al,
Thanks for taking the time to explain the way you make bullets. I have just started making my own recently, and to this point, everything seems to be working well for me. I can core seat and do the point up 1000 times with little problem. To this day I haven't figured out how to repeat the .074" group 1000 times, but I'm not giving up on it.

Michael

That's one of the hardest aspects of bullet making to explain. I will say this:

Core seating pressure is the single most important thing you do when making bullets.

Different core material makeups (the % of antimony) may 'pressure up' differently when the cores are seated. Different lots of jackets may respond differently to the same amount of physical core shortening during seating. Not all the core material is as homogeneous as we expect it to be...there can be areas in the wire that are 'softer' or 'harder'. And the list goes on.

A small die like the Blackmon will actually flex a bit..it's possible during core seating to actually make the o.d. of the jacket larger than the i.d. of the die, given enough seating pressure. A big-bodied carbide die like the great one George Ulrich or Neimi Engineering make are not going to act the same way, for example.

At the very minimum, you need to seat the core with enough pressure so the jacket o.d. measure at least what the i.d of the die measures.

Thanks Al a lot of good information. I hope to be making my own bullets soon.
Mark

 

[dwconder]

Try castor oil wipe your lead on a rag an lube see if that helps it works on my siminson dies

 

[Dave Coots]

Question Al. In post 61 you speak of how the jackets shrink with different cores/lubes. Making 6mm I always want jackets to end up stretched when core seating to make sure cores are well seated.

Am I missing something?

Thanks
Dave

 

[Al Nyhus]

Poorly worded on my part, Dave. As you correctly note, as core seating pressure increases, the jackets lengthen. -Al

 

[Dave Coots]

 

[dwconder]

Does it stretch on the jacket lead line please let me know what you see

 

[Sleepy Hollow]

Question Al. In post 61 you speak of how the jackets shrink with different cores/lubes. Making 6mm I always want jackets to end up stretched when core seating to make sure cores are well seated.

Am I missing something?

Thanks
Dave

View attachment 26916

Dave on your 6mm jackets how much stretch are you looking for ? I know this varies with jacket lots and lube.

 

[dwconder]

when you over pressure you core seating the jacket will stretch at the lead line an you make a weak spot in the jacket it will make a shiny spot on the jacket lube does not make any different hope this helps

 

[Al Nyhus]

As you add more seating pressure, the jacket continues to stretch. As you keep adding pressure, at some point the jacket will stop stretching and sort of 'dwell' at that length even as seating pressure increases. That's when you know the jacket is about to fracture (pop).

Some bullet makers use that 'dwell' length as a reference when determining core seating pressure. As well as other things, of course.

 

[dwconder]

but more pressure you place on jacket you I think need to stop before it stretches I see no loss in accuracy let me know what you think you need to mic your dia. as you pressure your jacket the die will only make what the id of the die is.

 

[Dave Coots]

Dave on your 6mm jackets how much stretch are you looking for ? I know this varies with jacket lots and lube.

With my setup usually around .006

May change with different dies, jackets, lube ect.