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hammer swage

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 6:43 pm
by 204cat
hammer swage

i decided to go ahead and make a hammer swaging die for a 204 round nose projectile. mostly because there are no round nose plinking and bench rest rounds. i have a metal cutting lathe and materials to make the die. plan on 34 grain round nose to test first. then will try other weights. the projectiles will be hammer swaged from copper. hope to keep the weights kept in tight tolerances. this should bring the costs down some.

i do not intend to sell them because i believe that would require a license and maybe a stamp. to be able to recast or reswage once fired all copper rounds should further bring the costs down. this is assuming that i could recover them from the wood backdrops.

personally think round nose is a bad idea for the high velocity rounds. but just incase i may need to get a rabbit etc round nose would not expand and destroy the meat. at least i would have that option. maybe even a small hog. but as short range bench rest and reswageing is the main goal. i have also seen brass bullets and i think that is not so good for the barrel. not sure how long it will take to make the die.

have done a lot of reading on other sites that discus this but have not seen anything for the 204. though i would try.

Re: hammer swage

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 2:38 pm
by 204cat
bet your wondering how this little project is going? slow. very slow.

went through not one but two metal cutting drill bits. they just sit there and spin not cutting through the metal. they were store bought and specifically said "metal cutting" drill bits. i must have dulled them be eighter pressing to hard or using them to fast on too high of rpm.

need to grind and cut some metal bits. to cut and drill the dies.

lost the lath 3/8s key for the jaw chucks. need to make another one.

off topic was reading about cast lead bullets and was wondering if or how cast lead would hold together in the 204?

Re: hammer swage

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:59 pm
by 204cat
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turns out it is a 5/32 or 5/16 forget which square rod that opens the jaw chuck. put the piece to be cut on the lath. too long and it wobbles. so have to find another way to cut that steel.

was trying to calculate the bc for the round nose. have no idea what it will be.

ok the plans are cut the metal to four pieces. make two ends and two middles. one longer than the other so it can be used to remove the swaged 204 bullet. one cut with the indent for the round nose. the other flat. simple enough.

at the bottom you see a home made forge. used to cut a thin strip of metal in two. then made a pair of tongs with it. cup of charcoal and used can = very simple forge. it was windy that day so no bellows needed.

Re: hammer swage

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 4:32 pm
by 204cat
have no idea where the hack saw is. there is a good reason the tag said "do not use". well i do not have a big compressor. so have to do it this way. with the compressor i have it only runs for a half second. then let the engine cool off for an hour. then back to it. took 10 days to do it this way. half a second at a time. cause that is all it would run.

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now i get to do 3 more cuts.
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Re: hammer swage

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 10:57 am
by 204cat
sh!t burnt the lathe motor out. this is the last cut it did. plugged it in again and flipped all the switches and nothing.

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the 34 grain all copper solid round nose is going to be more volume than the vmax.

was reading about round nose projectiles. they said that they would be nose heavy. have no idea how that translates.

oh got some more chickens. have had them about a year. also got a better camera. as you can see with the pictures. but now need a new lathe. if it is not one thing it is another. or new motor which will probably cost the same as a new lathe.